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About feeding in a separate container, thawed prey and regurgitation

A

Aldor191

New member
I'm a first time owner of a year old corn snake and i was wondering about something i've heard very much: feeding in a separate container. I've heard that by doing it the snake will associate the container with food and won't strike at you when you try to grab her; well, for some reason that just doesn't make so much sense to me (sounds kinda like mixing mammal's psychology with reptile's) so that's not my main concern. The thing is people say that way the snake won't ingest any substrate, but right now im currently following a regurgitation protocol on it (i already fixed the issue with the temperature, thanks to people from here) so i shouldnt handle her for any reason. I'm going to start with the half pinky i am supposed to give her after 8 days of the regurgitation but she has never eaten thawed prey before.

In summary my questions are:

1)What can i do to for her to eat the thawed pinky for the first time without moving into a separate container?

2) How should I feed my snake? Should i dangle the half pinky in front of her or should i leave it overnight?

3) If I leave it overnight, is there something i could put the half pinky on like a plate or something so she doesnt ingest substrate?

And just for curiosity:

4) Is it really necessary to move her into a separate container to feed her thawed prey?
 
Moving into a second container is always a good idea, especially with frozen/thawed food since it's wet and the substrate is likely to stick to the food. You can use a paper plate or something for the food if you must feed in the viv, but it's unnecessary and a potential danger to your snake in my opinion

Dangle it at first, if she doesn't strike after a bit just drop it and leave her in with it for a while. As far as getting her to eat frozen/thawed for the first time, most corns (especially when young) take them very easily and with little coercion.
 
It's not necessary to feed in a separate container, but can be helpful for finicky eaters. Some people like it for the substrate issue. A small plate would work just fine. If she'll eat in front of you right away there's no issue, otherwise sure you can leave it overnight. She probably won't have an issue with thawed, but she might refuse if she's used to live. Give it a try and see what happens.
 
I think feeding in a seperate container is good for a couple reasons besides just not ingesting substrate:

1) Sanitation.
Eating mess can be messy, and I don't want that in the tank. Particularly if you decide to slit the mice.

2) Eating success.
If you don't have a particularly motivated snake, the smaller space seems to help them focus on the food.

3) Strike prevention.
It's not necessarily that the snake associates the seperate container with food, but the snake won't associate things(like hands!) moving into her tank as a potential meal.

4) Substrate ingestion.
This may not be a worry now, but when you do switch back it could be even if you do use a plate. Snakes don't always grab the item and eat it right there, they often move about and substrate could get stuck to the mouse at any time. I think there's another thread where a snake somehow swallowed bark this way! (She is fine now:)!)

5) Did she eat yet?
I can be 100% the item has been eaten. I made the mistake of trying to feed a smaller snake in her tank which was on paper towels, so I thought it was safe. I checked awhile later and didn't see the pinky, so I thought she ate it. Turns out it had just been pushed behind/under a paper towel roll. I noticed when it started to smell very bad! I ended up throwing away the whole container because I couldn't get the smell out.

These are just my reasons for feeding in a separate container. I really can't think of any reasons not to.. any cheap Tupperware container with some holes punched in is fine. Or if your snake is small enough even a deli cup.
 
As far as the regurge protocol goes, taking her out of her viv to place in another container is not really considered handling. Miqote has said it all very well about reasons for feeding in another container. It's not 100% necessary and in fact I think most of the large breeders don't due to sheer numbers of snakes they have to feed, but if you only have one, then you don't have that reason not to.

As far as a live fed snake taking frozen, you will get the odd one that won't take frozen, but I just took a snake that had been fed live for 10 years and simply offered it the f/t on tongs and it took it no problem whatsoever. I had the same experience with another who had been on live for at least a year. It's not completely necessary to use tongs; you can just set it in the container, then put the snake in.
 
I admit, I just dangle mice by the tail & jiggle them. Everybody who is a strike feeder is fine with that. If I had snakes that could really hurt me if they missed & struck my hand, I wouldn't do it, but that's why I have colubrids & a BP. So I pop them in a big tub, they strike & coil & I put the lid on & walk away.

My 4 09s won't strike feed so they get put in deli cups with dinner.
 
I dangle them too, but it's kinda more out of habit, because that's how I was taught to do it. Plus the strike is kinda fun. :)
 
When I put my snakes in their feeding containers they know its food time because it smells like mice in there most of the time even when I wash it. My first snake got fed in her regular tank a couple of times by my mom before and both those occasions I ended up having to change out the bedding and scrub all the hides because apparently my snake could still smell mouse in her tank and would not stop sniffing the spot where the mouse had been and kept looking everywhere for the mouse she had already eaten. After cleaning she finally decided to crawl under a hide and digest her meal.

That is my reason for feeding in a separate container.

My boyfriend has a kingsnake that is also fed in a separate container. In his regular tank he is just nice as can be. But you put him in the feeding tank and you better not stick your hand in there until he is finished because he gets really aggressive and will strike anything that moves. I also think this is because the feeding tank smells like food but his normal one does not.

We both put food in first, we don't touch the food or if we do we wash our hands very well. Then we put the snakes in to eat. My corns do not constrict. One just slithers up and starts eating. The other strikes and then eats. The kingsnake is the only one that tries to kill his already dead prey but I've notice he doesn't do it as often now that he is over a year old. Maybe he finally figured out he doesn't need to kill them lol.
 
I prefer to feed in a separate container. But I recently put my tiny snow stripe on cage rest because of a spectacularly bad shed. I took the aspen out of his tank so it wouldn't stick to the open wound on his head (!), and I have been feeding him in his tank since then, because he's temporarily on newspaper. I always watch to make sure he goes for the pinky, and there have been no problems so far. However, it's feeding night tonight, and since I'm going to weigh him, I do intend to feed him in his separate tank. And I think in one more shed it will be safe to give him his aspen back, so I won't be doing in-tank feeding after that. Point being, if you really want to give them a serious rest from being handled, I don't think it would be too much of a problem to feed them in the tank for a little while, provided they're on newspaper or paper towels.

Out of curiosity, why do you think that associating a different tank with feeding is mammal-psychology?
 
I dangle and do the zombie dance with some, and others I don't. Some don't care either way, but I have a cornsnake who usually is not fond of the zombie dance and prefers I just set it down for him to find on his own time, and then I have snakes like my GTP and my golddust stripe who will not strike and eat without a zombie dance.
 
I have been feeding in a separate tub since day one. When I pick up my snake to take him out of his home, he always tries to slide out of my hands when I pick him up, or just pokes his head up to see who is picking him up. No biggie. He never really runs away, he never does the strike position.

But put him in his big green feeding tub and right away he is squirming and in strike position. If you threw the mouse at him, he would catch it like he's catching a baseball that is almost out of the ball park!

I don't know much about the differences between mammal and reptile brains, but I do know that after about the 4th feeding...my snake started acting very differently when put in the big green tub. It makes us laugh every time. Plus, I like knowing I have another box for him just in case.
 
There's no reason to feed in a separate container. That's just something that sounds good in a how-to book. I have been feeding all kinds of snakes for 40 years in their tub or cage. So what if they swallow a small piece of substrate, it will digest just like its food. Do you think snakes in the wild only eat clean food? What do you think breeders that have a large number of snakes do? They don't keep hundreds of containers around to feed snakes in. I know it's best to keep things as clean as possible and I spend a lot of time doing that but common sense comes into play also.
 
I had two semi-adult corns feeding in their cage because they did not want to eat in separate containers. They both decreased in appetite after a while and one even stopped eating. I had it checked with the vet but nothing could be found parasite wise. BUT in the tiny bit of poo/fluid that was pressed out of the vent for testing, there were about 5 pieces of the bedding I use (Aubiose, looks like rough aspen a bit). The vet made me feel the tip of one on the skin of my hand and it felt SHARP! Can imagine those giving trouble in the intestines. I also realized they both had been dragging their prey's through the bedding before eating last couple of feeds. I put both of them on paper towel and gave them a syringe of oil orally, after a couple of weeks they started eating better and appetite came back.
 
When is it safe to put them back in their regular container after feeding them in their feeding container?

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I tub-feed everyone. That way I can clean vivs in peace! And I can weigh them before they eat. Gypsy won't eat in her viv at all, and her bin has to be covered with a big towel. She's a lady.
 
I find aspects of this thread hilarious. *"What do you think breeders do, keep hundreds of separate containers?" umm, maybe, or maybe just one and they use it over and over on different snakes. *"So what if they swallow a little bit of substrate, do you think snakes in the wild always eat clean food?" ummm, how 'bout you swallow a handful of aspen or shredded paper and let me know how that works out for you. And maybe this contributes to the reason Wild snakes live about 6 to 8 years and captive snakes can live much longer........ if they're not choking on Aspen.

Look, bottom line - if you want to feed in your tank then do it. If you want to feed in a separate tub do it.

I can tell you this for a fact, when I place my snake in the separate feeding tub, "He knows" he's about to eat. He becomes a completely different animal.
He's had absolutely Zero problems feeding this way, and I've had absolutely Zero problems feeding this way.
 
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