*hand* feeding my snake

[Jicin]

In danger of my own life Though she's more mellow about it now. I handfeed her because she *always* manages to start at the mouse belly and, expecially when still alive, has a really hard time with it. I just make her take the head.

But with the next mice she apperantly got the message. I was to bussy with the camera and she struck my finger, and took the mice belly first after all, but she let go and it only took her a minute or 2 to *finally* start with the head first. Good snakey Next time another shot at a live one. I hope she'll start to finally constrict them. There to strong now to be just gobbled up.

*Snif Snif*

"What ya got there?"

"Hello there my sweet!"

*Chomp. Thanks*

"Yeah i want another one"

"And i want it NOW!"

*This isn't right (Spit)*

Perhaps some more later

 

[stuart]

IMO, your overfeeding your corn, 1 of them wud be enough to keep the snake happy for a WHILE, but 2, thats overfeeding, at that rate ud end up with a fat corn. IMO, feed it smaller meals. :sidestep:

p.s. i did wot u did (handfeeding) now i regret it, stop it soon and start with tongs, trust me m8.

 

[Jicin]

This is the first time 1 fed 2. I think she wanted a third since he kept cruising around turning over substrate ect. Also, she's 3 months old now. If i give her 1 pinkie she is up and about the next day already. So i switched to 2 and she readely took them. Last feeding she took only 1 of 2 offered. I really don't think i'm overfeeding. Unless more people here think i do

 

[Jicin]

I stop handfeeding as soon as she knows how to properly eat a pinkie. It's better then her fiddling with it for 30 - 40 minutes. But she's learning. She spat the second pinkie out and took the head. She just needs a bit of encouragement.

 

[Rinpu]

Nice pictures, and a cute little snake! I hand fed my motley when he was a baby, just because it was fun.

 

[snake novice]

Hand feeding

I have two 3 year old adult snakes, and I still hand feed them. They get one small rat about every two weeks. I hold the rat by the tip of the tail and keep the rat face in front of the snake's face. Usually you can see their interest pick up and BAM, they strike and constrict. Pretty good adrenalin(sp) rush. Sometimes they are calmer and just open their mouth and take it. If I feel like they are not interested in the rat from the beginning then I will just leave it in the container with them and they will usually eat it. It's a good thing those rats have long tails, because when they strike they can be pretty fast.

Just thought I'd share.

Thanks,
CZ

 

[jzal8]

Crazy haha

Wow you are crazy...I'd love to see a picture of those big boys leaping at the rat hanging from your hand haha. I think Im a little too jumpy to be able to handle that kinda of excitement. I can skydive but i think id just about go in my pants with their lightning fast feeding strikes targeting an inch from my hand. :eek1:

 

[CAV]

Uhhhhhh......

Since we have a large population of younger keepers on this forum, I feel responsible to point out that hand feeding is discouraged. Although corns may not be big, foul tempered, fanged vipers they can still cause a nasty wound if they catch your hand.

 

[Flygning]

I've only hand fed once, and it was the scariest experience I've ever had. I had just gotten my adult sunglow, and up 'til then I'd only owned a yearling. The guy who had given me the snake said he always fed readily, but when I put the mouse in the container he ignored it. Since he was sick at the time, I was kinda nervous about him eating and I wanted to watch him to make sure it was all right. I grabbed the mouse by the tail and kinda dragged it around the container, and BAM the snake struck at it. Unfortunately, he grabbed for the end of the mouse that was closest to my hand, and I thought he might think my hand looked tasty. Glad I came out with all my fingers, but I'll never do that again. The second time I fed him, he ate right away, so I guess I don't have to worry about it anymore If anyone else has to hand feed, I would recommend using tongs, just to keep your fingers from being an appetizer.

 

[snake novice]

I figured...

I would get that sort of reaction, but it is probably not as bad as you are imagining. I hold the rat vertical with the rat's face in front of the snakes face. This puts my hand at least 8 inches (or more) from the snakes mouth. When they do strike it is straight at the rat and not straight up. Sometimes they will start lifting their head up towards my hand, and this is when I drop the rat and cover the container. And again, the actuall striking probably only occurs 25% of the time. So it is not that bad. I don't hold the rat by the ears and wiggle my whole hand in front of the snake.

Thanks,
CZ

 

[DeathCrest]

I do agree that we are a younger generation, heck I am the younger generation with my friends but they have corn snakes near the age of two years old and out of the three regular corns two are constantly hand fed. I think that if you always handfeed your snake withough stopping that they know how to act when your handfeeding them. Quaitra, one of the snakes if the most gentlest creature when your holding her and she is handfed. She eats it quietly while it's still in her hand and she doesn,t strike harshly but just enough to ensure the mouse is dead and wont be trying to get away. Perta another snake will either choose to be handfed or in it's container. The third one is the only one you don't want to hand feed because he is rarely handled so he is not the most friendly thing. I handfeed my baby lavander and i can clearly see that before i got it it was never handfed but it;s quickly learning to be more gentle since i'm holding him gentle enough for him not to strike heavily at the F/T pinky.
Well thats just my two cents
Viviane

 

[vincent]

I also do handfeeding sometimes, just in case the mouse would have bitten the snake if i hadn't done it, occurs oft, so better be carefull...