• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

how do YOU feed in tank?

mattsnake

mattsnake

snake hunter
So recently I have started using newspaper and paper towels in my plastic bins. So I figured I should just feed in tank. I have always used aspen and still do in my screen top terrariums, and I have always fed in a feeding container. Never wanted to risk ingestion of aspen and impaction.

Now, what do you do on feeding day when you want to feed in tank and the snake is under the paper towels, and the paper towels are soiled? What is your procedure for presenting the food in this situation? It seems stressful to hold the crazy neonate while you re-arrange/clean the paper towels and then put the snake back and then offer food. Do you dangle the mouse or just let it sit in there while the snake looses interest from the stress of being disturbed? :awcrap:
 
Well I suppose if that's how I were feeding them, I'd probably just put it in a feeding bin and feed and clean the cage until he was done. Seems like the easiest way to go. I feed all my snakes in their cages, even the ones with aspen. I just put the mouse on a lid or something to avoid impacting.
 
During the first half year, we'd put Martha in a separate container to feed her & while she ate, we'd clean her tank.

Now in her regular tank, we take her out, clean the tank (if there's a mess) & when we put her back in, we then feed her.

We've always fed her the same way, with long tongs holding onto to the back leg of the mouse & we vibrate it in front of her. Not a constant vibrate, we try to mimic if it was a live mouse.
 
I have a critter keeper, and I put the fuzzy on top of a paper towel in the keeper. I put the critter keeper in the viv with no lid on the keeper. Jasper climbs in, eats his fuzzy, then crawls under the paper towel until the next morning. I lift the whole thing out and put the lid on while I clean his viv.

Bella was not a good feeder when I got her. I finally found that if I put her in a paper bag, clip the top and put it in her viv, she would eat. Now I just put the pinkie in a paper bag and lay it on its side in her viv. She goes in to eat, then comes out when she wants to.

Both these methods work for my baby snakes, but won't work when they are grown.

Casey
 
I feed in my tank the following ways:

1. Make sure there is a clean flat surface to feed from. Something like a lid or square of cardboard, or perhaps newspaper.

2. I try to dry the mouse as a wet mouse has substrate stick to it

3. Place the mouse on the clean flat surface. Sometimes I wiggle it with tongs, sometimes I don't. My corns don't seem to care either way, as long as they see it going in, they know the deal.

If I had newspaper substrate I would probably do a changeover as quickly as possible. Maybe put the snake in a different temporary container while I swap out the newspaper. Then, with the new newspaper, I would put in my f/t and dried mouse and put the snake back in right next to the prey item. You know, place the snake in a way that his nose and tongue pick up the scent of the mouse.
If its a picky eater, try the paper bag trick (putting the snake and the mouse in a bag, folding over the top, and placing the whole thing in the tank).
 
I keep most of mine on aspen and feed in their cages. For the ones on paper towels I just remove the paper towels and replace them then feed. Otherwise I just open the cage, feed, then spot clean and change their water. About once a month or so I do a bigger clean where I feed them in a separate container while I wash and bleach the tubs.
 
I always weigh her before feeding, she gets exercise while I put the mouse in and then, when she gets back in the viv, I point her nose at it so as soon as she is down she goes for it, otherwise she goes for a hide for a bit but knows there is food available. Never a problem with substrate getting stuck to the mouse or her mouth because of the lid.
 
I either do a clean a few days before/after feeding so I get the nice fresh poop out asap (yum) or I offer the prey and then spot clean whist they are constricting- only 1 of mine is too shy to do this with.
 
I bought a larger water tray, meant to be used for a bathing spot. However Snake hates water. Really hates water.

So after a while I gave up on putting water in it, cleaned it out, and now when it gets to feeding time I dance a zombie mouse around the viv to get attention, then lure Snake to the 'feeding bowl' 9/10 she'll keep in the bowl while she chows down.

I would take her out for feeding, but she's a very aggressive feeder.
 
I feed in viv and have metal tongs. He knows the difference between my fingers and the metal tongs and only strikes when he hears the click and sees the pinky dangling right next to his face.
 
Most of my corns never let the mouse touch the ground, so I just feed in their regular living tubs and they eat straight off the tongs. Yes, I use aspen in their tubs.

I have one slow eater that doesn't like to take the mouse from the tongs. With her, I put a sheet of paper towel over the aspen and leave the mouse in the middle for her to find later.

If I have a particularly picky/weird eater, I will use a separate feeding container.
 
I put dinner on a plastic lid and leave it alone. It is usually gone within an hour.
 
I am just feeding mine only on top of a specific hide and eventually, hopefully she learn that on top of that hide = food. I do have aspen bedding but I will not feed my snake on the bedding on on the wooden hide! If it doesn't work out, I will try feeding bins. Hell, it is worth a shot!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top