New snake owners are sometimes told that their pet should be fed in a separate tank from the one it lives in. There are several reasons why this is false.
- It is stressful
- By feeding it in a separate tank you are forcing the snake to endure twice as much handling as is necessary when feeding it in its own tank. A snake that is picky about eating will be even more if you force it to endure moving from place to place as it is eating.
- More likely to bite
- If your snake starts to associate being picked up and placed in another cage with eating it will start to go into “hunt mode” when you pick it up. Not just when you pick it up to put it in its feeding cage, but also for other reasons. Then it is much more likely to bite if it catches any scent of food.
So look at it like this: You’ve gotten the snake’s food out and it is thawing on the counter and the entire house smells like a rodent. You can’t smell it but the snake can. The snake is excited already because it is smelling its food. You then reach in, grab the snake and carry it to its feeding tank. As you place the snake into the feeding tank it suddenly goes into hunt mode and it bites you. Why?
- It associated being moved to the other cage with eating
- It could smell its food everywhere
- It homed in on a heat source (you) and struck thinking it had found some food
- It could cause your snake to regurgitate
- Handling a snake after it has eaten can easily lead to regurgitation. If you feed in a separate tank and then have to pick your snake up and move it to its own cage you are putting yourself at risk that it will regurgitate its meal.
- A word about ingesting substrate
- There is no reason to be concerned about your snake eating some dirt or bark or whatever you use. They do it all the time in the wild and there’s no shortage of snakes out there. Their digestive systems can handle it.
7 Responses
The reason for feeding in a seperate enclosure would be so that the snake doesn’t ingest substrate which could lead to impaction. It’s a safety percaution.
If you handle your snake more than just when its feeding day, your snake will NOT associate being taken out of it’s cage with being fed. The snake will however go into feeding mode as soon as you put it into the feeding box as it then knows that it’s not just a handling session and there WILL be food coming.
If you are feeding in the same enclosure that your snake is living in, Hook Training is extremely reccomended as your snake WILL become cage aggressive because that’s where it’s being fed.
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Tiggerlen -
“The reason for feeding in a seperate enclosure would be so that the snake doesn’t ingest substrate which could lead to impaction. It’s a safety percaution.”
Then how is it they manage to get along in the real world (nature) without us? I can see moving a corn snake, or a smaller python, maybe even a boa but what about something like an adult burmese or reticulated python?
If you want to move you snake and it gives you peace of mind then by all means do it, but it’s not worth the effort for most people.
Think of it like this… Do you drive? If so would you stop driving as a safety precaution? Because after all driving is a hell of a lot more dangerous than staying home.
“If you handle your snake more than just when its feeding day, your snake will NOT associate being taken out of it’s cage with being fed.”
No but it will associate being placed into the feed box with being fed. As you saw the article talks about the “danger” of being bit being when placing it into the feed box NOT when taking it out of the regular cage
“If you are feeding in the same enclosure that your snake is living in, Hook Training is extremely reccomended as your snake WILL become cage aggressive because that’s where it’s being fed.”
Not true. All my snakes have always been fed in their cages and I’ve never once had an issue of cage aggression. I’ve been bit because I startled the snake, bit because my hands smelled like mice, bit because I’ve mishandled the snake but never cage aggression. Never had a territorial snake that thinks it’s feeding time any time I’ve open the tank. The one time as I said was because I had handled mice and not washed my hands.
As so many people will tell you it’s about being able to read your animal and know its body language. If you can do that then you can avoid being bit because you know what to do to make the snake stop thinking of food. I personally tap the cage a few times before opening and then shake some newspaper in its face. That way I know I won’t startle it (learned my lesson) and it sees and smells newspaper which isn’t at all associated with food.
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
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Posted on October 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Your recommendation to feed in an enclosure, and the stated reasons for it, are entirely dependant upon the species of snake being fed. Smaller snakes, such as North American colubrids, can become impacted from ingesting typical substrates such as cypress mulch, aspen shavings, sand particles, coconut bark chunks or many of the other available substrates. The only guaranteed way to avoid this is to house on non-particulate substrate or feed in a seperate container.
As well… a properly adjusted and cared for snake is unlikely to become stressed due to moving from an enclosure to a feeding bin. A snake that is properly maintained and handled regularly should feel no stress to being removed from the bin, nor should it be stressed by placing it into the bin.
I do agree that larger boid species are better fed inside the enclosure. Their larger digestive and intestinal tracts are well adapted for removing debris and evacuating any ingested material, and the chances of being bitten by a hungry reticulated python in “feeding mode” are greater if removed from the cage.
The same reasons a snake that is fed INSIDE the enclosure doesn’t become cage aggressive, work to prevent a snake from become food aggressive during transport to a feeding bin. Associations of this nature only work if that is the ONLY association to be amde. Pavlovian responses such as this cannot work if other stimulation and reasoning for encounters exist. If you open the cage for multiple reasons…no association with feeding can be made…in either scenario.
While I agree that many of the larger species of snake do better when fed in their enclosures, and some species that are prone to stress(such as Asian Ratsnakes or Ball pythons), in general, your guidelines and reasoning are purely species dependant. For every species that does better being fed in the enclosure, there are several that do better being fed outside.
Like all things in this hobby…nothing is written in stone, and people must decide for themselves what is best for them and their snakes, with the help and guidance and as many different opinions as possible.
Congratiulations on your award, too, by the way. Nice to see recognition for such an “exotic” topic.
Posted on November 8th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I disagree with some of what has been said. I have two snakes, a ball and a corn. Both of them have been fed in a seperate enclosure. This has worked great for us.
I handle my snakes often. I get them out often. Only rarely does gettin them out of their cages end with them being placed in the feeding tub. After they are fed I do not handle them but gently place the small feeding tub into the cage and let them slither out.
They don’t associate my hand with feeding I do not believe.
It would be very interesting to find out from someone who has actually done and experiment to see which method produces less aggression but that would require a large sample study and could be impacted by many diffrent variables including species, past experience…
I think that Chris is correct and each owner just needs to see what works best for them and their animals.
I don’t think theres any real evidence that shows any evidence that one way is definetly better than the other.
Posted on November 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
WeLL, i feed all of my snakes (kingsnake, russian sand boa, boa constrictor) inside their cages and i’ve never been bitten by a thing so called “cage aggression”. My snakes never associate my hand as food when i try to handle them, so i’ve never been bitten that way so far. I just need to wash my hands before handling them, that’s all ^^
Posted on December 21st, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I honestly believe that 9 times out of 10 when a person gets bit by a snake in it’s cage the sole reason is the person did something stupid. That remaining 1 time out of 10 the snake felt threatened. If you just follow simple procedures, such as “breaking the hunt”, washing your hands, moving slow and easy, being gentle, etc, etc, etc you could avoid 99.99999% of all bites. Including those that occur during feedings.
Posted on December 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 am
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