Great choice of the kingsnake for your son. I have multiple snakes, including on Cal King. I've done both feeding inside the habitat and outside in a separate space. I think the advantages of using the separate space outweigh the disadvantages- no risk of impaction if he eats some of the substrate, and he seems less aggressive when I open the habitat. So, I take them out and put them in a large cardboard box I line with newspaper, then introduce the f/t prey (which i also recommend over live food, as i suspect most people here will), let him reconstrict the prey, swallow, and pass to his mid body. Then, very gently put him back in his habitat. At that point, I let them each take a day off from handling them. I've never had any problems with this method. Sometimes they are still in a "feeding mode" when I go to put them back, and can be a *little* bit tougher to deal with, but it's never been a real problem as long as I move deliberately and gently. Some keepers, especially those running bigger operations, keep all their animals on a substrate they cannot ingest (paper towels, newspaper, reptile carpet, etc), but because I have relatively few snakes (4), I prefer to keep up naturalistic habitats for them.

So, my short answer is- yes, feed outside the regular habitat in a box or something similar, then, when they are done, gently move them back into the habitat, and leave them alone for about a day. This has worked successfully for me. Hope it helps!
-----
-Chris

cdohna.googlepages.com

1.0.0 WC SD Gopher Snake, Max

1.0.0 CB Albino Banded Cal King, Manny

0.1.0 CB BRB, Mucalinda

0.1.0 CB BP, Maya

[ Show Entire Thread ]