Three reasons I do the feeding containers:

1. No chance they could ingest substrate along with their meal.

2. No chance they will associate The Hand with food if I feed them in their habitats.

3. Transferring them to their feeding containers affords an opportunity to socialize with them. Even the little babies are becoming confident with the frequent handling. If I just tossed the food in the cages I would not expect them to learn to trust me. I have only 16 pet snakes so this container feeding is practical, but if I had a huge commercial operation maybe I'd do things different.



So it is not about nervous feeders, but about social conditioning. When I first got some of my baby Pacifics they were very shy, so I put the pinks in little cups next to the hides which the snakes could find on their own. I liked the cup because I could see at a glance whether or not the pinks had been discovered and consumed. After a month or so of cup feeding they were introduced to the feeding container method and are fine with that now.



The older ones do a funny thing; when they are getting hungry they come out of their hides and watch me expectantly as I move around in the room. If they could sit up and beg or meow at me they would! LOL! When I reach in to pick them up they know a good thing is about to happen.



A good thing happening! Yum!

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