This is a topic I was curious on awhile ago also, I realized that you should feed in an enclosure. I personally think that finding an article saying it is right or wrong is the worst idea ever. I have found articles that say all this stuff about snakes that are totally incorrect, I've even seen artciles on Green Anacondas, showing a picture of a yellow anaconda and giving totally incorrect information. A LOT of the people in this forum are experienced Burmese Python keepers, I would go with their opinion over some article on the internet. From my experience:

I have fed 11' tiger reticulated pythons outside of their cage, because I thought the feeding repsonse thing too, that they would get one in their cage if fed in their cage. Horrible idea if you ask me, the snakes will have a feeding repsonse after feeding them, and understand, this was an 11' tiger retic, it could do some damage, but no where near compared to a 16' burmese python. If you want to deal with feeding a 16' burm outside of the enclosure and moving it back without it snapping at you, have at it, but I would say get a lot of insurance I've realized that you are feeding 5% of the time you open the cage, otherwise you are going to handle, clean, change water, whatever. 5% of the time is not enough for the snake to snap at you everytime you open the cage.

I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I'm just trying to help you out on the topic. A reliable source would be the people that own the snakes and have had experience in the subject. I also have a 7' Green Anaconda, I've fed it in it's cage it's WHOLE life, I've had it since it was about 3 weeks old. It's the tamest snake I own, absolutly no feeding response, in or out of the water. I have fed a semi-large snake outside of the cage, and I can tell you that it is just not a good idea. Hope this helps! But if I have offended anyone's opinion or anything in anyway, please don't go off on me, because I'm sorry, I'm just stating my opinion and trying to help this subject.
~Ben R.

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• I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes inside the enclosure - jasonmattes, Sat Apr 9 00:12:33 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - GarterGoddess, Sat Apr 9 00:53:23 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - ViciousEnvy, Sat Apr 9 03:56:43 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - jasonmattes, Sat Apr 9 14:00:52 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - Circusfan, Sat Apr 9 16:55:47 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - Ben_Renick, Sat Apr 9 22:32:10 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - jasonmattes, Sun Apr 10 01:14:52 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - chameleon2005, Sun Apr 10 07:29:33 2005
• Finally, folks who know what they are talking about!... - Carmichael, Sun Apr 10 09:29:00 2005
• RE: Finally, folks who know what they are talking about!... - Jasonmattes, Sun Apr 10 16:07:59 2005
• RE: Finally, folks who know what they are talking about!... - Carmichael, Sun Apr 10 19:56:05 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - jakethesnake03, Mon May 2 15:41:41 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - chameleon2005, Tue May 3 06:16:25 2005
• RE: I am looking for some back up info in regards to feeding large snakes i - joeysgreen, Mon Apr 11 06:33:47 2005