Posted by:
Sarge2004
at Sun Jul 17 01:02:34 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Sarge2004 ]
Good advice from the others. Gentle, consistent handling along with using a snake hook to get the boa out may work wonders. In my opinion I recommend feeding inside the cage. I have 42 constrictors including BCI, Locale BCC, carpets, bloods, and the big ones: burms, retics, afrocks, and a green anaconda. All of them are fed in the cage and I rarely get bit-they all handle easy. Years back I got bit often when moving a snake back into its cage after it ate-the feeding response is there hours after it eats. The only virtue of feeding outside the cage is preventing substrate injestion if you use loose substrate. Moving a snake after eating is stressful on the animal and dangerous for the keeper. What feeding outside the cage does is tell the snake it may eat when ever it is taken out for handling. I would sooner deal with a snake that thinks it may be about to be fed contained in its cage rather than outside and uncontained.
If you feed inside the cage touch the snake with a hook every time the cage is opened except at feeding time-the snake should never see a hook during the feeding process. Soon a touch of the hook will cancel the feeding response and and you won't have a problem getting the snake out. I wish you the best. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.
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Feeding Out Of The Cage??? - Sarge2004, Sun Jul 17 01:02:34 2005