Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Now, my burmese eats like a champ, and she is very healthy and knows when it's feeding time and when it's not, but I still have a bit of a problem.

I do not feed her in her cage, as I think it may give her bad habits, but I feed her in a seperate container and she already has come acustomed to it being used for feeding. When shes in it, she is ready to eat. The thing is this: After she has eaten her rat, I am really timid to just throw my hand in there and grab her to put her back into her cage. I don't want her to think I am food, and I do not want to handle her and upset her stomach and risk her throwing up. I feel like I should get a system down before she grows to a large size and I am required to move her by hand.

Any imput or personal feeding schemes would be awesome.

Thanks,

Ian

Just use a Hook on the mid section of her body to lift her up enough out of the container and then slowly replace this with your hand.
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20 years in the hobbie/business.
in my personal collection at present;
1:2 p.m.molurus
1:4 chondro python viridis
1:1 dasypeltis medici
had to cutt down as i've moved back in with parent's

Hi Ian!

Here's a link to a reply I made mentioning hook training/feeding.

forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1369878,1370451

Here's an excerpt from another reply:
Get a snake hook. Use it to condition your snake and you'll never have any problems with a feeding response strike or a strike from a startled snake. Stroke the snake's head & neck area, and sometimes maybe even its body area, a few times to make sure it's alert and to let it know that you're about to get it out for handling.

Always use tongs to place prey into their cage. I've got a couple of real cheap grabbers like what's sold for elderly or handicapped people to pick things up with.

I feel that there are only two reasons to feed a snake outside of it's normal cage: (1) When two or more snakes are housed to gether they should be seperated before feeding. (2) When a snake is kept in a display that contains potential hazards during feeding.

As time goes on odds are that you won't handle your snake much more often than feeding time. When/if this is the case, feeding outside of cage defeats the purpose 'cause you still have to handle the snake to put it back in it's normal cage.

Yeah, you can use a hook to do so at the moment, but what about when it gets bigger, like this time next year? It would take a strong hook and is dangerous for snake due to lack of supporting it's body weight properly.

When feeding outside of cage, if the snake doesn't get full and/or given plenty of time to get out of feeding mode, guess what, the odds of a strike will be high.

By hook training & handling my snakes before I feed them (all my snakes, pythons & colubrids) my snakes don't go into feeding mode until they see or taste prey, no matter how many times I open their cage (few or plenty). This is what works for me & I believe it can/will work for you. I think I started using a hook on my burms, which are adults now, when they were about the same size as yours, maybe a tad earlier.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

You think that feeding in her cage is a safe idea? I was always under the impression that it is better to condition your snake into having habits, especially with feeding. If she is put in her feeding tub, she knows she is going to eat and nothing else. Mistaking my hand for food would be terrible, but having to move a 12ft python after eating would be just as bad. I'm sort of torn as to what to do because I have already fed her four times in her feeding tub. I just don't want to start feeding her in her cage and have an accident where I get bit. What do you think?

feeding methods for large constrictors, see the Aug. 5 thread on the Retic Forum titled "PLAIN RETICS VS. PURPLE ALBINO RETICS".

Kelly

np
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

In the thread that Kelly mentioned 7 out of 8 keepers said they feed inside the snake's normal cage and I think most, if not all, said they used a hook in training them.

If you add my suggestion to the list that makes it 8 out of 9 that say to do so. "molurusx3's" position isn't exactly clear so I won't include it in the count for the moment.

You may have noticed that I'm the only one that suggested handling before feeding. Based on what the others said I'll say that handling most likely isn't necessary, but it serves two purposes for me. (1) It's a handling schedule, it makes me handle my snakes when I normally might not. (2) I consider an extra safeguard.

Even after I place my snakes back into their normal enclosure after handling them, they're still not in feeding mode. I can reach in & do anything I want. They're still in "handle" mode. Once they see a rat at the end of tongs, then they know it's feeding time.

Your snake should make the switch easily.

Take care!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Awesome. I think I'm really going to consider this method, especially that I have decided to up her feeding amount. I should handle her directly before I feed her, so not to trick her into poor habits? I just want the most efficient and safe method for feeding, as well as training her for friendly touching. She is such a sweetheart. She is feeding every two weeks, but I can definitely tell she is hungry earlier than I am feeding her. I will keep everyone posted, but I am raelly appreciative of everyone's help and suggestions.

Ian, I was recently given a 12ft Burm and my husband decided to feed him outside of the cage the first time. We feed our other snakes outside of the cage, he was already outside of the cage, it seemed like a good idea. Well, it took him about 30 min to eat, and then we had to move the snake back to his cage. The idea of picking up a 12ft snake who had just finished eating was a bit weird and I'll admit, scary. It was a very embarrassing scene because I'd like to think I;m better snake handler than this, but we ended up throwing a comforter over the snake's head and upper 1/3 and carrying him back inside. Never will I do that again. It was just so ridiculously unsafe I can't even believe we fed him like that.

The funny thing is that I feed my 7ft boa in his cage and have never had a problem with him. I don't know why I didn't apply the same principle to the Burm. The boa has a feeding hatch on the top of his wooden cage and a drop down door on the front for handling. I use a hook to manipulate him to get him out of his cage, so he's already used to the hook. When I feed, he's usually in his hide, I open the hatch, drop the rat, and he takes it in his hide after I close the door. There's no association there because he doesn't see me, it's a different door (manna from heaven), and there's no hook.

I'm trying to entice my Burm into a second feeding and I'm using Hillbilly's methods (and others' suggestions). Another reason that I prefer to feed the big boys in the cage is that I often need to move them into another enclosure to do a school show or a vet visit. I like having another enclosure to put them in that doesn't evoke a feeding response.

It does sound like a smart plan. She will be feeding again in a week, so I'll try it out. Thanks everyone.