Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've ben mainly hanging out over at the milksnake forum asking questions about my Honduran milksnake baby. So, a little info...my husband and I just acquired a Cali King and Honduran milk, both babies. The Cali (named Queenie) is a sweetheart. She took to her enclosure right away, she's been active, moving around, watching us, letting us hold her. She's a very even-tempered snake. I truly was expecting much more high-strung behavior, sort of along the same way as my Honduran.

We've heard of feeding them in a seperate enclosure, and we tried, however, Queenie just wanted to explore it, not to eat. Once we put her in her usual enclosure, she ate right away. Should we continue feeding her in the enclosure she lives in, or purchase a seperate one? How do we get her used to the feeding area, but not get her to think of it as home? It was hard enough trying to get King (our milksnake) to eat at all. How did you do it?

The only reason I can see to feed in a different container is to keep the snake from eating any substrate. If you have an appropriate substrate and aren't feeding wet (read: sticky) mice then I think it's really just a personal preference. With feeding a bunch of snakes every other day or so, I don't have that kind of time.
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Josh Loehr

I have no idea how big they are, but with my baby rat snakes, I put them in brown lunch bags.

With my milk snakes, I put them in deli cups. When first placed in there, they seem oblivious to their meal, to the point where I have previously assumed they weren't going to eat. Patience prevailed. So in my limited experience with milk snakes, I've had all feed when initially they seemed not to notice dinner. It just takes longer for them to turn their attention to the food.

Now my kings, when not distracted by hormones, have always been willing to eat wherever. They are remarkably not fussy.

If you are really hung up about a snake eating substrate, put a larger deli cup with a hole cut in it and put the prey inside, doesn't matter if the hole is in the lid or side, just that the snake can get in unimpeded, an opaque one would be better than clear, the snake will smell the prey item, go in and feed, usually not dragging the prey out. When finished it will crawl out or stay there a while digesting.
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Todd Hughes

I don't, never have. Probably never will. I do the hook training thing for my retics. After having it drummed into my head early one to NOT handle right before or after feeding--for at least a day--I'm not sure how to square that feeding in a seperate cage