Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've read herpers seperate the snake in a different enclosure to avoid damaging the snake with the substates. Is that always????
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My personal opinion is it's not smart to do so. Why would it harm them? They seem to do fine in the wild. Plus It doesn't make the slightest difference. It's just plain stupid when dealing with larger monitors or larger snakes!
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John Light
Pristine Pythons
ristinePythons@Hotmail.com" target="_blank">Contact Me

You can feed the snakes in their main cage. The only real concern is consumption of loose substrate along with the mouse/rat. I always fed in the same cage but put the mouse/rat on a large dish this way there is no risk the snake will consume aspen shavings with the prey item.

I appreciate the feedback given!!
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my 25-38 year old ball pythons will testify to this. Although many folks, including those on this forum, will advocate the feeding in separate containers/cages for which I vehemently disagree. Feeding outside of the cage only puts undue stress on a species of snake that hides stress very well; in time, this could really compromise the long term health of your ball python. If you are concerned about incidental ingestion of substrata while feeding, you could place a large paper plate in the cage and try to coax the bp to feed off of that. Or, place a sheet of paper over the substrate and feed on top of the paper. OR, better yet, switch to newspaper; it is by far and away the best substrate to use for ball pythons.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

Most herpers suggest feeding frozen or pre-kill rodents instead of live....what is your opinion about this?
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Rob, I'm new to Ball Pythons(and to snakes) but I thought you always fed outside of the cage because if you didn't the snake would always be aggressive and possibly even strike when you tried to handle it.

is only to lessen the risk of substrate injestion and it is not a problem if you are using a 1 piece substrate like newspaper or carpet. and even if the "training to not be used to food when you open the cage" thing is proven a fact...I would not be concerned with a ball python and I would just watch them each time you open it and if they look like thay are ready to strike...wait.

If you do not want your snake to strike at you, then open the cage more often than just to feed them. Also, approach them from behind there head if you are concerned with startling them and eliciting a defensive strike.

If you ever get into working with larger snakes, you will understand even more clearly why feeding in their cages is necessary and also why understanding snake behaviors is important.
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www.chicagoherp.org

"If you ever get into working with larger snakes, you will understand even more clearly why feeding in their cages is necessary and also why understanding snake behaviors is important."

Lol i bet !
Although i have never been a big boid keeper,i can just imagine.
I say this having already made my mistakes before.
Lets just say hand feeding your water monitor while it roams is a bad idea.(...he kept watching my hands all the time)
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3.12 Ball Pythons
0.1 Mutant Thayeri

Okay, thanks for the input! So you guys suggest feeding my new Ball Python(I'm buying tomorrow) in his cage? I'll make sure to keep the mouse(He's already being feed thawed) on a piece of paper. I actually plan on handling him a lot(he's already REALLY tame. I work at the store I'm getting him, and he already knows me.), so I guess I wouldn't have to worry about it.