Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do you need to put a snake in a second container to eat? I'm new with snakes. I hear people talk about it, but it's not in any care sheets out there. Why do people do it? It sounds like you do it so the snake gets worked up to eat only in the feeding container. Should it be different for what they're kept in? Would it be confusing if the containers were the same?

I have tried a feeding container and frankly flat out hated it. I use newspaper as a substrate so I feed in the cage, I find it so much easier than a separate tank for feeding.

People do it because they think that the snakes will think that every time you open the cage food is coming, and a the mistake will be made by the snake that your hand is food. If they can be conditioned to think that, then if you use a separate tank for feeding, every time the snake is handled, it will expect food after or not want to be handled very long because it is eager for food. I haven't experienced anything of the sort either way personally.

Advantages of feeding in another container:
-If you use loose substrate such as aspen, nothing will be ingested.
-In a smaller container, the snake can find food easily

Disadvantages:
-Unnecessary stress to the snake from moving it around, which you definitely don't want after it eats
-Some snakes don't switch out of feeding mode until an hour after feeding, which is what I experienced with my Cal King, and you'll simply get bitten if they are still in feeding mode
-You need to monitor the feeding so you can move the snake back into it's heated enclosure after the food is eaten

The choice is yours.

Yah my desert king has developed a feeding response, and every single time i so much as touch the top of the cage he perks up. I cant reach into the cage without getting nipped at, and recently got an impresive hit from him to the finger. I gave the second enclosure idea some thought, and agree with the other post, after my snake eats and is in eating mode, hes simply ready for more and hits the glass when i touch it, so i would get nailed anyway getting him back to his cage, plus Ive heard its not a good idea to move snakes that have recently eaten, for there own healths sake. So who knows. Either way has advantages and disadvantages that pritty much even each other out. Skinner

I've had good luck with using a second container for feeding, but then again I've never tried it any other way so I don't know if it is actually making a difference or not.

Some people do it to train the snake not to expect food in its cage. This supposedly lessens the chance of your hand getting mistaken for food and bitten.

For large (ie potentially dangerous) constrictors, however, the rule is to feed in the cage. That way the only time you need to worry about a feeding response is when you open it up, and you can be on your guard. What you don't want is the animal going into feeding mode unexpectedly, outside the cage.