Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been feeding my BP in a seperate tank ever since I've had him, which is 2 years now. Well, my wife accidentally threw out the container I was feeding him in which he almost always fed in. Anyway, I've tried a tupperware container since then and he has yet to eat a rat in it. It's probably mainly because of him on his usual fast which usually lasts through the winter, but now he should be about ready to start eating again. I was wondering if I can get some ideas from anyone on here that feed their BPs outside of their tanks, what you feed them in? What type of containers, boxes, whatever you may use. Thanks.

I use a 28qt sterilite box with a lid for my ball pythons and it works fine. Thanks Scott Glover

Do you use one of the clear ones or is it opague on the sides? I have one that is clear on the sides and I'm just wondering if he doesn't feel secure enough in that one. My old container wasn't see through and he always ate in that thing, except for his usual fast. Thanks!

The cages I feed them in are semi clear cage. If your ball python only eats in a dark place then you can buy black spray paint and spray paint the sides black, but I would first try the semi clear cage for him to eat in. Thanks Scott Glover

So why do you take him out of his cage to feed?

I've heard with bigger snakes the idea that it's best not to have them conditioned to feed when you open the cage door but ball pythons don't get big enough for that to be an issue and for that matter generally don't have an aggressive enough feeding response vs. their naturally timid disposition to worry much about feeding bites.

I try to disturb my ball pythons as little as possible on feeding day in the hopes that they will be calm enough to eat rather than worried about getting eaten in a strange cage after having human contact.

Why I take my ball python out of is cage to eat is bacause I have pine shavings for substrate. Thanks Scott Glover

Same here. I only want my BP eating the rodent that I feed it, not a bunch of aspen shavings. And my BP decides never to go after my hand when I have to reach in there for something since he knows he's not getting dinner in there. But the shavings are the main reason for me.

I also prefer to feed outside of their cages/tubs - over the years I've used everything from grocery bags (brown paper) to boxes to rubbermaids. I find the rubbermaids work well and are easy to clean up afterwards. I use the blue ones (various sizes depending on the size of the snake) this way they get extra privacy if they need it and for the one that needs it completely dark to feed, I can put him in there and feed him any time of the day. I also find that they can use the extra headroom that they get in a deep tub other than in their rack tubs, some of my bigger girls raise up a good foot off the bottom while swallowing medium rats, the rats tend to go down easier that way than if they're squased into a 7 inch deep tub. On top of that I don't have to pull shavings out of their mouths while their eating or clean up rat droppings from the tubs of my live feeder hold outs. And yes even a ball can learn to associate the opening of the tank and feeding time and will strike at you. To me it just seems to make more sense. I have a bunch of good eaters and I've never had any problems with feeding or regurgitation.
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

Same thing I do with all my snakes. What is the cheapest substrate to but for ball pythons, aspen bedding, bark substrate, or sould I just keep them on pine shavings??????????? any thoughts. Thanks Scott Glover

I wouldn't do the pine just because the oils from the pine are just as harmful to the snakes as if they ate injest it. I use aspen for my racks but hate it (messy and stinky), for my big cage I use reptibark and love that, but it doesn't make much sense to use in the racks. I put my WC girl on cypress mulch and like that much better than the aspen, but it's harder to spot clean and every time I take her out she's covered in dirt. When my huge bag-o-aspen is gone, I think I'm going to switch to cypress in my racks just to see how that works. since I use the aspen in my rodent rack, I'll still have the aspen to switch back to if the cypress doesn't work for me (or the snakes). Hope this helps.
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

Thanks, I will go with aspen bedding first. Thanks Again Scott Glover