Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been successfully hand-feeding my son's 05 grey-banded king, using long hemastatic foreceps to hold the pinkie, and it's worked fine. During the two months we've had her, during handling she's never bitten either me or my son. However, the last two feedings (last week and yesterday), she bit me during the session. Now I'm scared to even hold her. This last time, she attacked the prey once but didn't take it. So I put both pinkies in her habitat, and she eventually ate the one on top of her hide (Country Crock tub), but not the second one on the ground.

1. Any way to "undo" this conditioning to biting?
2. She hasn't bitten my son during handling. Am I confusing her? Does she get into a frenzy during feeding?
3. What's the best way to feed her from now on? Just put the pinkie in her habitat? She won't eat in a separate container without teasing.

Thanks,

Walt

I'm by no means an expert but I feed both of my greybands in separate containers from their habitat. The thought being that they learn not to expect food in their habitat and therefore become less likely to strike. It took two years of this before my young adult male associated me with the feeding process enough to crawl out of his cage onto me b/c it was feeding time. Patience is key, I'm sure but granted my male is a pretty tame snake.

My male, Motzart feeds on live mice in a 10 gal aquarium. My yearling female, Cleo, feeds on live pinkies in a 6L tupperware. Both feed aggressively on a weekly schedule. I think giving then live prey allows them to be the predators that they naturally are. Stalking and killing their prey is part of their natural feeding process. My two at least certainly seem to prefer live mice. I know some people worry about a live mouse harming their snake. Motzart actually had one get him good in his eye once. I regretted the decisiion to feed live until his next shed, after which everything was normal. No scar or anything, you could never tell he was hurt. So now I don't worry at all knowing that the snake was evolved for the killing small things.