Feeding in situ or removal to a feeding box

[Spiderqwan]

Heres a topic i havent seen yet, how many of you guys allways feed your snakes in thier tank. The advice i was given by the store owner was to use a feeding box. The snake is very happy to go into the box with the food (defrosted smelts at the moment) and eats without any fuss or worry usually circles the food 2 or 3 times getting closer and closer and then seems to pounce I would assume this is as close to hunting behaviour as i am likley to see, with dead food. So the conclusion to this post - feeding box or tank feeding - which do you think is best.

[Stefan-A]

I feed mine in their tank. The female refuses to eat anywhere else (still in training) and the male is excellent at avoiding substrate. The male always lifts the fish/mouse well clear of the ground and often climbs up a branch before it starts swallowing.

[Snaky]

I also feed my snakes in the tanks. I've never seen a snake of mine eat some of the bedding, but I've heard of snakes die this way. So it's still risky if you use a substrate that can not be digested and is small enough to be taken in.

[GarterGuy]

For single snakes, I feed in the cage...for cages with multible ones, I usually will feed in seperate feeding boxes( to avoid food fights). I only use CareFresh bedding in my tanks for the fear of ingestion..it's a safe litter and it's usually in big enough pieces that it's not ingested, but if it is it passes with no worries. I acutally lost a Western Hognose to ingestion of cage litter....it was aspen bedding.

[Thamnophis]

I feed mine in their terrarium.
Only when I feed them worms, I take them out and put them in a box.

[abcat1993]

The first time I tried to feed my snake it took it and dragged it all over the aspen. So I took the worm away and put them both in a small plastic thing and I do that every time now.

[ClosedCasket88]

i usualy remove em and feed em seperate tanks or containers , afterawhile i take notice on how they each eat. now some of em get fed in there tanks and some still get fed in containers..........ive never had problems with fish in water bowls theyv always seemed to hover over the water n eat up and never realy touching the ground or any substrate usualy holding its prey off the ground , some i noticed are good with holding there food up and not getting any bark or shavings in there mouth. these are the ones i feed in there tank . i usualy keep a small 5inchx5inch open area in his tank that i can put a small piece of slate in and throw the pinkie or worm on it without getting any substrate on it . this seems to work good . u just gota observe your snake and see how he eats.u can even chuck your worms or pinknies ontop any rock or corkbark and itl give him a couple inches on each side to gobble his **** up without any junk getin on it . some will grab and kinda waggle all around with it n make a mess. those r better in a seperate conatiner or tank .
good luck

[ssssnakeluvr]

I feed mine in their cages...I house mine in sterilite tubs, paper towel or newspaper bedding for easier cleaning....I have around 40 snakes at the moment.

[sschind]

All my garters are small right now eating either rosys or pinkies so they don't have much of a problem holding the food items up in the air so I go with in the tank. My breeders are on newspaper so they go with in the tank. My personal display snakes are fed in the tank with pre killed mice so there is not much danger of ingestion (as with wet thawed mice) I use a product called Aspen Crumbles as a substrate and very little if any sticks to the mice (if they are dry) and what little does breaks down and is passed. My store snakes get removed simply because I will not feed in public (don't want to offend anyone) and with my schedule, the only time I can really feed is during store hours.

When I sell snakes though I usually recommend a feeding box. For someone with 1 or 2 snakes its not a big deal but when you have as many as I do taking each one out is a chore.

[KITKAT]

I feed mine in their enclosure, but I "hand" them each food item using a pair of forceps. They learn that the forceps = food, and when I open the top and insert the forceps, they come looking for the handout!

[Lee]

I feed in tank. Fish/Mice just put the fish in the water and my snake eats them when hes hungry, mice when I have them I just put em in there and he eats em no problem. Never really have seen the benefits of feeding out of cage..

[abcat1993]

I feed mine in their enclosure, but I "hand" them each food item using a pair of forceps. They learn that the forceps = food, and when I open the top and insert the forceps, they come looking for the handout!
Huh, funny, my snake does the opposite, except with my hand not forceps. You'd think that my snake would realize that hand=food :confused: but all he does is slither around like crazy until I can get him to go into the paper towel roll which I then pick up and make him slide into the feeding tank.