Eating Styles

[guidofatherof5]

I feed a lot of snakes. Most of that feeding this year has been to babies(radix). I've observed many eating styles and thought I would share the different styles I've seen and the names I've given them. Please feel free to add anything I've missed.

Eating Styles

#1 Grab and go: This is where the snake rushes in at first smell/sight of food, grabs a piece and heads to the other end of the enclosure.

#2 Focused/sit and eat: Here the snake simply sits at the food dish and fills up. They are not rushed or hurried. No stealing, no fighting, no interest in any other snake or anything else that is going on.

#3. Chaser/Stealer/Thief: Here the snake ignores the food dish and focuses on anyone with food in their mouth. They will travel across the food dish to attempt to steal food.

#4 Gobbler/Gulper: These snakes swallow as much food as fast as they can. They are nervous and easily turn into a thief.

#5 Silent/invisible: These snakes seem invisible to everyone eating. They move in and out of the food dish. They are not challenged or harassed by anyone. They don't eat fast and never stop moving.

#6 Waiters: These snakes don't attempt to eat or show any interest in what's going on. They wait until the vast majority of the other snakes have eaten. They then slowly move in and eat. If a lot of activity returns to the food dish they simply move off and wait until things calm down again.

#7 Non-eaters: These snakes may visit the food dish or not. They may look like they are going to eat but then lose interest and move off. They may or may not watch others eat and show no interest in eating themselves. They do not show any aggression towards anyone eating. These are the snakes that are most likely to die from "failure to thrive". Aggressive feeding strategies are need to get these snakes started. It should also be noted that these snakes may not survive even if aggressive strategies are used.
* Non- eaters help: In my experience I have found guppies and earthworms(not night crawlers) to be the food items to ignite these snakes into eating. It should also be known that sometimes nothing works for these snakes as they are destine to die from starvation. I personally will euthanize them before this happens. I have also had non-eaters start eating and then out of the blue stop eating and die. I believe these snakes are developmentally behind and in the wild would have died much earlier. The bright spot is the fact some of them do live and thrive.

[ConcinusMan]

You pretty much got it covered. Nice job. I never had more than 50 baby concinnus to feed at one time though. I can't imagine feeding as many baby radixes as you do.

When I had a lot of babies to feed, I actually used to sort them out into different containers (after a few weeks) based on those feeding observations (and size/strength). Most of the time the #6's and #7's were developmentally behind from birth. Once I sort those into their own container, I do whatever I can to ensure that each one eats, however much coaxing it takes. Like you were saying, some gain strength and go on to live well. A few get so emaciated within a few weeks, it's the freezer for them. Thankfully, not too many share that fate.

I found that it does help to separate the weaker/less aggressive feeders from the others, and give them plenty of room and several spots where they can separate and eat. They don't feel so intimidated when there is not so many strong ones being fed in the same container and it makes it easier to pamper/coddle them by keeping them a bit warmer and offering lots of different foods. Some gain strength/size and turn into #6's or #1's usually. Each one that eats well from there is moved to yet another container, leaving the non feeders. After that, they tend to catch up to the others in size/strength. Whenever I had a large brood (25-50) there is no avoiding getting a few of the non-feeders or a few small feeders that just up and die. Sad, but a fact of life.

Use your observations to "classify" and segregate. I helps the weaker one's catch up and gives them a fighting chance.

[confused]

my girl liked to sneak up on her food dish like it was prey, circle underneath it, strike feed and run away, only to repeat the whole stalking process for the next morsel.

[guidofatherof5]

my girl liked to sneak up on her food dish like it was prey, circle underneath it, strike feed and run away, only to repeat the whole stalking process for the next morsel.

Feeding time for the babies is my favorite time.
Their little attitudes towards food is a lot of fun to watch.

[Ctah_Lu]

my snake has another tipe of eat, maybe you can name this stile:

fist it smells a lot, then he (its male) goes to explore in search for more, after that approaches to the dish and grab the food, and pass almost 10 minutes whit the food on the mout until he wants eat it.

[ConcinusMan]

Maybe we could call that style the "indifferent eater". He eats, but first he smells the food, looks around for something else, but then decides he better eat what's offered.

There's actually a cure for that. Snakes behave differently in groups due to competition. If this snake is alone, maybe he's being fed too often, or would prefer some different food. In that case, feeding less often and/or switching to fish usually makes them more enthusiastic.

Maybe the food is too cold? maybe that's why he waits?

[guidofatherof5]

I saw an interesting feeding response but I'm not sure it needs its own label.
I had pulled a couple of my young Het. albino red phase radixes out for their enclosure for their first full size night crawler. After they had swallowed it I placed them back in with their siblings. The smell of worms brought everyone out in the hopes of getting some. There was a great interest in the snakes that had just finished eating of course. The other snakes could smell and taste the worm slime on them.
No one tried to bite anyone else but I did see them pushing on the mouths of the snakes that had eaten. Then something amazing happened. One snake was able to push hard enough to force the other snakes mouth open. The intruder then stuck its head down the throat of the other snake which cause a gag reflex. Apparently this brought the worm up close enough to be grabbed. The intruder then grabbed the worm and attempted to pull it out. This all happened in the blink of an eye. A short tug-of-war ensued. I reached in a broke the worm to end the fight.
I'm guessing this falls within the #3. Chaser/Stealer/Thief catagory.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't think so, that one falls in a category all it's own. It's downright forceful extortion/robbery! Holy crud!

[Snakers]

I have all thief's with my group

[Holly]

Lol, mine actually sits in the food dish most of the day hoping to be fed. When we open the lid to feed him he doesn't bother coming over to meet his slug or worm, he just opens his mouth and waits for the food to be placed there!