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.