Boa's First F/T rat..

[Redneck]

Its not going to well.. I tried putting her in a platic tub so i dont have to feed her in her enclosure.. That didnt work..

So.. I put her in her enclosure & set the rat in there with her.. Not to sure if that was a good idea or not.. I guess we will find out..

Hopefully she takes the rat here soon..

 

[Redneck]

Yay! She ate it!

Alright here is the dumb question.. Is it ok to give her 2 medium rats?

 

[Jaymz Bedell]

that really depends on her size. but if you think she can handle it i say go for it. if you have any doubt at all...don't go for it. i just have to remind myself boas are not carpet pythons or scrub pythons...which can take much bigger meals for their size. but if you feel like you should hesitate than i would refrain from offering another prey item.

 

[MichiganReptiles]

Glad to hear she ate it. I would continue to try the tub though. Hopefully you can break her of the habit. Do you have a lid for the tub? If so you might want to consider walking away for a few. They can be shy at times

 

[Redneck]

that really depends on her size. but if you think she can handle it i say go for it. if you have any doubt at all...don't go for it. i just have to remind myself boas are not carpet pythons or scrub pythons...which can take much bigger meals for their size. but if you feel like you should hesitate than i would refrain from offering another prey item.

Thanks.. I am quite sure she can handle it.. But.. I think I will go ahead a wait..

Glad to hear she ate it. I would continue to try the tub though. Hopefully you can break her of the habit. Do you have a lid for the tub? If so you might want to consider walking away for a few. They can be shy at times

Thanks Toni! I bet your right about using the tub instead of her enclosure.. I just wanted to get her to eat something.. I didnt offer her anything since I got her.. I figured I would let her settle in the new home.. Next time I will leave her in the tub..

 

[Kaimetsu]

Thanks.. I am quite sure she can handle it.. But.. I think I will go ahead a wait..

Thanks Toni! I bet your right about using the tub instead of her enclosure.. I just wanted to get her to eat something.. I didnt offer her anything since I got her.. I figured I would let her settle in the new home.. Next time I will leave her in the tub..

So i have reservations about tub feeding that have kept me from doing it, maybe you guys can alay my fears. How do you get the snake back it's it's enclosure after feeding? Isnt the snake still likely to be in feeding mode after eating? and can't handling after feeding cause regurgitation?

 

[Jaymz Bedell]

I have never fed outside of the cage and out of 100s of snakes taking 1000s of meals in their cages i have only been bitten once. and that was while attempting to pick up, by hand, a thawed rat to better position it for a barneck scrub python. my hand was warmer than the rat so she grabbed my rat scented very warm hand. even scrub pythons were fed in cage. its my personal preference not to remove the snake from the cage to feed, only to have to move a snake thats just fed being moved around more than absolutely neccessary and also a very possible feeding mode bite. there are a lot of tricks to avoid feeding responses when trying to remove a snake from its cage. a lot of snakes also dont take to being fed outside of their cages. and some snakes are just highly territorial and need to be hooked out of their cages even when they're not in feed mode. and at a certain size it becomes dangerous to move a snake in feed mode from its feed box to its cage without atleast one other person to help out. on a side note....it is incredibly cute to see scrub pythons begging for food when they smell rats defrosting, its like watching old movies with kids drooling looking into a sweet shop window. again this is just my personal thinking, others will differ. i just dont see the benefit to moving a recently fed snake when there are so many ways to avoid them automatically thinking you're food.

 

[Dyn]

I only feed in the cage as well. Its easy to feed outside the cage when they are small... but you definetly dont want to have to mess with a 16 foot retic in full feeding mode after eating. So theres no real point in even starting to do that.

 

[MichiganReptiles]

Thanks.. I am quite sure she can handle it.. But.. I think I will go ahead a wait..

Thanks Toni! I bet your right about using the tub instead of her enclosure.. I just wanted to get her to eat something.. I didnt offer her anything since I got her.. I figured I would let her settle in the new home.. Next time I will leave her in the tub..

The female Argentine B&W Tegu we "rescued" was enclosure fed also and we have to work to break her of it too. Not sure if we ever will. Right now she's hibernating (because it's that time of year where she is from).

 

[tjmi2000]

I have cage fed every snake I have ever owned in the past thirty years or so and yes, I have been bitten by nearly every one of them a time or two (which is why I don't own venomous). I find that simply letting them know you are there and what your intentions are can help avoid feeding response strikes. When I want to take a snake out of its enclosure I touch the animal with something other than my hand first to get its attention. I do the same when performing maintenance such as filling water or removing feces.

 

[MichiganReptiles]

Not that I want this to be a debate and I realize everyone does things their own way and I have no criticism about it, but I do believe in not enclosure feeding some of my reptiles. My bearded dragons, chams, etc.. no problem, but for my snakes and tegus, I think it's better for everyone involved if they aren't enclosure fed. First of all.. to keep them from being tank aggressive and second.. to keep them from eating too much substrate which could be detrimental to their health. I have no problems sticking my hands in my boas tank.. they are very calm about it.. and I attribute that to not being fed in their tank.

As far as them still being in "feeding mode" in that tub and being afraid to put my hand in.. I let them be for quite a while after they have finished their meal and I get no aggressive behavior when I go in after them.

That's just my 2 cents.

 

[Redneck]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts on cage feeding.. I have feed every BP I have own in its cage.. Not every meal.. But atleast half the meals it ever ate in my care.. My concern with this one was that its not going to be a dinky snake when its full grown..

The only time I have ever been biten was by a baby BP.. I had it in a feeder cage.. I went to remove it to place it back in its enclosure.. It was still in "feeding mode" & tagged me..

I only feed in the cage as well. Its easy to feed outside the cage when they are small... but you definetly dont want to have to mess with a 16 foot retic in full feeding mode after eating. So theres no real point in even starting to do that.

I honestly have no reason to be messing with a 16 foot retic.. I am willing to admit I have a slight fear of a snake that big.. I mean I will pet them & I like them.. But I dont think I could own one..

 

[Jaymz Bedell]

even a large boa can be dangerous when it hasn't switched out of feed mode. cage related aggression is not always the result of being fed in cage, often times its an issue of territory or bite first ask questions later. habituating the animal to certain cues can go a long long way to avoiding either reaction. instead of just reaching in either hook the snake out or use something to gently stroke the snake. once it figures out you aren't food or going to hurt it they rapidly calm down. this is far from a debate its simply a matter of people doing what they feel is right in their situation. but take most of the big time snake breeders for example, not many feed outside of the cage, and not just because they have too many animals making it inconvenient. but i've seen many meals regurgitated on the way from the feeding box to the cage. granted not among my personal collection because i firmly believe the snake has the right to eat in its own territory. and as i said, 100s of snakes 1000s of meals in the cage, and ONE feeding bite that was completely and totally my fault. I've dealt mostly with scrub pythons in recent history, big, SMART, hungry snakes that will often be territorial and always ready to eat and only 1 feeding response related bite. among the many other species i've kept in the past i have NEVER taken a feed response bite from any of them, many many other bites for many other reasons, but only 1 from a feeding response. as to the issue of substrate in the mouth...newspaper or a paper plate can prevent that if you're not using some sort of paper substrate. but cage related aggression is quite often territorial and not related to food. establishing routines where certain things happen at feeding time (aside from the smell of food on the air) only and certain things happen at other times only dont take long to establish and go a long way. just my personal thoughts, others will have their own.

 

[Dyn]

even a large boa can be dangerous when it hasn't switched out of feed mode. cage related aggression is not always the result of being fed in cage, often times its an issue of territory or bite first ask questions later. habituating the animal to certain cues can go a long long way to avoiding either reaction. instead of just reaching in either hook the snake out or use something to gently stroke the snake. once it figures out you aren't food or going to hurt it they rapidly calm down. this is far from a debate its simply a matter of people doing what they feel is right in their situation. but take most of the big time snake breeders for example, not many feed outside of the cage, and not just because they have too many animals making it inconvenient. but i've seen many meals regurgitated on the way from the feeding box to the cage. granted not among my personal collection because i firmly believe the snake has the right to eat in its own territory. and as i said, 100s of snakes 1000s of meals in the cage, and ONE feeding bite that was completely and totally my fault. I've dealt mostly with scrub pythons in recent history, big, SMART, hungry snakes that will often be territorial and always ready to eat and only 1 feeding response related bite. among the many other species i've kept in the past i have NEVER taken a feed response bite from any of them, many many other bites for many other reasons, but only 1 from a feeding response. as to the issue of substrate in the mouth...newspaper or a paper plate can prevent that if you're not using some sort of paper substrate. but cage related aggression is quite often territorial and not related to food. establishing routines where certain things happen at feeding time (aside from the smell of food on the air) only and certain things happen at other times only dont take long to establish and go a long way. just my personal thoughts, others will have their own.

:clap: thumbs up on that pretty much what I was going to say.

Do you happen to breed scrubs by chance? I'm having a really hard time finding any. I've been looking for some bar necks for some time now. I've sold off my boa and looking to sell my carpet. I'm just going to keep a couple retics. I have a purple albino and a normal high silver male possibly get some others that i like later on such as an anthrax and caramel albino. Besides the retics, Bar neck scrubs (love how big they get and they look better to me than some of the other locales, Blackheaded Pythons, and Olive Pythons are about the only snakes I'm interested in.

 

[Jaymz Bedell]

sadly i no longer have any scrubs, although i am interested in starting a small group of tanimbar pythons. when i have the money. the barneck that tagged me was a stunning 8 foot female Manokwari. I kick myself for getting out of snakes. but a messy divorce and a radical change in living situations dictated them going to other responsible keepers. i have seen quite a few ads on kingsnake.com for scrubs lately, mostly tanimbars as they are exempt from the large snake bans being put into effect in a lot of states. funny part is they banned Morelia amethistina because it's record length was 27 feet, until scrubs were reclassified and the aussie scrub was split to its own species. but heaven forbid the people writing these bills actually research what theyre banning. good luck with your scrub quest, they really are unlike any other snake to work with.

 

[Dyn]

Yea.. I see alot of Merauke, Tanimbar, and Moluccans are usually the only ones put up for sale.

I do like the moluccans but Barnecks are my favorite.


Sorry for hijacking but was curious.