Warning :Dont Feed Snakes In Their Tanks..

ArachnoDude

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Jan 8, 2008
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Im not really sure how this happened but, i bought a baby ball phyton about 14 inches big from a local pet shopp. it had some dry patches of skin on it but it looked ok. it was eating regularly a baby fuzzy every week. so about a month after i buy it it shed skin. everything in the tank was at a great condition, it was humid and it had a heating pad. and some little wood chips the pet shopp worker advised me to grab. so while it was tryng to itch off some of its leftover skin off its mouth on a rock i moistioned a towel and rubbed most of it off. i gues it stil had some so it tried rubbing it on the ground instead of the provided rock and it somehow swallowed a litle tiny thin .5 inch twig like thing no wider than a l. long story short..the little snake chocked on it. i tried getting it out and even tried hand feeding it water..(does that make sense?) it sucked cus i only had it about a month. Anyways. i dont think you guys should feed the snake on its subsrtate..it might choke?..it still puzzles me..
 
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Spinarak

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Yep, one of the top ten rules on owning snakes. Even if they don't choke ingesting substrate can cause impaction which could lead to parasites, complications, and death. Sorry to learn of your experience.
 

Mushroom Spore

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even tried hand feeding it water..(does that make sense?)
I...I really don't think this would have helped, given that the difference between safely drinking water and choking to death on it depends entirely on whether one is purposely trying to drink that water, given the mechanisms that keep voluntarily-consumed fluids out of the trachea. Maybe I'm just tired and misreading the paragraph, or guessing wrongly about HOW you tried "hand feeding it water," I hope I am. :(
 

UrbanJungles

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A small piece of wood would hardly choke a snake...even a small Ball python. When you "hand fed" it water I hope you didn't accidentally get some water down the trachea and into the lungs as that would definitely cause asphyxiation or "choking". It takes alot to get a snake to stop the breathing.
 

rollinkansas

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A small piece of wood would hardly choke a snake...even a small Ball python. When you "hand fed" it water I hope you didn't accidentally get some water down the trachea and into the lungs as that would definitely cause asphyxiation or "choking". It takes alot to get a snake to stop the breathing.
Not to mention people forget in the wild they eat parts of the soil every time they get a meal. Their insides are made to handle it in the wild, same as in captivity(although i expect the substrate nazis to come out and bash me for saying this).
 

Sequin

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Yep, one of the top ten rules on owning snakes.
Hahahaha. Really? Interesting. Moving a large boid to and from enclosures is dangerous to both the keeper, and the snake. Do you think wild animals have tupperwear containers to crawl into during feeding?

Arachno- By the sounds of it, you killed the snake. If I understand this correctly, you tried rubbing the snakes head on the ground? Why wouldn't you leave it alone, or give it a quick soak. A small piece of shed wasn't going to kill it. Seems like a moronic solution to such a small problem.
 

Brian S

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I also feed my snakes in their cages so I guess I'm also a rule breaker.
 

halfwaynowhere

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one of the down-sides about feeding them in their tanks is that then associate your hand coming into their tank as feeding, and are more likely to mistake your hand for food, and may bite you. That is the biggest reason I have seen for not feeding them in their tanks.
 

Mushroom Spore

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Hahahaha. Really? Interesting. Moving a large boid to and from enclosures is dangerous to both the keeper, and the snake.
Snakes big enough to harm their owners are not quite as commonly kept as the smaller ones. Besides, an eighteen-foot monster probably isn't going to even notice something that would harm the insides of a little bitty snake. :)
 

scottyk

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Hahahaha. Really? Interesting. Moving a large boid to and from enclosures is dangerous to both the keeper, and the snake. Do you think wild animals have tupperwear containers to crawl into during feeding?
Yes really. You don't want a snake that is conditioned to think anything coming into it's cage is food. It's a great way to increase your risk of getting tagged when you go to pick it up or try to do maintenance.

Removing the snake to a seperate feeding container is a standard and widely accepted husbandry practice among private keepers. Even those with large boids will feed in plastic trash bins....
 

peterUK

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Removing the snake to a seperate feeding container is a standard and widely accepted husbandry practice among private keepers. Even those with large boids will feed in plastic trash bins....
Can i ask where this is a standard and widely accepted husbandry practice ?

I have kept snakes for 38 years and have NEVER met anyone who uses this method. Maybe someone who has 1 or 2 snakes and is super paranoid may read it on a forum such as this and think it is a good idea but someone with a large collection just isnt going to do it, it would take days to feed a few dozen snakes. When i had a snake collection, it took a whole day to clean, water change and feed 80 adults and about 25-30 juvs. When the hatchlings arrived it took another day and sometimes 2 days just to feed, water and clean the hatchlings. If I used your 'standard and widely accepted husbandry practice' I would have been feeding 24/7 with no let up.

I can think of only two reasons to use this method of feeding snakes.
1) If more than one snake is being kept in the enclosure.
2) If it is an unusually aggressive snake that is on a permanent hunger drive.

A snake will only associate the cage door opening with food if that is the only thing the keeper does with the snake. If the keeper interacts with the snake on a regular daily basis then there will be no problems.
 

scottyk

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Just because you never did it does not change the fact that it's a widely used practice. Do your own research....
 

halfwaynowhere

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this is what my brother in law does, and he's got quite a few snakes, seeing as he breeds them. the hatchlings get fed in their deli cups, but everyone else, including the 7 1/2 foot RTB, gets fed in a seperate enclosure. Everyone else I've talked to does it the same way. I could see it being different with the really big snakes, but it is a pretty common practice...
 

ZooRex

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Not to mention people forget in the wild they eat parts of the soil every time they get a meal. Their insides are made to handle it in the wild, same as in captivity(although i expect the substrate nazis to come out and bash me for saying this).
I completley agree. Although I did have a problem with my first BP consuming a pinkie apsolutly covered in aspen bedding, I've been feeding my snakes on substrate for years now. I now use a mixture of peat and cypress mulch, both are perfectly natural and can't harm the snakes if ingested. ~ Rex
 

GailC

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I hate to say it but I also agree that its a possibility you killed your snake with the water. Snakes can't choke like a mammal, their air passage and food passage are separate. It was probably trying to dislodge the wood from its throat and when you gave it the water it went down the air passage. I highly recommend you do some more studying of snakes, their care and their anatomy if you are considering getting another one.

Yes, feeding in a separate container is common practice in the stats. I used to do it with all my snakes but now only do it with my hatchling corn snakes. If the prey item is dry then substrate shouldn't stick very bad. My corns are on aspen and my ball is on cypress.
None of my snakes that eat in their cage have mistaken me for food but I also get into there enclosures for more then just feeding.
 

rollinkansas

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I completley agree. Although I did have a problem with my first BP consuming a pinkie apsolutly covered in aspen bedding, I've been feeding my snakes on substrate for years now. I now use a mixture of peat and cypress mulch, both are perfectly natural and can't harm the snakes if ingested. ~ Rex
Good points. Not to mention most of the people who complain about feeding in the cage are just keyboard warriors regurgitating information they have read online or heard through the grapevine. Id venture to say most have not had an ingestion problem happen to them personally, but they still insist on shoving it down peoples throats as if their way is the only correct way.
 

Mushroom Spore

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Id venture to say most have not had an ingestion problem happen to them personally, but they still insist on shoving it down peoples throats as if their way is the only correct way.
I have read plenty of accounts over the years of people who HAVE had ingestion problems with their snakes. It's not like it's impossible. So yeah, to me, the only correct way is the one with ZERO percent chance of that happening--and the only way to make it zero percent is not to feed on substrate. :?
 

peterUK

Arachnoknight
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Good points. Not to mention most of the people who complain about feeding in the cage are just keyboard warriors regurgitating information they have read online or heard through the grapevine. Id venture to say most have not had an ingestion problem happen to them personally, but they still insist on shoving it down peoples throats as if their way is the only correct way.

:clap:. . . . . . . . . .:clap: . . . . . . . . . .:clap: . . . . . . . . . :clap: . . . . . . . . . :clap:. . . . . . . . . . :clap: . . . . . . . . . . :clap: . . . . . . . . . . :clap:

I would normally call them ' Instant add water experts' but i guess we both mean the same thing. :clap:
 

scottyk

Arachnoangel
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Sorry to debunk both of your keyboard warrior theories, but I've also kept snakes for close to 35 years, and had collections up as high as 50 animals when I was breeding Love line Okeetee corn snakes.

My original post just stated that feeding in seperate containers is a common practice, which it is, and offered some of the logic behind the method. I did not state my opinion on the method or suggest it was better or worse than any other way of feeding. There are as many correct ways to keep snakes as there are snake keepers, and many methods come down to nothing more than personal choice...

The only post on this thread that smacks of "only my way is the correct way" is the one below, which I find amusingly ironic :rolleyes:

Can i ask where this is a standard and widely accepted husbandry practice ?

I have kept snakes for 38 years and have NEVER met anyone who uses this method. Maybe someone who has 1 or 2 snakes and is super paranoid may read it on a forum such as this and think it is a good idea but someone with a large collection just isnt going to do it, it would take days to feed a few dozen snakes. When i had a snake collection, it took a whole day to clean, water change and feed 80 adults and about 25-30 juvs. When the hatchlings arrived it took another day and sometimes 2 days just to feed, water and clean the hatchlings. If I used your 'standard and widely accepted husbandry practice' I would have been feeding 24/7 with no let up.

I can think of only two reasons to use this method of feeding snakes.
1) If more than one snake is being kept in the enclosure.
2) If it is an unusually aggressive snake that is on a permanent hunger drive.

A snake will only associate the cage door opening with food if that is the only thing the keeper does with the snake. If the keeper interacts with the snake on a regular daily basis then there will be no problems.
 
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jonnysebachi

Arachnosquire
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Sep 15, 2005
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146
It doesnt matter at all where you feed them!!! Just make sure you are giving the best husbandry to the snakes as you can. Every pet owner has their own way of taking care of their pets and the more we can try and share with others the better off our pets will be. Don't argue the small stuff and forget the important details like humidity, temp, parasite issues, etc. Remember: research and sharing helps us all.
 
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