Hey all,
At the beggining of my snake keeping adventure. I've been under the impression that I should take out my snakes out of there home's. And, to put them in a seperate container for feeding. To lessen the feeding strikes when I try to handle them.
But, now I don't do that at least not with my larger constrictor's. I do put my two normal bp's in a seperate bin for food. I own a male purple albino reticulated python and two granite yellow anacondas 1.1.
I watched a youtube video and was told by other keeper's. That it is better to keep the tic and the annies in there enclosure for feeding? Because, once they get to the 8' mark and up? That it will be to much work to take them out, and that it is not safe to be handling a large snake when it's in feeding mode? Make's since. And, so I should start this feeding process when there young so they understand better. And, when I want to just handle them normally? That I should open there tub, rub there head and sides with a snook hook. And, rubbing on the head is suppose to snap them out of feeding mode?
So, far so good my retic doesn't mind his head being touched. The annies didn't like it at first but don't seem to care anymore.
What do you guy's think about feeding within the enclosure especially when the snake is for example? 15' 300 lbs
Since, I've been feeding the tic and annies in there tub's? I am concerned about the substrate being stuck to the f/t rat's? And, what to do or how to identify if the substrate get's caught in there mouth's?
I just finished watching my retic eat a small rat. The rat had a few pieces of aspen bedding glued to it's body. But, as the retic was swallowing? I noticed that at each motion the strand of aspen moved forward. Looking like it wouldn't be consumed. When my tic was down to the tip of the tail only? He had a few aspen bedding strand's in his mouth.
When this happen's do snakes spit out the substrate,wipe there mouth's or push out the leftover bedding with there tongue? Or, do they just gulp down the substrate for dessert? I know my snakes consume some of the debri that collect's on the rat's when they constrict it. I want to know if there is any health concern's for consuming it? I know also that in the wild the wild snakes have to deal with dirt also.
What do you guy's think about your bp's and other constrictor's consuming substrate as they swallow there rodent's? TY Gerrad

That is why we dont use it .

Hey all,
At the beggining of my snake keeping adventure. I've been under the impression that I should take out my snakes out of there home's. And, to put them in a seperate container for feeding. To lessen the feeding strikes when I try to handle them.
But, now I don't do that at least not with my larger constrictor's. I do put my two normal bp's in a seperate bin for food. I own a male purple albino reticulated python and two granite yellow anacondas 1.1.
I watched a youtube video and was told by other keeper's. That it is better to keep the tic and the annies in there enclosure for feeding? Because, once they get to the 8' mark and up? That it will be to much work to take them out, and that it is not safe to be handling a large snake when it's in feeding mode? Make's since. And, so I should start this feeding process when there young so they understand better. And, when I want to just handle them normally? That I should open there tub, rub there head and sides with a snook hook. And, rubbing on the head is suppose to snap them out of feeding mode?
So, far so good my retic doesn't mind his head being touched. The annies didn't like it at first but don't seem to care anymore.
What do you guy's think about feeding within the enclosure especially when the snake is for example? 15' 300 lbs
Since, I've been feeding the tic and annies in there tub's? I am concerned about the substrate being stuck to the f/t rat's? And, what to do or how to identify if the substrate get's caught in there mouth's?
I just finished watching my retic eat a small rat. The rat had a few pieces of aspen bedding glued to it's body. But, as the retic was swallowing? I noticed that at each motion the strand of aspen moved forward. Looking like it wouldn't be consumed. When my tic was down to the tip of the tail only? He had a few aspen bedding strand's in his mouth.
When this happen's do snakes spit out the substrate,wipe there mouth's or push out the leftover bedding with there tongue? Or, do they just gulp down the substrate for dessert? I know my snakes consume some of the debri that collect's on the rat's when they constrict it. I want to know if there is any health concern's for consuming it? I know also that in the wild the wild snakes have to deal with dirt also.
What do you guy's think about your bp's and other constrictor's consuming substrate as they swallow there rodent's? TY Gerrad

Many people do feed outside the enclosure but many don't. Personally I don't think it's necessary to remove them from their tubs. Especially LARGE snakes. The hook idea is good. You don't need to rub their head, but some part of their body so that they realize this time isn't feeding time. When feeding don't use the hook. Some snakes are cage aggressive but I think with patience they can also be hook trained.

As far as them consuming substrate, the best solution is to use news paper :D. If you must use something else I think aspen or pine are better than cypress. Simply because cypress has sizable chunks in it which, if consumed, can cause problems. Aspen shavings, if consumed, will likely pass through the system with the rest of the rats. Unleess vast quantities have been consumed. If by chance they do swallow to much it can cause impaction which can normally be cured with a warm soak in the bath tub.

You need to get some pics up so we can see all your critters :yes:

Many people do feed outside the enclosure but many don't. Personally I don't think it's necessary to remove them from their tubs. Especially LARGE snakes. The hook idea is good. You don't need to rub their head, but some part of their body so that they realize this time isn't feeding time. When feeding don't use the hook. Some snakes are cage aggressive but I think with patience they can also be hook trained.

As far as them consuming substrate, the best solution is to use news paper :D. If you must use something else I think aspen or pine are better than cypress. Simply because cypress has sizable chunks in it which, if consumed, can cause problems. Aspen shavings, if consumed, will likely pass through the system with the rest of the rats. Unleess vast quantities have been consumed. If by chance they do swallow to much it can cause impaction which can normally be cured with a warm soak in the bath tub.

You need to get some pics up so we can see all your critters :yes:
Thank's. Here you go quig.

http://www.reptileradio.net/reptileradio/showthread.php?t=34966

Duhhhh, I HAVE seen these :dunno: They're some lookers though :yes:

Duhhhh, I HAVE seen these :dunno: They're some lookers though :yes:
The female granite look's better now. She shed for me last night and I didn't even know she was in the process at all? I didn't see any cloudy eyes,her skin didn't look that dull to me. In the pic's of her in the pool? Her lower half of her body look's whitish, but I thought maybe she was just water logged,lol. I held her on saturday and she didn't act any different. She didn't jump when I would touch her.
The male retic look's really good. He just shed for me yesterday morning. He now has alot of yellow on almost 100% of his belly.

I personally would use paper. You could also remove pieces of aspen with forceps as the rat goes down. I have done this but it entails waiting and watching until the snake is finshed. Another option is presenting the rat on a plate. Sometimes they will eat it without the rat coming in contact with the aspen but not always. One other option is to make sure the rate is completely dry. If it is dry then the aspen should not stick to it.

Dan

I personally would use paper. You could also remove pieces of aspen with forceps as the rat goes down. I have done this but it entails waiting and watching until the snake is finshed. Another option is presenting the rat on a plate. Sometimes they will eat it without the rat coming in contact with the aspen but not always. One other option is to make sure the rate is completely dry. If it is dry then the aspen should not stick to it.

Dan

Interesting. I'll try to make sure the rat is really dry before offering it.

Interesting. I'll try to make sure the rat is really dry before offering it.

Another problem with feeding F/T :yes:. Not complaining mind you, I just feed live :D

We tub feed everything but the largest snakes and the breeders. But we do it so they don't have a feed response in the cage. That being said, the big tic and burm are in cages with double doors, one only gets used to food, the other door for everything else. They figure it out pretty quickly! As Quiq said, if you are feeding frozen thawed make sure it's completely dry, just thaw in a plastic ziploc if you are submersing in warm water, that way it won't get wet and bedding won't stick to it. Small amounts of bedding 99% of the time aren't going to cause a problem, and if you are getting large amounts of bedding going down with every rat than you're probably feeding too small of a food item. Generally if you are feeding size appropriately the mouth is stretched enough that any bedding is pushed off and out.

Another problem with feeding F/T :yes:. Not complaining mind you, I just feed live :D
It might get real messy if I feed my anacondas live. They have incredible feeding responses. They may constrict so hard, that the rat might end up looking like a rotini noodle before they start to swallow it,lol. I don't have to do any dance with the f/t rat's. They'll slam the rat's from there water bowl or deep in there hides. This one time the female was in her large ghetto cardboard box hide I made for her. All that was exposed was the tip of her nose. When I dangled the black rat, she lunged out of the entrance and slammed the rat really fast! Scared the crap out of me.

We tub feed everything but the largest snakes and the breeders. But we do it so they don't have a feed response in the cage. That being said, the big tic and burm are in cages with double doors, one only gets used to food, the other door for everything else. They figure it out pretty quickly! As Quiq said, if you are feeding frozen thawed make sure it's completely dry, just thaw in a plastic ziploc if you are submersing in warm water, that way it won't get wet and bedding won't stick to it. Small amounts of bedding 99% of the time aren't going to cause a problem, and if you are getting large amounts of bedding going down with every rat than you're probably feeding too small of a food item. Generally if you are feeding size appropriately the mouth is stretched enough that any bedding is pushed off and out.
I would say that I am feeding size appropriately. Like today's feeding. Everytime the male retic pulled forward on his swallow's? I could clearly see the 2-3 1/4 inch single aspen strand's being pushed forward with each motion. I would say the male ended up with maybe 3 strand's when the rat tale dissappeared. I would guess that they fell out or he pushed them out with his tongue.
Next time I'll put the f/t rat's in plastic baggies before submerging. What do you think about people using a blow dryer to dry there rat's off? I could see that it would dry and add heat to a cold rat wouldn't it?

i use to use coco coir.....but after years of using it i got tired of the extra cleaning. i only use newspaper now. i get it for free by the bundles.

anyhow back on topic....every so often there would be one ball that would strike and get it's entire mouth full of coir. they would spend an hour of so wiggling their mouth to get all the coir out.....there's even been time i had to help remove it.

go with paper.....it's easy clean up!

Pitoon

I don't get the substrate thing. Seems like it would be hard to clean and expensive to keep it up to my standards of cleanliness. I prefer paper substrate. Easy clean and no worries about consumption.

I don't get the substrate thing. Seems like it would be hard to clean and expensive to keep it up to my standards of cleanliness. I prefer paper substrate. Easy clean and no worries about consumption.

:D Understood. I think many people like a substrate, especially something like the choir, because it makes for a fairly natural looking home for the kept one. For the smaller snakes I think it's fine, but the large pythons will just push it around until it looks a mess :D. I use it for my burrowers. A Calabar, and a trio of Muellers (Saharan )Sand Boas. I DO, however, think paper is the way to go with anything else.

:D Understood. I think many people like a substrate, especially something like the choir, because it makes for a fairly natural looking home for the kept one. For the smaller snakes I think it's fine, but the large pythons will just push it around until it looks a mess :D. I use it for my burrowers. A Calabar, and a trio of Muellers (Saharan )Sand Boas. I DO, however, think paper is the way to go with anything else.

Agreed! I only keep ball pythons and they are in tubs so Im obviously not going for looks! Maybe if it was for a big natural looking tank setup I would do it, but I don't see the point for using it in tubs. If there's some sort of benifit.....healthwise, breeding wise, etc., I'd love to hear it. But if not, I've only heard bad things from "former" users. I mean, what do you do when you have a 41 qt tub full of it and your 3000 gram python pees every 5 days in it?? :dunno: That could get really expensive I would think. Also I would think that it would encourage bacteria growth or other harmful stuff to grow if you weren't changing it out religiously, not to mention the point of this thread...substrate ingestion.

Too much risk for my blood! I'll stick with paper towels for now. But if it works for some, then more power to them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. :cheers:

We have balls, carpets, corns, mexican night snakes, a king, a milk, a bull, a BRB, & a king/milk hyrbid. All from neonate to adult size. Everyone is housed on aspen, & everyone eats f/t or live in their tubs.

I will occasionally watch to make sure nothing goes down, & grab it with the tongs / forceps, but most of the time it's not too big of a problem.

[ we do not thaw out the rats in water tho ] ~

Yea, I started out with the two normal bp's. I still have them in 15qt tub's. I started with the whole paper substrate route. But, the condensation on the wall's and the spilling of the water bowl's? Would make the paper wilty and smelly. I got tired of replacing a whole sheet all the time. I put more holes for ventilation. And, now have the uth's on a rheostat. Then I received my granite yellow anacondas and purple albino tiger reticulate. And, decided to change to aspen bedding. For hope's of helping me with humidity level's. I read that cypress mulch is a good substrate for this purpose. But, since I was at petsmart picking up a few thing's, I figure I'll save a trip to home depot. And, just try out the aspen first.
As, my constrictor's are swallowing? Do you think I could pick out the strand's of aspen on the rat's while there consuming? I have a 10" tweezer tool. But, I'm afraid that my snakes might stop and spit out the rat if I mess with the rat?
My anacondas are now swallowing the small rat's super fast! I barely have a chance to look over the rat while being swallowed. I also think I need to upgrade the size of the f/t rat's to medium's now. The female on her last feeding (wed) swallowed the small rat very quickly. When she was done, she started to look around and tried to get out of the tub. She barely had a bulge in her stomach. Yesterday, when I was cleaning her tub out I put her in another tub and I couldn't see any bulge in her stomach. Same with the male. Usually, they take 3-4 day's to digest and during this time they seem to be sluggish. Which, this week they weren't at all.