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Feeding Inside vs. Outside the Cage. A Necessary Practice?

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Sat, January 1 2011 at 08:03

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it's one bit of pet store advice that needs to die. If I could take it and curb stomp it I would.

Even hook training usually doesn't seem really required most of the time (a few particularly agressive feeders I have excepted).

If you don't want an animal to associate the cage door opening with getting food, open the cage door many, many, more times than you feed them; you should be doing spot checks daily anyhow. This isn't as viable for lizards that may need near daily feeding of course but for snakes, it's one of the most overthought things I've seen.
That's not even touching on problem feeders that will get stressed at being moved and handled.
TL;DR--I agree, and I think the whole "feed in a different cage" idea needs to go quietly into that good night.
#1 Varanid on 2011-01-02 00:53 (Reply)
I couldn't agree with you more, Varanid. I've used hook training for years on our snakes and have never once had a problem. Years ago, in the beginning, I did what the "experts" said and put the animals in a different enclosure for feedings. All that managed to accomplish was excessively long feeding days and I was bit numerous times, trying to return snakes back to their enclosures.
#1.1 SnakeLadyK (Homepage) on 2011-01-02 13:51 (Reply)
As always, I love being the odd ball. I'm not saying feeding inside the enclosure is wrong. In my opinion it's what works best for the snake. When we started keeping six years ago, we were told to feed outside of the enclosure. And that's what we do. BUT (and this will really get everyone in a tisy) we feed some of our snakes live. Yes, yes, I know, I know, I've heard it a thousand times. We do it as safely as possible. But some of our older snakes refuse to convert and I refuse to withhold food. So with feeding live, we can't feed them inside their enclosures. The ones that are on prekill, we've attempted them inside the enclosure and have had no luck. So we will continue with what keeps our snakes happy and healthy. In six years, we've only had one snake regurgitate, and we suspect it's because we bumped him up a size. We've also never had bites while in the enclosure. It may be unnecessary, but it's what works for them.
#2 pythonaddict on 2011-01-18 21:03 (Reply)

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