Feeding: In cage or out? Debate v. 1.0

[morti]

This is version 1 of the debate "Feeding: in cage or out?". What this thread is not is a place to come and insult, mock, degrade or put down members for their views. Engage the debate in the spirit in which it is meant to be debated.

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Now, have fun and educate the world of your views!!

[CraigC]

I keep true arboreals (ETBs). I feed in the cage. Well, in some cases it starts "outside" the cage. There is no issue for me with any type of "retained" aggression that could be associated with this practice. I am also of the opinion that removing them to a different "feeding" enclosure would be very stressful (for me in particular), even though I have removable perches. Also, I feed after dark and when they are in hunting mode (which is every night). I would be crazy to put a body part inside the cage to attempt removal. My body doesn't contain that much blood.

Craig

[HARTSOCK]

I have found it necessary to feed in the cages temporarily while I am building my rack systems. so far, it hasn't been a problem, not in the least. None of the snakes, from cornsakes to rtbs to a ball, none have shown aggression...as a matter of fact, the ball actually seems happy to have the lid taken off and waits for me to get him out now. I know when I take off the lid he is looking for food, but when my hand goes in instead of the hemos with a mouse, he happily obligeds and comes right out. Only one i have problems with cage aggression is my blood, but then it doesn't matter if she is in cage, on floor, in hand, atop the statue of liberty, she is grumpy (actually nasty, mean and hateful; but I love her too much to call her that outright!)

I have been bit getting out a boa to feed in bin because I was in a hurry and didn't wash my hands, which says to me they distinguish more by scent then just movement. Even the blood acts differently in the way she bites when it is my hand vs. prey. The only instance I have seen weird behavior is when the boa I mentioned above that bit me, when it was young and on papertowels due to mites. I fed it in the cage because I was in a hurry. It was a 20L (he was very young at the time) the mouse bleed alot and soaked into the paper towels. For quite awhile he stayed in "hunt mode", kept going back to that spot and searched and searched the cage. I waited till he settled down in the warm hide before I reached in to change the towels and once they were out, he was fine.

[telefrag]

I don't really handle my animals, so I feed in cage.
Have been doing it that way for a long time, and it has never caused any problems.
*yet*

[owen.richards]

with more then one snake in one cage...no, with just one, depending on substrate i dont see why not, i feed outside of the cage 90% of the time, but if i get a new snake i feed the first couple times in the cage to get em feeding good before i move to feeding in bins, everything has feeding bins, i even feed my geckos crickets in bins (worms in a dish in the cage) i used to be a strong believer that feeding outside of the cage will keep snakes from getting aggressive, but i dont feel so strong about that anymore, if a snake is hungry, it doesnt matter where it is, it will act hungry, i had a stretch during the summer where i couldnt get any rats for a couple weeks, lil miss piggy (Bindi) got hungry and turned evil, everytime i opened the cage she would get in strike position, and this was new cus she never is mean, she had also never been feed in her cage before, but she was sitting there striking, sure enough when i got ahold of a rat and gave it to her, all aggression stopped, i still feed in bins, because i like natural set-ups with eco earth bedding, and i still do believe that it helps keep them not as mean, like it makes sense, Bindi is completely perfect, but when i put her in a rubbermade bin, she turns evil, cus shes trained that that is where she gets food, so i imagine if i fed her in the cage she would adapt the same ideas

[stalk]

Originally Posted by owen.richards

with more then one snake in one cage...no, with just one, depending on substrate i dont see why not, i feed outside of the cage 90% of the time, but if i get a new snake i feed the first couple times in the cage to get em feeding good before i move to feeding in bins, everything has feeding bins, i even feed my geckos crickets in bins (worms in a dish in the cage) i used to be a strong believer that feeding outside of the cage will keep snakes from getting aggressive, but i dont feel so strong about that anymore, if a snake is hungry, it doesnt matter where it is, it will act hungry, i had a stretch during the summer where i couldnt get any rats for a couple weeks, lil miss piggy (Bindi) got hungry and turned evil, everytime i opened the cage she would get in strike position, and this was new cus she never is mean, she had also never been feed in her cage before, but she was sitting there striking, sure enough when i got ahold of a rat and gave it to her, all aggression stopped, i still feed in bins, because i like natural set-ups with eco earth bedding, and i still do believe that it helps keep them not as mean, like it makes sense, Bindi is completely perfect, but when i put her in a rubbermade bin, she turns evil, cus shes trained that that is where she gets food, so i imagine if i fed her in the cage she would adapt the same ideas

This is why I don't feed out of the cage. Your snake has now been conditioned to give a feeding response whenever placed in the tub. It knows 100% of the time it gets put in the tub, it gets fed. So you have to be wary of feeding response biting and constriction whenever you go near the tub.

As opposed to if you open the cage 100 times in one week (cleaning, replacing water, handling, etc) and feed it only one of those times, it won't associate 1/100th of the time = 100% of the time the cage opens, it gets fed.

In the beginning, I fed my snakes outside of their enclosure. As soon as I put them in the tub I had to dodge bites, and the only way I could get them back in their cage is picking up the container and dumping them back in the cage.

Ever since I started feeding in the cage, I have not had to worry about any feeding response bites. Defensive bites, sure, but defensive bites will happen whether you feed inside or outside the cage.

[Stargazer]

I have done it both ways and now feed in the cage. In my experience, I have observed no difference in aggression from feeding in the cage. I handle my boas a lot also, so they are not expecting a rat every time I reach my hand in. I found it more dangerous to feed outside the cage and then risk getting bit putting them back in (which happened a few times). This is just purely from my personal experience. Warning: If you feed in the cage, you should feed on newspaper or a place, etc. so they don't ingest substrate.