Should I feed my royal in a seperate tank?

[RoyalRazer]

Help please!!!
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[eddie]

YES!!!
Now here's why.
Feeding in their home tank leads to possible ingestion of substrate, which can cause problems such as anal retentiveness, it can get stuck in the snakes mouth and can lead to abcesses, infections and mouthrot type probs.
Another problem isn the scenting of their surroundings by the food item, which has led to many non food items being eaten by snakes, such as towels, sheets, heating pads, etc.

Some will also say that it will get the snakes trained through Pavlovian response , to associate the opening of their enclosure with food, which can lead to an SFE although you may not have food on you at the time.

Anyone else?

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[snakester]

I don't feed my royals in a seperate tank and they do just fine. They have always been fed in their tanks and since they are such picky eaters, I don't feel like it's hurting anything by feeding them in their tanks. I'm just happy when they eat [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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[RoyalRazer]

Snakester has got a point but, i will try it out.
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[DogVsRaptor]

I always feed my bp in a tub, i fed him once in his tank and he seemed confused, like he didn't even know
what he was supposed to do. But when he's in the tub, he starts looking around and seems to become excited,
then he eats.
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	Ball Python The Ball Python (Python regius), also known as the Royal Python, is a ground dwelling snake native to the savannahs and rain forests in western Africa, predominatly the countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

[slaponte]

My three young ones eat in their tanks (for now). Reasons :

A) I am still using newspaper as substrate, so that isn't a big issue.

B) If I pick them up right before feeding, they get too excited (read #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&!) and don't eat!

I got them eating every 3 or 4 days, which is quite a success for what I read here. As they get used to me, I got them (last time) to take the mice/rat pups while I hold them from the tail. They would not eat before if I was in the room, let alone with my hand in there.

If the advice for non-feeding BPs is not to handle them as much and let them settle in, I don't see how moving them to a strange place right before feeding can help at all.

This is all my opinion based on my experience, and I know about nothing at all, so take it for what is worth.
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	Ball Python The Ball Python (Python regius), also known as the Royal Python, is a ground dwelling snake native to the savannahs and rain forests in western Africa, predominatly the countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

[phaedrus]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> I got them (last time) to take the mice/rat pups while I hold them from the tail </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

Slap, aren't you just asking to get tagged by doing this? Shouldn't you be using tongs?
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[slaponte]

The answer to the question is yes. So far, no problem. The BPs are babies still so if I do get tagged I think I should survive it... [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Chica is now 1 year old and eating Jumbo Rats. In a way, that helps since the prey is so large she would have to come waaayyyyy around it to get to me.

But I am shopping for tongs at the next show. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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	Ball Python The Ball Python (Python regius), also known as the Royal Python, is a ground dwelling snake native to the savannahs and rain forests in western Africa, predominatly the countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

[phaedrus]

Speaking of tongs, what are recommendations? Metal, plastic, wide, chopsticks? I dunno. I need to pick some up as well. Haven't had a problem, but you never know when one day Bill or Ted will go &quot;picky&quot; on me.
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[CelticWench]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> Speaking of tongs, what are recommendations? </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

We use long, metal hemostats to feed our RTB. They give us enough room to stay out of strike range while allowing us to get a good grip on the food. You can find them at most &quot;head shops&quot; or stores that sell tobacco products, like Pipe World.
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[phaedrus]

Thanks, CW! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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[eddie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> I don't see how moving them to a strange place right before feeding can help at all.

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

A lot of times, the scent from previous meals is still prevelant in the feed boxes so it helps trigger the feeding response.
One of mine won't eat in the tank, but will eat in the feed box if he food is perfect.
I have no idea what perfect is as it changes from week to week....

But my smaller one will eat in any manner, such as, I can be holding her, offer her a rat, and she will gingerly pick it up and coil it, then eat. Very odd for a ball, but she hasn't refused yet.


Slap, you said you're feeding every 3 - 4 days?

Opinions vary, but that may be a little too often.
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[slaponte]

Thats on the BPs. They would't take (what I thought) was the right size meal, only smaller ones, so I figured I will go smaller more frequent and once I get them eating regularly I will increase size and decrease frequency. They are at rat pups now at about 4 to 5 days, and seem hungry every time.

I am almost ready to strech it to 6 or 7 days, and move up one size. They are big enough for the prey, I was just trying to setup regular feeding.

With one of them I had to go back to pinkies/hoopers (2 per feeding), back up to mice, now going for rat pups. I rather they eat several small preys than not eat at all.

Funny, Ryoko (the &quot;runt) strikes and grabs great, but several times has failed to kill the rat pup (lack of experience?). She then releases and then she won't touch it anymore. If I kill it, forget it, she won't touch it either. This is the one I had to backup to hopers (2 per) and move back up. Last time she took a regular mouse.

As I posted in another thread, I am also getting them used to the routine and my presence so I can switch them to F/T soon.
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	Ball Python The Ball Python (Python regius), also known as the Royal Python, is a ground dwelling snake native to the savannahs and rain forests in western Africa, predominatly the countries of Ghana, Togo, and Benin.

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.