Snake Care Tips – feeding
I know that many people all over the world feed their snakes live food but this is not necessarily the best thing to do in captivity. We must remember neither animal the snake or the prey item is in their natural wild setting, they are both trapped in a box together. Snakes are not always hungry and it has been known for the prey animal to badly damage the snake by biting it, the prey animal is fighting for its life after all.
We don’t feed live animals to our snakes in the UK so if a snake is a difficult feeder we have to find ways around the problem, one simple solution is to dip the defrosted rodent into a bowl of hot water then present it to the snake, use a pair of feeding tongs unless you like getting bitten by mistake, the heat coming from the food item aafter being dipped in hot water is often enough to make the snake believe it is alive. One of the biggest mistakes that snake keepers make is to touch the food item with theirwarm hand and then put the hand near the snake, when the snake is in excited, feeding mode it cannot discriminate between your rodent smelling warm, live hand and a prey item.
It’s a good idea to use a separate box for feeding your snake. A plastic box with a fitted lid that cannot be opened easily – line it with paper place the snakes food inside with a pair of tweezers or tongs and then place your snake inside this prevents any rodent smell on your hands and your snake will get used to the idea of not being fed in its viv; by moving your snake each time this way it will always know your smell as opposed to a rodent and by handling it all the time it will never become nervous of you.
If you feed your snake inside its vivarium it could ingest some of the substrate by accident causing compaction in its stomach. It’s easy after the first excitement of owning a snake to neglect the need for handling it and just put the food into the tank and change its water – we need to remember the snake is living in solitary confinement without other animals around or weather, many people have brought their snakes to the sanctuary saying it suddenly started biting them, on investigation I found that the snake was not being handled anymore; large unknown hands suddenly coming into its home can become very scary – we must imagine how we would feel in the same situation, vivariums are prison after all.
For handling snakes read Tips on handling.