Feed Inside the Enclosure or Not....

I have heard so many arguments back & forth on reasons to not feed in an enclosure & reasons it is fine. I got a snake near the end of Aug, had trouble getting it to eat for a month so the petstore guy said feed it in his tank until he is consistently eating then feed him in a rubbermaid container with airholes or something similar. He is an excellent eater now, finally even eating F/K. We are going to be switching to F/T soon. He was very small & the guy referred to him as a baby in July but now he is so big that he is easily eating adult mice.....although he tries to eat them backwards. We have had no issues at all with him/her being aggressive. I always make my daughter wait atleast 2-3 days before handling him after a meal but the snake has never so much as flinched when she reaches in & picks it up. It seems like a very docile snake & everytime my daughter holds it it immediately snugs up against her silicone bracelet she wears,lol. I don't know if it likes the feel of it or if it is just comfortable because it is familiar (she nevers takes it off & it is a wider one) but it is funny how it wraps around it. So anyway, will continuing to feed inside the enclosure become an issue? We also only feed at night after his red light is on & if he is handled it is during the day & usually when he is already out cruising around so he is not disturbed from sleep.

I feed in seperate containers for 2 reasons. First, I have had feeding response issues( ie; open cage and get nailed becuase they are thinking food), and second is to avoid having any issues with ingestion of substrate. Never had the a problem with a ball in terms of the feeding response issue, but I do have a red tail boa that has to be got out with gloves and a hook, but he is fine once out. This is my own fault as I was feeding him in his cage for several years, due to being gone working for 2-3 weeks at a time and not haveing time once I got home, so that is my fault not his.

I feed my Ball Python in a separate plastic box, because I don't want his humus soil getting stuck all over his F/T rats and getting swallowed. Also sometimes he drags the rat around before getting into a good position to swallow it, and if it bursts open (it can happen) I don't want rotting guts all over his tank, branches, hides, etc. MUCH easier to clean and disinfect a plastic sweater box!!

As far as associating opening the tank with feeding, you can observe the snake's body language -- if he is in a tensed S-coil and doing that back and forth tennis-player sway, leave him alone or get him out with a hook!

My Ball Python is the sweetest thing on the planet, but on occasion, I've taken the hook because he seemed just a BIT TOO EAGER to be put into his feeding box.

i feed in the enclosure. people get afraid that your snakes are going to bite every time you open the tank because they learn to associate it with food. This only happens if that's the only time you open the tank! Think about it, if you handle them more often than feed them, why would they think that every time?

the only reason i see to use a seperate container is like one of the above posters said, if you have a substrate that can easily get swallowed and impacted.

I feed my corn snake in a separate container so it doesn't swallow some aspen shavings. I see there are different opinions on whether or not the snake will begin associating the screen coming off as food, but whichever one is true, I wouldn't want to take the chance.

why even take the risk of creating a tank aggressive snake? i personally refuse to feed in the enclosure and try to get everyone i know that has a snake to do the same. over all its preference, but depending on the snake, it may be an irreversable path to tank aggression.

with my carpet python i feed in a separate box (just the shoe box i got my new boots in) with my ball python i feed her in the cage. She is on reptile carpet so there is no risk of her ingesting anything she shouldnt be, and she is a very very picky eater. Once i switched her to f/t i couldnt get her to eat anything if she was put in a box, it just weirds her out i guess. I have never had any feeding errors w/ her either. with a ball python i dont think it matters all that much as long as there is no risk of your snake ingesting its bedding.