I know you're not supposed to hand feed a snake, but does it count as hand feeding if it's the back end of the snake wrapped around your fingers while it eats? If I don't let Ky-Lin keep her tail around my hand, she wraps too tightly around her prey and ends up with her tail in her mouth every time. I'm worried that she'll hurt herself if I let her eat without holding on...If I let her hang on, she finishes up just fine with no "tail in the mouth syndrome", and the only time she ever mistook me for mouse was when the mouse was in the feeding box next to me before I could hold her down there, and she smelled it, getting all excited...

Do you think it's ok? It's not really the same as "hand feeding", is it? Or is it?

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~Juliane~

I don't think it's a big problem. As long as you stay still while she's eating and as long as she's comfortable with that and not stressed out by it; I don't see why it wouldn't be OK.
Anybody else see a problem?

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Andrea

No it's not really the same as hand feeding, although you do still run the risk of the snake mistaking you for food and also she might learn to associate your hand with food.. my recommendations would be to try and get her to eat without your assistance - how many times have you tried her without letting her wrap around you?

Try her with the food and keep a watchful eye the first few times, but it is rather unusual for her to get her tail each time and think it's food - we've experienced our king snakes biting themselves several times.. none of the other snakes do this and I think the kings are a law on their own -they either have a very poor aim or they are just such good feeders that their over-enthusiasm causes them to bite themselves.. whatever, they always let go and focus back on the mouse and eat that.

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"If you know everything you may as well blow your brains out because the reason for existence is to learn more everyday." - Mark O'Shea, 2004

I've tried her four or five times, and it's not that she aims and strikes her tail, it's that as she reaches the last of the fuzzy, her tail is tightly wrapped against it, and it goes into her mouth too along with the last of the fuzzy. She doesn't seem like she'd stop there either, which is what worries me...I still have visions of her swallowing her own tail until she *pops* into nothingness...

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~Juliane~

I have corns that I routinely hold the tail end while feeding them. With your Childrens you would probably not have a problem. I wouldn't get the habit started with a larger snake or a more aggressive feeder or it is possible that you might get bitten.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!