First Snake advice needed.

arevenant said:

Hahaha.
All I was trying to get at was that moving its feeding location will have absolutely no impact on its anticipation of who feeds it, snake brains don't work like that.

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You must have misunderstood me, what I meant was feeding inside tank v outside, where feeding outside the tank will help reduce the snake associating anything (hands + fingers) that enters its tank with food.

snakemisstress said:

You must have misunderstood me, what I meant was feeding inside tank v outside, where feeding outside the tank will help reduce the snake associating anything (hands + fingers) that enters its tank with food.

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Yeah a lot of people use that theory, but think about it; when it's hungry and you go to get it to feed out side, what do you do?
You reach into its enclosure and take it out with your hands/hook whatever. You're still using the same actions as feeding it in the enclosure...

Ideas

I have a murray darling I started with this type due to their reputation of being one of the best first snakes...like you I have asked for a vise on this forum and had some great advise...the end of the day take all the info and mull it over ..for me I love to put my hand in his enclosure pick him up I beleive if that's all I do he won't expect anything else...I feed him in a different container with paper in the bottom from his previous feed....as son as he goes in he behavior changes as if he knows it's feed time I wait ten fifteen minutes while his food defrosts next to his box when you open the lid he's ready to go ...I wait between 30...60 min. Before carefully placing him back in his enclosure...I then wait 2. Days before handling him again...he's kept at a constant temp. Ans he poos 5..6 days latter. I feed at night and the same day at this stage he is just 12 months old about 1200 long....they are great snakes.. If you keep your hands clean make sure he knows your there that's all you can do...the last 3months I have been handling him every day for at least 10mins and just lately up to an hour. I know the next snake I get might be a different story but I will look on this forum for advice....sorry this went on a bit ..

no worries trdt58 and thank you to everyone else that has helped and all posts have been taken on board so far.
i have taken advice from all over the place, this forum included. it seems like everyone has something different to say and a different opinion.
i have decided to cage feed my snake as i think its easier and less stress on the snake. i use my hook to get him out and onto the hand and this is working very well for me so far.
he has settled down on the handling side off things in which im still learning.
im still also learning his body language. my confidence is slowly building in handling him and gets better with every handle.
i think he is fully settled in, and am now just waiting for his first shed while hes been with me.
such a big learning curve and doing it on the run.
being my first snake i just want to try and get it right and i think im getting there.
i cant stress enough how much this forum has helped and has eased some nerves and im sure that i will still have some very stupid questions still to come so be gentle.
reading books only answers the very basics of reptile keeping and this forum helps me connect to people with real experiences so thank you again everyone,
Ted

Glad to read he is settling in, I had my (first) snake for 6 or 7 weeks before I attempted to handle him, but he was a 5 ft Murray Darling and I had no idea how to get him out of the enclosure to handle him. LOL...so I read articles, watched Youtube vids and then finally got the courage to just grab him out. He's still my favorite snake, a great handler, easy to read (now I know what to watch for)....so don't feel silly asking any questions, we all have to start somewhere, no one was born knowing how to do these things.

Hey Ted,
From what I've gathered across the forums, snakes are generally pretty chilled out. You can have as structured a routine as you like, or shake it up a little. Personally, my snakes get fed at different times every week it seems, depending on what else is going on on feed day. It's usually anytime after work, say 4pm-ish, til 10pm, a couple hours after their daylights have gone off. Admittedly, tonight was their first after light feed, but they all took their mice even quicker than usual, probably because they were all active. I like to move the times because then their not expecting it at a certain time (or if my day goes haywire it doesn't matter). My Jungle Jag is super chilled, I can get him out to handle, put him back and he still feeds great. The only bit of routine they may notice and catch onto is that I always take their water bowls out to clean, then replace and refill them before a feed, I do it while the mice thaw. By the way, they are all enclosure fed and still cool.
Anyway, just hope this settles your mind a bit that there is no strict way to do it, as long as your snake is happy