Feeding aggression

[sneakypete]

I have a wonderfully placid Olive, but like yours at feeding times he practically launches himself at the prey item with faint disregard for his own wellbeing. he will launch off branches or rocks and crash to the bottom of the enclosure. I have been bitten by him at feeding time but that was when I was using tweezers. Do yourself a favour and switch to the big stainless steel forceps available from the HerpShop (gee I should get kickbacks off Brian) they are available in sizes right up to 60cm, which for me leaves plenty of real estate between me and the rat to avoid strikes to your hand. I also find that the longer the forceps, the less you have to shake your hand to get the rat swinging, and as we all know snakes have poor eyesight and will strike at movement sometimes even bypassing the food item right in front of their snout to go for your hand if it is moving heaps. With three aggresive feeding Jungles and One ballistic Olive i have had much practise in this area. Forceps all the way for me.
Good luck with the feeding

 

[wokka]

I find forceps fidley when handling a 1 kilo food item, so I use bbq tongs with plastic/ribber ends on them available at kitchen shops.

 

[Blondie84]

I SOO need to get my hands on one of these feisty snakes. My MD will strike but she is by no means in a frenzy. I also use BBQ tongs as feeding time came around before I had a chance to buy specialised feeding tongs. The BBQ tongs work just fine for us for now anyway.

I also want my snake to be a snake so when it came time for my girl's 3rd feed at home, I just had to reach in and jiggle the pinkie a little bit, just to make her constrict... I will not have a pansey snake who thinks she will just be handed her food and wont have to work for it at all.

 

[JAS101]

some snakes i normally toss the food in on the tile , 9 out of 10 times the rat duznt hit the tile [ its amazing to see a snake smash a rat in mid air] . others i use the tong .