with large reptiles burms, retics, condas, larger rtbs, afrocks, i think feeding outside of cage isnt safe. (learned from experience). the only problem i have with feeding in cage is substrate issue. for my rainbow boa i use sphagnum moss due to her high humidty needs, holds water well, keeps the high tropical humidity's, she loves burrowing in it, it is also asthetically pleasing. i dont want her ingesting it however. with my bps, and
rtb i use eco earth which makes a great bedding because it can be moisten or left dry however when you feed f/t the bedding sticks to the item leaving them with a mouthful of bedding thats not to tasty so that doesn't work, i originally had my burm on it but switched her to aspen after the eco earth feeding incident when she had a mouthful of bedding and i had to take a ticked off snake to the bathtub to rinse her mouth out not fun.
so for my burm i use aspen and newspaper underneath when its feeding day lift up the newspaper and bedding wipe cage down and put down new layer of newspaper down, feed her, wait 4 days( usually she has peed and pooped by then) and then put in her aspen bedding and new newspaper until next feeding.
really in cage feeding for any animal would be best on a newspaper only bedding, but after reading the artical on newspaper bedding how it caused the snakes to become lethargic overweight and in general unhappy, i cant remember if it was on
rtb or here, i wont just use plain newspaper.
with that being said it doesnt leave much choice unless you want a snake with a mouthful of substrate. so for the smaller guys, bps, rtbs, and brbs, its easier to feed in separate container, that can be washed and cleaned after every feeding.
if thier is a easier way than this by all means tell me as it would after all be easier but right now i worry about substrate ingestion and them getting a mouthful of it. as i said it wasn't fun having to wash my burms mouth out after feeding cause of substrate, surprisingly she didnt try to strike at me when i washed her mouth out and at that time in nov-dec her feeding modes were nuts even now she is different in feeding mode but that one time she was pretty patient maybe she new i was trying to help.
anyways i would love to hear thoughts and solutions.
