One of My Dums, Gandalf the Grey, Was in Feed Mode

[exwizard]

I opened the tub and out he lashed and missed. I then tried again. This time he caught my sleeve and let go. Undaunted, I reached in again and picked him up until he relaxed. He has never done this before and best I can tell, this being so close to feeding time and with me opening the tubs above him he figured it was time. My conclusion from this...

I need to handle my snakes more than I do so they don't equate opening tubs to feeding time.

[Lankyrob]

My experience is that handling less doesnt mean they associate opening of vivs with feed time. Some of my snakes dont get handled between feeding times yet apart from the scheduled feed day i can reach into any of them without a feedig response.

Once the rats are defrosting however even my corns go slightly cuckoo :)

[exwizard]

The rats defrosting does not factor in my case since I feed live. Lately most of the time when I open tubs, it's either cleaning day or feeding day. Cleaning day was last Saturday. Feeding day is tomorrow like clockwork. I will be changing feeding day soon to Sunday but that hasn't happened yet. The way I figure it, by going back to the way it was, when I handled them more often than just those two days, this association with feeding day won't be as strong.

[TeaNinja]

i have this little trick with my female dum because she's always hungry and would bite the hell out of me if i just reached in and grabbed her. i take this plastic hook and kind of rub it on her neck for a second so she knows its not something to eat, then i use the hook to scoop up her body and by then she knows it's handling time and not feeding time and i can just grab her.