Food for thought?

Post date: Sep 16, 2013 8:20:28 PM

Tonight is one of our feeding nights.

We're still on our summer schedule of feeding all the snakes once a week but, with the number we have and the requirement to have animals available for each booking, it means we're operating two or three feeding groups.

The first thing we have to consider is whether we need to take snakes out, because they can't be moved for around 48 hours after feeding - so no Tuesday night supper if they're going to Scouts on Wednesday. Once we've worked out who's getting fed on a particular night, we have to estimate what each one will eat (chicks, mice of various sizes, rates, and occasionally - including tonight - quails), and how many. Then we take what we need out of the freezer (as far as possible we avoid live feeding) and arrange it on metal thawing trays.

I should, at this point explain that, when I say "we" I mean Emma and Luc. The first I generally know about it is when I get home from work, go to the kitchen to make a coffee, and find myself face to face with three or four trays of defrosting mice and chicks.

With just a couple of exceptions we do not feed the snakes in their own vivariums; that can lead to an animal linking the opening of the vivarium glass with being fed, and may increase the risk of the feeder getting bitten. Instead, we move them into the same boxes we use for travel and shows. Each snake gets put into a separate box, and the thawed out food is offered on tweezers. Some of the snakes will eat their food at room temperature but other want it blood heat, so we have our own variation of "boil in the bag". Some snakes will grab, coil and swallow their food immediately (Amber, Sandstone and Jade are the greediest), but others like privacy, so the boxes are stacked and covered with a dark sheet, and left overnight.

The following morning, we check through all the boxes to see if anyone hasn't eaten; there are usually one or two, perhaps as a prelude to going into shed, or perhaps because they just weren't hungry. The snakes that don't eat will be observed and, if they're not shedding, included in the next feeding round.

Of course, some of the food can take a substantial time to defrost, so that particular feeding will be put back a night. For example, Citrine's quails were taken out at the same time as the mice for the royal pythons this evening, but she won't be fed until tomorrow night - so she won't go to the Beaver Group we are visiting on Wednesday, but will be available for the weekend.

It's a major job, requiring a fair bit of planning. Obviously we also have to keep records of what frozen food we have bought and what we've used, otherwise we could find that we don't have enough to go around.

Jane