How to feed a Vietnamese Blue Beauty snake. Snake feeding gear.

How to feed your VBB will come down to your personal preferences. Here's what I use and why:

Glass jar. As I've had some trouble getting Furia to feed on frozen/thawed mice, I had to find a way to defrost my pinkies while keeping their original scent as much as possible. After trying several methods, I discovered the one that suits me and the beast the better. A closed glass jar will keep the mice's scent, will avoid contact with water if you put it in a casserole to heat and will prevent the mice from going bad if your snake refuses to eat. Put it in the fridge and call it a day!

Thongs. I have never enjoyed the idea to hold dead mice in my hands to feed it to my snakes, so I have used feeding thongs from the start [purchased off eBay, here]. I'd also rather The Fury doesn't associate my body scent with being fed, and that's just one way to ensure that. Again, it's a personal preference, many snake owners don't bother and have never had a problem.

Feeding bowl. I only use the feeding bowl (soap holder) in rare exceptions now, usually when I am in a hurry and don't have the time to feed Furia, then I just leave the pinkies in the bowl for her to find and eat. It prevents her from ingurging bedding and suffer from impaction. I don't really think it is mandatory, as snakes surely ingurge dirt and soil with their meals in the wild, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Until here, all I use when I feed Furia in her terrarium, which is being her personal favorite lately. Check it out:

            


Additional feeding gear (optional):

Back when I started with The Fury she was quite a picky eater, and I found I had more chances to succeed at feeding her when she was fed in a different enclosure.

Feeding R.U.B. This is something I never used with my corn but always did with my Vietnamese Blue Beauty hatchling.

Why? They are said to have such a ferocious feeding response that I worked to separate feeding and handling in my VBB's mind as much as possible.

So what I did is that I put all my feeding gear at hand, take The Fury from her terrarium, put her in the R.U.B. and fed her there. When she was done and her meals were down the lower half of her body, I put her back in her terrarium and leave her be for 48h, in order to allow her to digest peacefully. 


A snake handled while digesting can get stressed and regurge its meal, so it's really better to leave them to it ;)

Scale up!

M.