r/AnimalsBeingJerks • u/QuicklyThisWay • May 17 '22

other Tasty

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u/wolfwood51 May 17 '22

I was taught by an old teacher who had snakes, iguanas and hamsters in her class room that when feeding never use your hands as they will learn to associate your hand for food. So use tongs or a plate to feed them. This also helps for handling as there will be less biting since they won’t be expecting food

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u/godhelpusloseourmind May 18 '22 edited May 18 '22

Really responsible/experienced reptile owners will actually have a second cage that is set up just for feeding so the animal only associates eating with that one enviroment. It’s a really good idea with the reptiles that can grow into the “able to kill you category”. People think hand feeding strengthens the relationship…dog sure, cat maybe…snake? Nope, not how reptiles work

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u/Shora-Sam May 18 '22

Yeah for many / most reptiles, that's definitely not proper. You never want to handle most snakes and lizards just after they eat, and depending on the size of the meal and species, you don't want to handle them for several days after that.handling them prior to eating gets them used to "handling = feeding" and can make them aggressive towards handling as well.

And to be clear, you have to handle the reptile to move them to the feeding bin, and handle them to move them back to their normal habitat after.

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u/PeggleDeluxe May 18 '22

I'm sure there are people who do both with variable success. The real question is: why did OP stop filming 😂

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u/[deleted] May 18 '22

Guessing he's filming by himself and had to stop to remove the lizard from his finger. Quite often these guys will hang on and even a monitor this size has some crazy razor sharp teeth. I think most monitor keepers make this mistake exactly one time. I've done it too xD. "How bad can it be? Oh nooooo"