Ive had 2 snakes injured by rats,nockem out,frozen or the snake gets a cheeseburger for supper.Thats it.You can go years without something bad happening but its the 1 time a rat bites an eye and you wont forget it.How somebody can not take that for enough good reason not to is beyond me.Not aimed at anyone person here.Also if you think of leaving a rat or mouse in over night in hopes it gets eaten,forget it,I had a rat chew off 5 inchs of the back of one of my first snakes because I was told to do that by the shop bastard.Like I said,it only takes one time to ruin the rest.Not worth it to me.
Feeding "Live" VS Feeding "Not Live"
- Thread starter madwhitehat
- Start date
frozen/thawed for my snakes. freezing can kill any parasites that may be on the rodent and now worries about having a full rat take a big bite out of an expensive snake.
i am so thankful for MFK. four pages and not one idiot saying "but live is natural".
i feed prekilled/incapacitated, simply cause there arent frozen rodents around here. i would never feed live. i totally agree with what madwhitehat said about feeding live harmless feeders. i fed live crix to my manylined [gold] skink, no problem with it. i'm keeping a herp pet, feeders are feeders.
i feed prekilled/incapacitated, simply cause there arent frozen rodents around here. i would never feed live. i totally agree with what madwhitehat said about feeding live harmless feeders. i fed live crix to my manylined [gold] skink, no problem with it. i'm keeping a herp pet, feeders are feeders.
I think its bestest fo the mouses to be alive to be fed cuz the snakes like them alive better and it is howwhen in the wilderness they would be catching the mouses anyways so in your house you should make it like in wilderness and give the mouses to the snakes still alive and it would be good.
madwhitehat;1956444; said:
Was going to make my own post, explaining why I'm such a strong advocate of feeding fresh kill/pre kill/frozen. But, this post here sums everything.
Even with "supervised" live feeding, you still run the risk of your reptile being injured. Then what?...vet bills, infection and/or possible death. Why run the risk of having your snake injured?
Think feeding live is "no big deal" or "ok, cause it's supervised"? Have a look at one of my rescues. This girl, who's over 8' long, was kept by a guy who thought it was cool to feed her live rabbits. He did supervise, so he says. These are just a few of her 20+ scars.
My other Red Tail...a 6.5' female, is blind in one eye, cause of an attack by live prey.
Now, it just may be me, but I'd prefer these things not to happen to my snakes. IMO, you're not a responsible keeper, if you're feeding live prey.
Always p/k or f/t when I can. Certainly this is difficult with small insectivorous lizards but always with rodent feeders. I had one snake (a w/c retic) who would never take dead prey, she was pushing 12' and pounding live jumbo rats before I had to adopt her out due to a move. Last contact I had with her new owner he said he'd gotten her on f/t rabbits which was impressive; I'd tried and never had any luck.
I haven't read the entire thread (and didnt really feel the need to), but I'l just put in my $.02.
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Live is natural. Snakes have been attacking and killing live prey for thousands, if not millions of years. Getting a scratch or a bite every once in a while isn't going to kill them. Heck, I cuaght a huge ratsnake several weeks ago, and this big fella had more than a few scars on him....they all looked very well healed....even without someone putting neosporin on it!!!
However, I do feel there's right ways and wrong ways to go about it. Yes, if you leave your snake in a box overnight unsupervised with a rodent, yeah, it probably will get ravaged. But many snakes will take live prey readily, and the rodent is rarely alive for more than 10 mins. And there are other factors to consider before attempting live prey; is the snake's habitat set-up properly, are the temps ideal, are you feeding inside or outside the cage, is the snake even hungry, is it about to shed, etc etc??? Believe it or not, not every snake wants to eat weekly and nor should they.
In general, I prefer live over pre-killed or frozen/thawed. My BP eats live and in the 15+ yrs Ive owned him, I can only recall 2 instances where he got tagged and both occasions were where he had wrapped around the rat in a particular way that allowed it to knaw on him while he constricted it. Nowadays, I have two general rules when I feed live; A.) I ALWAYS supervise the feeding, and B.) if the snake hasn't shown interest in 10 mins, the rat comes out.
Also bear in mind that many professional snake breeders (i.e. guys that actually do this for a living and have done so for over a decade) continue to feed their animals live prey. These are people who have hundreds if not thousands of snakes in their facilities. They feed once a week, so do the math; they all say they hardy ever (if at all) have ever encountered a rodent attacking a snake. Don't believe me, call/email them yourself and ask; Brian Barczck from BHB, Ralph Davis, Bob Clark, Tom Burke, Robert Applegate, Tracy Barker, etc etc. This tells me that its not a matter of the rat being aggressive or whatever. Its a matter of improper feeding methods and not keeping the animals properly to where they are wanting to eat. The bottom line is that if the snake is healthy and hungry, and you feed them properly, live prey is not an issue.
Having said all that, I will say that I currently feed F/T prey to most of my collection. The only reason is that it is cheaper to order them online as opposed to buying live prey every week at the LPS.
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Live is natural. Snakes have been attacking and killing live prey for thousands, if not millions of years. Getting a scratch or a bite every once in a while isn't going to kill them. Heck, I cuaght a huge ratsnake several weeks ago, and this big fella had more than a few scars on him....they all looked very well healed....even without someone putting neosporin on it!!!
However, I do feel there's right ways and wrong ways to go about it. Yes, if you leave your snake in a box overnight unsupervised with a rodent, yeah, it probably will get ravaged. But many snakes will take live prey readily, and the rodent is rarely alive for more than 10 mins. And there are other factors to consider before attempting live prey; is the snake's habitat set-up properly, are the temps ideal, are you feeding inside or outside the cage, is the snake even hungry, is it about to shed, etc etc??? Believe it or not, not every snake wants to eat weekly and nor should they.
In general, I prefer live over pre-killed or frozen/thawed. My BP eats live and in the 15+ yrs Ive owned him, I can only recall 2 instances where he got tagged and both occasions were where he had wrapped around the rat in a particular way that allowed it to knaw on him while he constricted it. Nowadays, I have two general rules when I feed live; A.) I ALWAYS supervise the feeding, and B.) if the snake hasn't shown interest in 10 mins, the rat comes out.
Also bear in mind that many professional snake breeders (i.e. guys that actually do this for a living and have done so for over a decade) continue to feed their animals live prey. These are people who have hundreds if not thousands of snakes in their facilities. They feed once a week, so do the math; they all say they hardy ever (if at all) have ever encountered a rodent attacking a snake. Don't believe me, call/email them yourself and ask; Brian Barczck from BHB, Ralph Davis, Bob Clark, Tom Burke, Robert Applegate, Tracy Barker, etc etc. This tells me that its not a matter of the rat being aggressive or whatever. Its a matter of improper feeding methods and not keeping the animals properly to where they are wanting to eat. The bottom line is that if the snake is healthy and hungry, and you feed them properly, live prey is not an issue.
Having said all that, I will say that I currently feed F/T prey to most of my collection. The only reason is that it is cheaper to order them online as opposed to buying live prey every week at the LPS.
In cases such as AW2EOD, Im still skeptical. Unless you were there for the feedings yourself, and can testify for exactly what happened, its hard to say why that boa got injured the way it was.
- the guy coulda been lying about actualy supervising the feedings
- the prey rabbits coulda been too large
- or all the factors I mentioned in my previous post; i.e. was the snake kept properly, etc etc
- the guy coulda been lying about actualy supervising the feedings
- the prey rabbits coulda been too large
- or all the factors I mentioned in my previous post; i.e. was the snake kept properly, etc etc
