Please help. I don't understand. :(

[shelliebear]

So, I was on Youtube watching Burmese pythons eat rabbits and geese and all that. I absolutely love the videos, they're FASCINATING to watch, especially as I think I'd enjoy owning a Burmese at some point later in life (when I have the financial means to take care of it).
But, I saw one video that is stuck in my head. I keep having nightmares. I've fed live mice to my brother's ball python, I've seen videos--this ONE is driving me insane and depressing me.
It was a live chick, in a burmese pythons mouth. The python didn't constrict it--the chick was full alive, chirping and singing in the snake's jaws.
Is it just me, or could they have pre killed it? I understand a lot of snakes won't take F/T, but did it have to be a chick? And did they have to listen to it singing and chirping, fully alive, while it's getting digested?
It made me cry. I had to turn it off, and there's a twinge in my heart now.
I don't want to sound like a baby. I feed animals, and I understand it's nature. Usually when snakes kill I think it's a MUCH preferred death over something like a lion, because lions will chase and play with food, and just tear it piece by piece, alive or dead. I think snakes kill in a pretty humane way as compared to others. But I don't get why the little chick had to be fully alive while it was being swallowed. I don't even understand why the burmese didn't constrict it.
What happened? Can anyone offer any consolation? Do you think it hurt the chick really bad?
And were there other options? Or did the snake just have to eat, and that was the only appropriately sized food item?
Thanks a lot. I don't want to sound like I'm whining. I don't know why this video is messing with me so bad.
Shellie

[wolfy-hound]

Well, I'd have to say.. it's a chicken. Lots of us eat chickens, so just because it's fluffy and considered cute, it's still a chicken.

Could they pre-kill? Yes. Just like with mice or rats. It's possible that the snake wouldn't eat and that's the only thing it would take, and it wouldn't eat pre-killed. It's also possible that the owner just gets a thrill over seeing his snake kill and eat things like baby chicks. Normally the snake would have killed it, I'm sure, but sometimes they don't. I'm sure it died once it was in the throat from the compression.

I don't like anything to suffer, but to me, that's a mouse or a rat, or chick(en). I feed live to my snakes, but they get killed so quickly that it's over almost as fast as if I pre-killed. Normally I would think a chick would die very quickly when hit and constricted, so it may have been a fluke that the snake didn't kill it. Maybe it was used to FT chicks?

I do feed a lot of chicks to my monitors, all FT. I don't feed live to my monitors because they have a tendancy to take time to kill the prey, sometimes by bashing it around and shaking it. So I only feed FT, and if they seem to want to "chase" a prey, I drag it around with tongs, to simulate them needing to hunt and catch prey.

Wow.. okay so in short(which this post is not), I don't think you should feel any more sorry for a chick than for a rat. Both are living creatures. But it's not a normal thing for a snake to eat something alive either, so it was probably upsetting. I don't bother looking at youtube videos myself, because most seem to be feeding videos which don't thrill me, or stupid people doing things that make me want to post a comment correcting them, which frankly does no good because they don't care.

Sorry you got upset over it, but yes, people feed chicken to things, and yes, somtimes snakes fail to kill first. Usually distressing to see, and I worry about folks that find it entertaining to watch things like that(the live prey being eaten, not the chicken instead of rat).

[sarahlovesmiike]

Are you talking about the video where the owners placed a live chicken in a snakes mouth while it was swallowing another prey item?

[sarahlovesmiike]

OP - DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK But you can clearly see a rat tail sticking out of the snakes mouth. IMO this is just sick and people who get enjoyment out of it should not be allowed to own snakes.

[Sariel]

If thats the video shes talking about I saw that as well awhile ago and it made me angry too. That same person has tons of live feed videos up which I dont agree with to begin with.
Go ahead and live feed if thats your thing, but I just dont think it should be put on youtube for entertainment.

As for THAT video, there was no reason the chick should have been prekilled since it just placed in the burms mouth while it was already feeding, and prolonged the chicks suffering unnecessarily.

[wolfy-hound]

Yeah, if their just doing it for the thrill, I don't see the appeal. You could probably report it for animal abuse, but I also know there's plenty that tag every feeding video as animal abuse anyway. If it's graphic and unneccasary, don't click it and watch it. That just adds to their view count, and can even make YouTube offer them advertising because it's been clicked so many times. They don't care if you comment that it's wrong, they only care about views.

Give it a thumbs down, if you didn't know what it was going to be, but don't encourage other viewers, because it just encourages the same behavior(of posting the videos, I doubt the person wouldn't engage in the activity based on views on videos).

There's sick people out there.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Some snakes do take live literally it happens and if the prey is to small to constrict it will definitely happen.

My Colubrids tend to do that every now and than even with proper size prey I have learn to deal with it.

Now as far as chick goes and feeding them, yes chicks are cute but they are also feeders.

As a snake owner or even as a person you need to be able to dispatched yourself from prey or food.

I own pet chickens most of them still chicks at this time, does not stop me from eating chicken.

Now as far as videos goes well I never got into feeding pics or videos (I think we all know what it looks like when a snake it) however some people like it.

To me it just draws too much attention to us snake owners and not in a positive way, especially in that case, but than again it's YouTube ( lots of people there looking for attention and lot of people posting things in poor taste)

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

With some species of snakes, if they know a prey item is of no harm to them, it won't kill it. Wasting energy that way. My thinking is the burm knows it's of no harm and just kept swallowing, as opposed to freaking out.

[Nimitz87]

there was another video of it without the rat in it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnmV...eature=related

and a burm eating without constricting (too small?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4tmJUE4K5M



Chad