Miami Animal Police!

[iceman25]

Did anyone see it where this guy is trying to catch a King Cobra using dead Ball pythons :evil: :x I hope that he did not kill them for this purpose

[Wizill]

i missed that one. i usually don't miss anything on animal planet. damn.

[iceman25]

It was really upseting to see him use our pythons as bait. Could he not have used a rat or something.

[Wizill]

what the hell was he doing using a bp as cobra bait anyway? if he was in miami, it was obviously a captive cobra... i've heard of cobras eating all sorts of stuff in the wild, snakes included, but i have a feeling the owner of the cobra wasn't feeding it bp's.

[iceman25]

This wiseguy who lives in the outskirts of Florida had three snakes escape on him. On regular cobra, a spitter, and a King. I dont think this clown should be owning snakes in the first place much less venomous and magnificent ones as the Cobra. As for why the snake expert was using Balls to catch a King, I have no clue. Must have a few screws loose or something!

[Marla]

Well, Kings do eat other snakes and the balls might have already been dead from bad shipping or RIs or something.

[JLC]

Actually...from what I've read, it's not that uncommon for people to buy dead bp's to feed to their kings. Hundreds of them die in every imported shipment and they are sold off for a couple bucks each at king food. Not a pleasant thought...but then again, most of the whole predator/prey thing IS usually unpleasant.

[Mike]

even if they buy dead imports...its still wrong. thats horrible husbandry. do you buy dead, parasite filled rodents? no. thats craziness. also, i doubt hed lure out a cobra with food. it was probably stressed from trying to be captured. but then i didnt watch the show. did it work?

[JLC]

That's a good point, Mike, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe a long freezing process kills the parasites before they're used as food? The next time I see anyone discussing that fact, I'll bring up that question about husbandry and parasites.

Freezing definitely DOES kill the majority of parasites and harmful bacterium in feeders. Also, King Cobras are almost completely ophidiophagic, so I doubt he'd show any interest in mammalian prey.