My how the rats squealed....

[EyeLashViper]

:shock: Well,
I fed my Apok and Oracle their first rats and it was indeed eyeopening - This was their first feeding on live rats so I first scented the rats by holding them with the adult mice that were slated to be fed to Cypher and Trinity ( Trinity seems to have not recognized that rats are a prey item yet, she will totally ignore them ) and then introduced them to my big male and female in their respective feeding boxes. The reaction was immediate and frightening. Both Ball Pythons seized their rats and immediately began constricting. The rats screamed and struggled futilely for about 30 seconds before succumbing to the steel hard loops of the Ball
Pythons.

I watched carefully to see that they were able to ingest the much larger rats with no problem and have continued to monitor my BPs to make sure that there has been no regurgitation problems. So far so good. I now have to see if I can tempt Trinity into accepting a rat - she IS big enough but her search picture/scent recognition is geared for large adult mice. She has not put one and one together and come up with "RAT" as far as her prey targeting goes. Well, snakes are NOT mental giants I would suppose... :wink: Cypher is still kind of a small guy and I really dont think he is gonna be a real big Ball Python anyhow...he might stay on adult mice for good.

EyeLashViper

[gen]

The rats screamed and struggled futilely for about 30 seconds before succumbing to the steel hard loops of the Ball
Pythons.

Um, this is one of the reasons I don't feed live, that sounds horrible. Why are you feeding live?

[FourFeathers]

Personally, I don't care to feed live myself.

The risk of injury to the snake is not worth it. I feel it's best to humanely euthanize the prey, or at least put it to sleep with co2. No injury to the snake and it's less traumatizing for the prey.

Just my 2 cents.

[Ginevive]

I can tell of my experiences with feeding live, which should be enough to convince any reasonable person to not do it again. When I got Gunther a year or so ago, he was eating live mice at the store, so I continued to feed live. One time, even though the mouse was "stunned" by me by whacking it against a table, the mouse still managed to bite the snake while he was constricting it, on the side of his neck. The poor snake recoiled in pain and surprise, and actually would not eat for a few whole months after that. I had to leave dead mice in there overnight to get any feeding response from him. Luckily, there was no bleeding/scarring from the bite, but I think that it left harmful mental damage that had to be the cause of him going off-feed. I have gotten him to accept f/t rat babies now, but he is still my most "iffy" eater.

[sophie42204]

I agree, f/t is the safest most humane way to go. It's at least worth the effort to try to convert to f/t. I've heard of the occasional few that simply will not be converted, but in most cases it's a relatively easy transition. If not f/t, at least try p/k...live prey is not worth the risk IMO.

[Smulkin]

At least go p/k man just don't play roulette with live.

[Brandon.O]

Thats one of the main reasons i switched from live to p/k , i cant stand to see the poor mouse suffer, even if it is just for a few seconds. I would rather give it a good wack and not have to worry about my snake getting hurt and plus i dont feel like a bad person after every feeding.

[elevatethis]

I think that the live vs dead feeding debate will be an active topic as long as snakes are kept in captivity. There are a LOT of people out there who feed live, for whatever reasons. I got my bp from a set store, and even though they specialize in reptiles and know tons about husbandy, live feeders are a cash cow for them and had me feeding live until I came here and learned the risks involved, and the benefits of feeding p/k or f/t prey. Lets be honest, its pretty thrilling to watch a live feeding. Hopefully its not like you get satisfaction from seeing a rodent get killed- its not about that hopefully- but more of your own little piece of nature going onright before your eyes.

F/t or p/k is the safer, less thrilling way to go about feeding, and is practiced by more experienced keepers whom have had that thrill wear off a little and are more focused on safetly, health, and longevity of their pets.

But for those who still want to feed live, as I'm sure you already know- use extreme caution and don't you dare look away until that rodent turns into a lump in your boid's belly. And be prepared to intervene quickly if you have to. I think having to subdue a struggling rodent is much worse than quickly bashing it on a table. Have any of you ever had to basically strangle a biting rat because your snake only wrapped around its legs and left the whole upper body to do as it pleases? Its isn't ANY fun at all.

[Anonymous]

I get a thrill from watching my snakes eating F/T, I don't know if its the same for you guys.
The risk of feeding "Live" is to great for my beautiful snakes

[Smulkin]

I hear ya - very good points of course. For larger snakes it is also a good idea to try to diminish contricting behavior for future safety concerns. Our Af Rock Neph is going to be a beast eventually - and I'd like her to be as used to eating pre-killed as much as possible so she no longer feels the need to constrict nor associates it with feeding activity. Acouple of our balls and black blood have developed a very non-chalant approach to feeding time - namely just sidle on up to the rat and start swallowing - the black blood has just held up his head with mouth open like a baby bird a couple of times. Sure it's not exactly "the thrill of victory and the agony of de feet" but I prefer to think I am feeding them for health and growth as opposed to a form of entertainment.