F/T vs Live

[TheHabit]

I kind of wanted to try feeding a live mouse next week, right now he is eating f/t. I thought it might be more stimulating for him to catch a live mouse and constrict it on his own. If he doesnt go for it then i could just go back to f/t, but if he likes it I'll probably just stick with live, seeing as at this point buying live feeder mice would actually be cheaper than buying f/t. Is it ok to switch to live from f/t as long as it is done safely?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Do whatever works for your snake and is convenient to you, just know that if you do switch back to live there is a possibility that your snake will never go back to F/T, so you need to make sure that this is really what you want.

As long as you feed responsibly live feeding can be done safely.

I feed over 100 live preys each month without any problems.

[JoshJP7]

If your snake is already taking FT then why make the switch? FT is much cheaper than live depending on your pet store. Around here a small rat is 3$ and if you get FT they are like 1$... Either way you can feed live or FT as long as your snake eats who gives a monkey hoot! ...

B-lo representing! Anywhere near Springville? Prolly not as its out in the middle of nowhere... my fiance is from there.

[mr86mister]

josh, where do you get your rodents from? I buy my live mice from Fairmount Aquarium for about $1.85. F/T from PETCO is roughly $1.60. So not to much of a difference. Just curious where you buy.

Mike

[JoshJP7]

I get rats for anything over 500g and theyre 3$ at fairmount. Every other week I get 2 mice for my 300gish snakes and thats even worse cause its then 4$ per snake... either way I spend 10-15$ a week on live and I can feed all my snakes for that price. I have an order for 120 rats coming in tomorrow from American Rodent and it was 160$ and that usually last about 4 months.

Mike - Not sure if you got your snake from fairmount but you might wanna have her popped/probed as they told me my snake was a female and its definitely a male.... just a heads up.

[darkbloodwyvern]

My local pet stores charge more for FT. I can usually get better FT deals from people online anyways. Nothing wrong with live, but be sure to have a vet you can take a yearly fecal sample to. Live mice can transmit internal parasites like pinworms and tapeworms. treatment is pretty easy, but can be a bit of money. Do what is best for your snake. i figured out that some of mine will go crazy of FT, just as much as live, so i feed FT for them. The pickier eaters get live. Just easier for me to deal with for the most part! I dislike breeding rodents and my landlord won't let me, and I don't like going every week just to feed my snakes.

[daniel1983]

Nothing wrong with live, but be sure to have a vet you can take a yearly fecal sample to. Live mice can transmit internal parasites like pinworms and tapeworms. .

Mammalian pinworms and tapeworms tend to not survive inside reptiles. Remember most parasites are host specific.

Do a quick little search on here for parasite info...Becky has posted some wonderful stuff.

[TheHabit]

If your snake is already taking FT then why make the switch? FT is much cheaper than live depending on your pet store. Around here a small rat is 3$ and if you get FT they are like 1$... Either way you can feed live or FT as long as your snake eats who gives a monkey hoot! ...

B-lo representing! Anywhere near Springville? Prolly not as its out in the middle of nowhere... my fiance is from there.

I'm about 15 minutes outside buffalo, in the 'burbs

[Houzi88]

I just got my Ball Python exactly a week and 1 day ago. So today is his feeding day! I fed him F/T last Tuesday and the PetCo has signs that say to only feed ball pythons F/T. But when I was watching "snakebytes" he said to feed baby ball pythons live. So Today I went to the pet store and bought a Cute lil mouse. IT was so adorable. I felt bad, but I want to have my snake strong and get a constricting work out.

So I put the snake in another container or what not and then I did that, "Let the snake smell that the prey is near, trick". And then I could tell he was looking around for it, so then I dropped in the lil cute mouse, and then my snake sat there a bit, and then BOOM! He bit and coiled around it and I made sure when the mouse was kicking it wasn't scratching my baby. Then it stopped kicking and then the snake un-bit the mouse and then I saw SOOOO much blood in his neck. It was crazy. Then he ate it and I thought that the mouse was WAY too big for him and that time, but he ate it.

I'm thinking about waiting an extra day to feed him because that mouse was Soo incredibly big for him (It looked).
<----I <3 when my snake sticks his tongue out like this.

[TheHabit]

I'm thinking about waiting an extra day to feed him because that mouse was Soo incredibly big for him (It looked).

Prey should be roughly the same size around as your snake is at it fattest part. If he got it down, I doubt it was too big