I belong to a forum for pet rat owners. One of the members has decided she wants to dedicate her time to banning live feeding in this country. As you might imagine the thread has now deteriorated to a large number of people saying that if a snake will not take p/k or f/k than it must be so badly acclimated to captivity that it should be euthanised or forcefed the remainder of its life.

Myself and another member were able to provide links to sites explaining how stressful force feeding is so I feel satisfied on that point. But for the euthanasia issue, does anyone on this forum feel this way? I'm guessing the answer is 'no'. I would like to respond to the thread with a logical argument why some snakes will only take live. Just saying they are 'picky' isn't exactly a well thought out rebuttal. Does anyone have any links with something more detailed or have any theories? Is there a way to explain to non-herp people thy that even if you warm up the prey and do the zombie dance the snake doesn't recognize it as food?

Thanks much for any help.