It seemed so wrong, but felt so right...

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Originally Posted by STEW

Next time just hold them by the tail and step on their heads. Or like twirl em around like a helicopter real fast and sling em into the wall first.

You just argued with these knuckleheads for 12 pages (insanity at best). They are just worried about bad press and looking bad.... boo hoo. Give them a tissue.

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Way to garner support from the members!

WOW, this thread grew fast lol. I don't see any problem with feeding live. It seems more natural IMO but none of this is natural so who are we kidding? Anyhoo.. I have been feeding snakes a lot longer than I have owned one. I've never had a mouse cause any injuries but I have had a rat bite a red tail. I felt so irresponsible and upset. I flick the mice now (like you would a bug of something) on the back of the head. It doesn't usually kill them but they always knock out or are stunned long enough for the snake to be interested and eat it. It's kind of sad but they usually twitch hardcore after this so the snake has a pretty good stimulant still. (i am always getting new babies and have to work a few weeks to get a good feeding response) I think that's better than crushing their face or their feet though..

For rats I have trouble doing this though.. Mice are little bastards IMO and I feel less mean in hurting them. (please don't flame me XD just being honest) But rats are cute to me. Its harder for me to do it, but they really are more dangerous. I try to kill them as respectfully as possible with a quick neckbreak. After seeing one of the snakes get bit, its hard to feed without some sort of worry.

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Originally Posted by reptidude1

We are worried about the press because with all the bills coming around to ban our pythons bad publicity will just make it a lot worse. It will make all of us snake keepers look evil

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Wake up, the bills arent comming around because of the way we kill the mice.

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Originally Posted by Jenn

Way to garner support from the members!

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Im way passed that and really dont care to be honest.... I cant stand people mounted on their high horse behind a computer screen anyways.... If you feel one way and I feel another, who gives a crap.... What makes your way any better.

wow.....so much drama!

As i see it....Its your snakes, your money, your descions.

Do what you want! Dont let others make you feel bad, or tell you what to do!

Good luck!

So I skipped most of the pages becasue I sense a lot of drama.

Anyways, as a direct reply to the OP...

You don't have to worry about your snakes being scratched. Those little nails are not going to go through snake skin. Getting bitten is a real danger though. But instead of "crushing" the face, which I am not sure if that's what you meant. I imagine an imploded face with broken bones and and bloody mess. If you feel the snake might get bitten, just use the tongs to hold the face a way or as just a barrier.

I will not question your reasoning for switching. For each there own in that regard. I was more concerned with the treatment of the prey item.

Thanks.

Ok, I have read through maybe 80% of this thread. I can understand your reasons behind not wanting to feed f/t. It does suck to have thawing rodents and having them in your freezer. (My mother in law really likes rats so when she sees them thawing out, she always gives me one of those "Awww, poor rattie." things.)

If you want to feed live, great! More power to you. I have nothing against feeding live. I switched to f/t mainly for the ease of it. I have a huge freezer I keep all my feeders in. I thaw what I need out (so far I'm only keeping a weeks worth at a time in the freezer) and offer. So far, all but 1 snake takes f/t no problem. I don't even warm them up to body temperature.

But anyway, there is nothing wrong with feeding live, as long as you supervise every feeding. What I used to do is place the feeder in view of the snake. The snake would strike usually before I had a chance to set the feeder down. :rolleyes: If the snake struck in an odd place and the rodent had control of its mouth, I would simply stick my tongs in the rodents mouth. The rodent would chew on the metal tongs and within a few seconds would stop chewing. Now, I don't mean shove the tongs all the way in its mouth. Just offer one side of the tongs and let it chew. I use metal so I don't have to replace them. I would then move onto the next snake and repeat the process. There have been a few times, a while ago, that I held the rat's feet down. I didn't crush them with the tongs, but I simply held them gently with my fingers so they wouldn't kick at my snake. There is no reason to really intervene unless the feeder is trying to bite.

Next time, don't worry. You don't have to panic. The snake knows what its doing and you will be there just in case. Just let the snake do what it does best. :D

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Originally Posted by PolkaDotPenguin

Its your snakes, your money, your descions.

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Nothing against you polkadogpenguin, but I really hate statements like this. (I know this isn't what you meant whenever you said that. I just need to vent about it for a sec) Yes, we all have free will and can do what we want, but we should all try to have atleast SOME knowledge behind our actions.

A mother can't abuse her children just because they are hers. People can't abuse their dogs just because they are theirs. You can't look away from someone not properly caring for what the have assumed responsibility of.
(but at the same time you can't kick and scream about it. All we can give is input. Someone of you get a little too angry IMO)

Working at a petshop I can NOT stress enough how much I wish people would do some research before jumping into something. Between buying a new animal or breeding their current animal out of good health.

Not at all saying the OP was abusing anything btw.. speaking in generalities here.

Can we lock this thread? I am pretty sure everything that needs to be said has been said (multiple times)

:)

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Anyway, for ‘Fat Nico’ my adult BP, I had to crush the rats’ feet, to prevent it from scratching Nico. Muffin’s mouse was far worse however, I had to take my hemostats and crush his face to get him to calm down. I was terrified of these rodents hurting my animals, so the tongs never left my grip.

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Sorry, I'm in the camp that believes this was excessively cruel and unnecessary, regardless of how you feel about feeder animals.

If you're THAT concerned with your snake being injured by live prey, you shouldn't feed it to them imo. I realize you understand your mistake, Chocolate, but I hope that you take pains to avoid causing unnecessary suffering and fear in the future for your feeder animals.

Rats and mice deserve a bit of dignity too, and their deaths should be purely utilitarian in the interest of keeping the snake alive - it shouldn't be considered entertainment to watch a living thing die painfully, and I'd be worried about the psyche of someone who considered it funny or entertaining (not saying you did Chocolate, just making a general statement).

Wow.

Ok the OP is not using logic. "I am just so concerned with the animals safety" Then feed F/T. You have three things to consider when feeding your BP, whats best for your snake, whats best for you and whats best for the rodent. Now I order things like this, snake, rodent, me. You think you ordered, snake, you, rodent. But you really prioritized, you. You took a step backward for your snakes and are actively causing the rodents unnecessary suffering. Now I understand that you are worried about your snake getting bitten. Guess what F/T rodents don't bite, live ones due, and smashing their faces is just not a valid option unless your goal is to be cruel and inhuman. Your actions are a slap in the face to anyone that respects life or has struggled with needing to switch to live for a picky snake.

You smashed the rodents feet, THEIR FEET! Your snake comes out of the egg armored with scales to protect against appropriate sized prey scratches.

I couldn't even read the first page of posts. That just wrong. Shame on you. Learn how to prekill, feed F/T or take your chances with live. Stop torturing rodents.