I feel horrible. Has anything similar to this happened to anyone?

I don't want to scare you away from snakes but if it makes you feel this horrible you might want to think about the long run being a snake owner. It is a hurdle that has to be gotten over. If it doesn't I couldn't imagine feeling this way everytime you ahve to feed. The killing process usually takes less than a minute if the snake properly coils the mouse. Don't think I am trying to tell you to get rid of the snake please. I am just simply trying to point out that is you feel this way now there is no reason for you to go through this everytime you feed.

But the worst thing to do is to just put the mouse or rat in the freezer and let it die that way.

I love rats but have several times had to save my snakes from bites.
That is several out of several thousand feedings, it happens but thankfully not too often.

If I ever really had to kill a mouse, I would have to do it with CO2. The only way I could do it, painless and they just go to sleep.

I have only had to feed my BP twice so far because I have not owned him for that long. His previous owner used to feed him three live mice every two weeks. I did some reasearch and desided to change it to a med rat at the same schedual, but I didnt want oliver to be the next snake with a picture up here of him with some terrible wound from a rat bite. The place I went to only sold live rats, so I drove home sobbing the whole way (I used to own rats as pets) with the little guy in my passanger seat trying to get out of the little box he was in. My mum used to work at a petstore and she said that you just slam it against a wall hard and it instently kills them. So I get home and put Oliver in his feeding box and slam the box that the poor rat is in against a wall (Still, i am sobbing). Nothing in the box moves so I dump the rat with my snake. Oliver stikes the thing before it even stops bouncing but it was still alive! So, I had to go through the whole "Im killing this tiney thing" and then I had to listen to it squeel as Oliver killed it. I was sobbing for most of the day.

The last time I fed him my bf and I tried to find all the parts to make a CO2 chamber, but couldn't find a connecting piece (from the can to a hose) before my bf had to go to his night class. We ended up bringing the rat home and I stayed in the living room while he put it in a bag and smashed it (successfully) against a wall.

I'm really hoping that we can figure out the CO2 thing before next wed. :/
I know how your feeling and I'm really sorry that you had to go through that.

I'm sorry about that :( I can sympathize, sort of. I'm supposed to start working with mice at my work soon (I don't know HOW soon, it always seems to be up in the air) but I really, really, really am not looking forward to having to kill them :( I'm not squeamish about them, I just don't want to see them die. So far I've been feeding my BP f/t, and I'm okay with that, but I guess... I just don't want to be the one killing them. I know it's a really silly thing, because either way, someone killed them, but still. I can't help feeling bad. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

I totally feel your pain! I tried a few weeks ago to get my big, mice-only female ball python to eat a live weaned rat. No dice! And then practically nobody else wanted the poor thing, either--I must have show that little rat to four or five snakes before somebody would eat him. By then he was pretty freaked out, so he shrieked when my het pied finally grabbed him. At which point my husband looked up from the TV and said "What are you DOING to that poor rat?"

Ugh! So we're back to strictly f/t, and the mouse-only female can have her stupid frozen mice.

Perhaps I'm confused, or its 2am and i've been on a weird sleep schedule lately but...

I feel like a lot of you set yourselves up for this. Newer owners especially.

Ball pythons are pythons. They are perfectly capable of catching, killing and eating their own food. I think we forget that a lot of the time because they are our beloved pets and we want to do everything right by them.

I myself can't really see the necessity to feed P/K, therefor I would never offer that as a food option for my animals. I feel i am not qualified to humanly euthanize a rodent of any size, so i don't do it. (If i had access to a C02 chamber it would be different).

Offering live prey to a snake is perfectly acceptable. Offering frozen/thawed prey is perfectly acceptable. Not all animals will eat live. Not all animals will eat F/T.

I've fed live to some of my animals. It bothers me to hear their squeals of terror if my snake starts eating them without properly constricting them. Its horrible. Because of this, I either establish my animals on F/T or find them different homes.

hopefully this went somewhere, I don't mean to bash anyone's choice of food for their animals, i just find feeding live so much safer than P/K or needing to euthanize rats because they
-dont want their animal harmed
-dont want to have a live rodent in their home
-mom doesn't want to see live rodents
-etc

If you absolutely NEED an animal to eat F/T, get one established on F/T. There are many great breeders who will take the time to make sure a specific animal will take F/T for a buyer. Look for these breeders, they care about their animals and their customers. If you find the right animal for you, you won't have to worry about it having to cervically dislocate rodents or smash them in the head with a brick or against a wall or.. etc.

something something darkside..something something complete
(cinderbird signing off for the evening, SO TIRED)

I think alot of snake owners have been through something similar. I've had more than enough rat/mouse experiences to last me 2 lifetimes. I can't stand it when my scalekids constrict a rat/mouse and it's able to look right at me. I always talk to it and say I'm sorry, but eventually I look away. I can't imagine how I would feel if something just stood there as I died, and I know they're just rats but I still turn away. I'm a huge believer in treat people/animals the way you want to be treated.

You will get used to it. If the prey isn't fed to your snake, it will be fed to someone elses and 90% of the time will suffer the same death.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ahunt037

my snakes wont eat f/t so i have to feed live

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How long have you tried? I got a six year old live mouse/asf only eater to eat a frozen/thawed mouse by waiting about a month after his yearly fast ended. Seven months without food and they're pretty willing. Working on f/t rats now. It's just a matter of waiting in most cases.

Killing these animals sucks. I don't think the risk to the snake is worth it. The snake can take care of itself. And if it decides not to, you're supervising the feeding for a reason, right?

Of course the animal has to die, but who wants to do it themselves when the snake is perfectly capable? I just...wouldn't.