Live or Frozen?

Unless your breeding the rats I don't see the point of feeding live... F/t tends to be cheaper easier to store and readily available. Also if a snake doesn't want to eat or is being shy you can leave it in the tub overnight. I hope everyone agrees that its not safe to do this with live.. The tricky part with bps is getting them to switch but if yours took it I'd stick to f/t.

That makes me feel alot better now. She is as calm as can be at all times so hopefully she will stay that way if I do continue to feed her in there. I may continue with the frozen since she is used to it and takes to it very quickly. And when I say she I'm not positive if she is not a he haha. I'm hoping she though bc if not he's stuck with a girls name now..

No need to feed in a separate enclosure. They're smarter than people give them credit for. As long as your hand isnt reeking of rat, they will understand that that is not food. Feeding live p/k or f/t is all in preference. 99% of the time I feed either live or p/k and on the off time when someone doesnt take their p/k it goes in the freezer for next week. I mostly use these for convenience. My rat source is live so it's easier for me to feed live or p/k versus f/t. When feeding live, no you do not hold the rat like with f/t or p/k, you just put the rat in the snakes tub or tank and let them do what nature designed them for. If you do feed live, I wouldnt leave the rat in there for more than a few hours at most. Not just because they can nibble on the snake but because it's stressful for the snake to have something in it's environment that it doesnt want. Also, I just want to make a comment about that picture of the half eaten snake. It's been around for quite some time and always seems to come up in the live v.s. frozen debates. What I want to know is really, how big was the rat that was put with that snake and how long it was left alone. I honestly dont think that much damage could have been done in even 24 hours. Something else I always wonder is if that snake was sick. I mean, it was obviously alive when the rat started chewing, so what snake would not defensively strike? Not saying live is the best or only way to go, just saying, I think that that photo has more at play than it states.

I have a quick question... If my collection gets large enough and I have he ability I would breed rats and feed live what do you guys do when your bp doesn't get a good grip on the rats?

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Originally Posted by MiamiRoyalPythons

No need to feed in a separate enclosure. They're smarter than people give them credit for. As long as your hand isnt reeking of rat, they will understand that that is not food. Feeding live p/k or f/t is all in preference. 99% of the time I feed either live or p/k and on the off time when someone doesnt take their p/k it goes in the freezer for next week. I mostly use these for convenience. My rat source is live so it's easier for me to feed live or p/k versus f/t. When feeding live, no you do not hold the rat like with f/t or p/k, you just put the rat in the snakes tub or tank and let them do what nature designed them for. If you do feed live, I wouldnt leave the rat in there for more than a few hours at most. Not just because they can nibble on the snake but because it's stressful for the snake to have something in it's environment that it doesnt want. Also, I just want to make a comment about that picture of the half eaten snake. It's been around for quite some time and always seems to come up in the live v.s. frozen debates. What I want to know is really, how big was the rat that was put with that snake and how long it was left alone. I honestly dont think that much damage could have been done in even 24 hours. Something else I always wonder is if that snake was sick. I mean, it was obviously alive when the rat started chewing, so what snake would not defensively strike? Not saying live is the best or only way to go, just saying, I think that that photo has more at play than it states.

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I agree for something that extreme to happen there must have been something else going on. I posted it in this thread because I feel that it shows the worst case of what can happen if proper care isn't taken when feeding live. I use to feed live and know that as long as you keep an eye on things you should be fine. But I feel that if your snake will take F/T or P/K it's safer and at least with F/T it is usually cheaper. To me it is just the logical thing to do: feed F/T or P/K if your snake will take them, and feed live if necessary. It isn't a big deal either way, and both methods require care.

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Originally Posted by benwallage9

I have a quick question... If my collection gets large enough and I have he ability I would breed rats and feed live what do you guys do when your bp doesn't get a good grip on the rats?

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Back when I fed mine live I would have a pencil to hold the mouse/rats head or feet away from my snake. I got sick of doing this and what I find to be more stress for me than was necessary so I made a CO2 gas chamber. later I moved to F/T because of the better prices.

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Originally Posted by benwallage9

I have a quick question... If my collection gets large enough and I have he ability I would breed rats and feed live what do you guys do when your bp doesn't get a good grip on the rats?

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I haven't had this issue in a lot of live feedings. I'd imagine that after a missed strike, the rat would most likely retreat to a corner, the snake would gather itself and go get it. I have not seen a rodent become the aggressor...not saying it couldn't happen, I just haven't seen it.

Then there are your strikes that are just a little off...the snake misses the head/neck. Not a big deal, as it constricts very quickly anyway. Sometimes it seems like the rat could bite while coiled, but again, not something I've ever seen.

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Originally Posted by benwallage9

I have a quick question... If my collection gets large enough and I have he ability I would breed rats and feed live what do you guys do when your bp doesn't get a good grip on the rats?

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I've grabbed legs to keep them from scratching too much. I've stuck my feeding tongs in the rat's mouth to keep it from biting. The struggle usually doesn't last very long. These snakes are very good at what they do. ;)

Personally I wil not buy from a breeder whom feeds live just because it is so very inconvient for me to deal with live. I want animals that take FT and not have to struggle to convert FT to live is easier than live to FT.

I'm gonna stick to the frozen for now then, just because I know for a fact she will take to it.. and I honestly wouldn't want to have to break her and a mouse apart if the mouse was to get ahold of her instead. That'd be alot of teeth, a hurt and probably very mad snake and a mouse scared to death and ready to take my fingers with it too. Thank all of you for the help, you don't know how much it has helped and how much I appreciate it!