Why live??

I feed live. I don't have to run to a supplier every week though, I breed my own. Which makes it super easy and convenient. I simply go in the room, grab a rat and go feed. If snake doesn't eat, rat goes into the next tub until somebody eats him. If nobody does, he goes back in the tank till next week. No wasted food for me. Frozen thawed is a pita, imo. Take the rats out, keep checking to see if properly thawed, then dink around doing zombie dances? Plus I don't have the freezer space to store dead rats. I'll pass. Live is what works for me and mine, and none of mine have a problem with it. I supervise so no accidents happen, and everything is fine, safe, and easy. Your snake is only going to get chewed up that bad if you aren't watching and leave a hungry grumpy feeder alone with him for awhile.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

I feed live. I don't have to run to a supplier every week though, I breed my own. Which makes it super easy and convenient. I simply go in the room, grab a rat and go feed. If snake doesn't eat, rat goes into the next tub until somebody eats him. If nobody does, he goes back in the tank till next week. No wasted food for me. Frozen thawed is a pita, imo. Take the rats out, keep checking to see if properly thawed, then dink around doing zombie dances? Plus I don't have the freezer space to store dead rats. I'll pass. Live is what works for me and mine, and none of mine have a problem with it. I supervise so no accidents happen, and everything is fine, safe, and easy. Your snake is only going to get chewed up that bad if you aren't watching and leave a hungry grumpy feeder alone with him for awhile.

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Still don't get how maintaining a colony of live is less of a pita than spending a little bit of time to thaw things out once a week. To each their own.

Zombie dances made me laugh. The mental image was funny. Most, once adjusted to f/t don't really require much zombie dancing in my experience.

Freezer space, I get. I just bought a chest freezer specifically for my rodents.

In regards to safe and easy, and while I like to avoid argument, no accidents ever happening? Really? So you can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that every time your animals constrict there is no room for a bite or two?

I get that it's what works for you and that's fine, but blanket statements like that are silly. While they might not get "chewed up", a bite comes with it's own series of risks.

Another question, what about rats fed to quarantine animals? If they refuse to you kill off the feeder and freeze/dispose of it?

Just curious.

I do all of the above. I have a breeding rack full of live feeders. I have a freezer full of feeders. If the breeders are doing well, everyone eats live and occasionally I get to add to the stock in the freezer. If i can't come up with enough from the live selection in a particular week, I start thawing rodents from the freezer and feed them that way. I have never really had a problem either way. Most of my snakes will easily eat either. Only a few of my b/ps need a little extra zombie dance from a f/t to get them to take it.

As has been said before, feeding is only as safe as the person doing the feeding. A good friend of mine has well over 500 snakes and I am there every Thursday when he feeds his collection and I have never seen anything negative happen to the snakes due to the live rats. He has even forgotten a few in there for a day and still nothing. I think that in most cases, if a rat attacks a snake in just a few hours, something is wrong with the rat. For example, it is either severely starved and/or dehydrated.

I do not feel it is ok to leave live feeders with the snakes for more than maybe a couple of hours, but things happens. In most cases where a feeder was left for a long period of time, the snake was unharmed. And this is coming from the guy who's snake was chewed up by a rat. I honestly feel that snake must have been dehydrated to the point where it had to chew through my snake for water.

Also, feeding F/T has it's negatives too. There are just as many risks involved.

The way I see it is they don't get prekilled or f/t in the wild, and unlike in the wild, they have someone to help them if anything does happen!!!

I feed both though tbh, that wasn't a rant on "you should only feed live" or anything like that. Frozen is awesome for specifics in my situation, but for smaller snakes I like to breed my own and feed live!!


Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)
1.0 Spider (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)

Boa Constrictors
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 BCI (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)

My little guy will not eat f/t at all, I have tried everything so I am forced to stick with live

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Originally Posted by piedmad

Cheers for your replies guys, over here if you need to feed live you have to breed them yourself which for most is not an option due to space(and smell to be honest) Its so convenient to keep a freezer full. I fully get the wastage part, but thats what Burms are for:):):) Can you guys buy live from a pet shop to feed your snakes or is that a no-no like here?

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You can buy live feeders at every pet store where I live!

I feed live or fresh killed if it is a bigger rat only because it is so much more convenient. I have only had snakes for about a year or so and was originally feeding f/t but since I drive a truck for a living and my schedule is unpredictable and my wife aint gonna feed for me so it is much easier to run to the pet store and grab a few rats on the way home and be done with it.

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Originally Posted by the_yellow_pony

So you can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that every time your animals constrict there is no room for a bite or two?

Another question, what about rats fed to quarantine animals? If they refuse to you kill off the feeder and freeze/dispose of it?

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I stand by with tongs in hand, and have when needed stuck them in rodents mouths. My snakes have never been bit. Besides, I really doubt that the wild snakes in Africa have people thawing out frozen rats for them, yet they feed and survive. These animals know how to eat and what they are doing, you just need to trust them to do it.

Only rat I have had rejected by a qt animal was actually recent. My new albino was in shed and didn't eat. Rodent was killed and disposed of. I did not save or keep it, it went in the garbage.

I enjoy interacting with live rats more than dead ones. So I would rather maintain my feeders, see cute babies, and scratch their little heads, than thaw frozen dead ratcicles.

Again, this is me. If it doesn't work for you fine.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

I enjoy interacting with live rats more than dead ones. So I would rather maintain my feeders, see cute babies, and scratch their little heads, than thaw frozen dead ratcicles.

Again, this is me. If it doesn't work for you fine.

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X2 haha I like breeding my feeders, mine get live now fT once an awhile once I buy a chest freezer and my other nine rats are ready I'm gonna start freezing in prep for next month when I start adding more snakes.