Live or frozen

http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ_answer...ng_thawed.html <---why I don't feed live combined with:
The chace of live prey carrying a parasite
The fact that frozen is WAY cheaper
The face that frozen is WAY easier (I have twenty weaned rats in my freezer right now - mom is thrilled ;)
The fact that frozen is more humane for the prey

It is a very good question and I'm very glad you asked :)

As far as re-creating as "wild" an environment as possible I struggled with that as well until I talked to KLG (brilliant and experience snake keeper- works at NERD) and she explained that any confined space (i.e. tank) is not really like the wild. In the wild if a snake is threatened it can go hide in a burrow or slither away, not a lot of escape room in a tank. Plus the injury factor as well - I would love to hear her chime in on this - she knows a LOT about it :) but it's a great question and never hurts to have a refresher or re-open the discussion- thanks for bringing it up and thanks for being here! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vette

I took everybodys advice and also did some research and decided for sure not to feed live.
>And when I said "sharpen the hunting skills" I didn't mean like practice, I couldn't think of a way to describe what I meant. What I did mean is it gave them a chance to comply with their natural instincs sort of.
>But anyway, now I even switching my rat snakes to pre-killed, they have had it before so it should'nt too hard.
Thanks for the advice and also for listening to my noobish questions!

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Good for you, Vette! When you're ready to switch from pre-killed to frozen/thawed, check out www.rodentpro.com

i'm one of those odd balls that feels this topic is incredibly overrated.

Treat your snakes for parasites a few times jamming a syringe down their throat and watching the meds bubble out of their nose and the look of ACK! in their eyes - not fun.

The only thing cheaper than frozen is breeding your own. It's not too much a throw-away topic, yar.