which do you prefere?

It is good you are monitoring a live feed, that's important to make sure your snake can handle it's live prey appropriately and aggressively. However, most mice are not going to "tear up" anything when faced with a snake that knows what to do with live prey, most of the time they just don't get the chance.

One of the things Adam Wysocki taught Mike and I was to offer appropriate sized live prey. In other words not large enough to cause the snake any problems dealing with the prey. None of our snakes, even the large females ever get anything bigger than a good sized small rat - though they may eat more than one each feeding night. We also remove live prey if the snake does not, within minutes, exhibit an aggressive feeding response. We don't let live prey wander about for a few hours or overnight (exception might be pinks or fuzzies if you are working with a stubborn eater). We also make sure the prey itself is well fed and hydrated so it does not get presented half-crazed, unfortunately some pet store feeders are very poorly cared for that way.


~~Jo~~

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

We also make sure the prey itself is well fed and hydrated so it does not get presented half-crazed, unfortunately some pet store feeders are very poorly cared for that way.


~~Jo~~

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Which is the reason I purchase my mice at least a week before feeding, so that they can have a week in my care with proper feeding and watering.

Hey guys, I didnt want everyone to get into the Live or P/k discussion. I know how everyone feels about feeding their OWN animals. I just want to know the answer to the question....

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Originally Posted by adizziedoll

Hey guys, I didnt want everyone to get into the Live or P/k discussion. I know how everyone feels about feeding their OWN animals. I just want to know the answer to the question....

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Threads sometimes take on a life of their own around here. It's just a risk you gotta accept. ;) As for the answer to your question, there isn't going to be one "right" answer. There will just be two schools of thought:

ONE: I just want the snake to be an established eater when I buy it, so I don't care what it is eating.

TWO: I feed my other animals ________ (live, prekilled, f/t) and so it is helpful to me if the snake I buy is already established on ____________ (live, prekilled, f/t).

I don't think you're going to get any more specific knowledge than that from this particular question.

As others have stated here, the most important thing is that the animal is eating. If you're going to be particular about whether it is eating live, pre-killed, or f/t, I'd say go for whatever you plan to feed it.

Oops. I guess Judy already said that. Sorry, Judy!

I prefere to use the French spelling of verbs. :P

k, thank guys :) I wasn't sure if people had a preference, or if it was just "as long as it's established"

i used to prefer that snakes i was interested in purchasing were feeding on f/t because that what i fed at the time. now i feed a little of everything depending on the snake, so it only really matters that a new snake will eat, regardless of what it is.

Feed what works for you and your snake...I have started buying bulk frozen rodents because it is cheaper than breeding my own right now....but I still have a few that will only take live...and one that is in transition with p/k

so that means that I fed live, p/k, and f/t tonight ;)

Whatever I have. I find myself feeding f/t, pre-killed, and live all the time. I like all of them and it stands true that each snake has its own preference, and so I abide by each snake's preference.