Gotta Be One In Every Collection

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Well guess what! Little Miss Pet Store won't eat live! Oh and we don't like rats either! We will only eat if offered a nice warmed up f/t mousie on a set of hemostats. Even if "mommy" runs all the way to the darn pet store to buy us a live rat pink just to get the exact right size and then races home to make sure said rat pink doesn't croak...nope no way....she wants a darn mouse on a stick! Geesh!

How did I end up with a f/t mouse eating BP! Arrrgh LOL Hopefully when my next two rat litters are born (within the next few days) Miss Muirne might reconsider. If not I guess I'm buying a bag o mice for the freezer.

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HAHAHAHA! I'm rolling now! That is just too funny! I can see you just scratching your head trying to figure out what to try next and the look of shock on your face when she goes "now THIS, THIS is what I want!!!!"

Hi there I am not trying to cause an argument more a debate if thats ok? I am from the UK and we only use live as a last resort, why is it a US "thing" for a better word to feed live?? Would it not be easier cheaper , less smelly to monthly or whatever buy enough food to last the month. I have 2 WC royals that came in as a u take em or they are put to sleep, I tried on defrost for 2 months no joy then fed em a live mouse each which they took, so they were obviously happy with their environment, i tried dead again the week after and both took dead, and have done every week since?

I am always open to peoples opinions so why do u prefer live to d/f?

Thanks a lot

Peter

Peter, I think one reason why Jo likes feeding live rats is because she breeds rats for feeders, so feedling live ratties is the easiest for her. Because she's got her rat colony going full steam, buying frozen mice would actually probably be more expensive...

But as with keeping here at BP.net, live, pk or f/t is the owners choice, as long as we are responsible enough to ensure that live feeding is done properly, that pk are pk'ed humanely and that f/t are clean and properly defrosted. =)

I can appreciate that, its just amazing how the mind sets are different between us in the UK and u lot over there in the US. My personal opinion is if I can help it I woul dnever use Live, there are plenty of people over here who breed their own and use a humane killing method and feed the prey item dead. Why is that not preferable?

I also liek to play devils advocate too as I am sure u will find out soon lol

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Originally Posted by goldenburm

I can appreciate that, its just amazing how the mind sets are different between us in the UK and u lot over there in the US. My personal opinion is if I can help it I woul dnever use Live, there are plenty of people over here who breed their own and use a humane killing method and feed the prey item dead. Why is that not preferable?

I also liek to play devils advocate too as I am sure u will find out soon lol

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I agree with ya mate, although our baby balls all start on live rat pinks or hopper mice if I have to do mice, if they won't eat rats. I also breed thousands of rats every year to feed our animals.

I dry ice them and freeze em. If I can get our animals to take FT instead of live then I will. Not always possible though!

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Originally Posted by goldenburm

I can appreciate that, its just amazing how the mind sets are different between us in the UK and u lot over there in the US. My personal opinion is if I can help it I woul dnever use Live, there are plenty of people over here who breed their own and use a humane killing method and feed the prey item dead. Why is that not preferable?

I also liek to play devils advocate too as I am sure u will find out soon lol

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In an ideal world this would be great. But with ball pythons you have to feed what they will eat. It is just a fact of life that some ball pythons will not take frozen thawed or prekilled food items. For those of us that breed, it is just not worth it to try to switch them. I have actually switched to feeding almost all my bps live. I have found a better feeding response and quick weight gain from those snakes. I do however have 2 that prefer prekilled, those will remain on them because they do really well on them.

It really comes down to what the snake wants. ;)

Ok, but what about those who have to feed 1000 rodents? What a major pain to thaw, individually check each rodent that it is fully thawed, then warm up a bit. With prekilled there is an added expense of humanely gassing the animal. Not all spouses are cool with frozen raticles in the freezer, and an extra freezer will offset the low cost of f/t quite a bit.

Now don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with any of these feeding methods. I believe it's up to individual owneres to look at the pros and cons of each and decide what works the best for them and their snakes. I do feed f/t as a rule, but I have one girl that just won't eat it right now unless it's live. Heck I wouldn't even mind feeding all of mine live, but my circumstances don't really warrant it. First off, I have one girl that WON'T eat live, (I'm feeling your pain JO!!) Plus I also have a young daughter who would be very upset if she noticed cutesy little mice ending up as dinner. So for me, I'll stick with feeding both live and f/t.

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

Ok, but what about those who have to feed 1000 rodents? What a major pain to thaw, individually check each rodent that it is fully thawed, then warm up a bit. With prekilled there is an added expense of humanely gassing the animal. Not all spouses are cool with frozen raticles in the freezer, and an extra freezer will offset the low cost of f/t quite a bit.

Now don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with any of these feeding methods. I believe it's up to individual owneres to look at the pros and cons of each and decide what works the best for them and their snakes. I do feed f/t as a rule, but I have one girl that just won't eat it right now unless it's live. Heck I wouldn't even mind feeding all of mine live, but my circumstances don't really warrant it. First off, I have one girl that WON'T eat live, (I'm feeling your pain JO!!) Plus I also have a young daughter who would be very upset if she noticed cutesy little mice ending up as dinner. So for me, I'll stick with feeding both live and f/t.

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People doing a 1000, that usually puts that type of person in "This is my business" not just a hobby type mold. They don't normaly do a 1000 at a time, it's broken down into different feeding days.

Having a freezer stocked with rodents is way less cheaper then the feeding costs that go with having them still being alive... rats eat a lot of food and create a lot of stench. The ones in the freezer don't do either.

Dry ice is cheap, $3 worth of it dry ices several hundred rats for me. Feeding live also has its risks, bites....

Having that one or two.... that only eat live isn't a hassle. I'm just glad they eat! LOL

i can put up a doodle of my mates way of putting his animals to sleep its a very humane way with bicarb and vinegar!

I have 2 friends that both have over 300 animals each and these are fed and cleaned every day and all are fed on defrost and all are in superb condition and breed every year. Barry my mate at the end of hatching season can have 1000 animals, he breeds 75% of his own food, and for his baby snakes he often starts them on a live pinky and then converts. Another friend has bought a second hand blast freezer that gets em down to -25 in 3 seconds or summat quick!

I only have 23 snakes and buying frozen is cheaper for me.

I am just curious whether its financial, mimicking their wild habitat or just the curiosity of watching one kill the other?? I do not class anyone here in the stupid category of the drunken eejits who feed live cos they get a kick from it!!!

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Originally Posted by goldenburm

i can put up a doodle of my mates way of putting his animals to sleep its a very humane way with bicarb and vinegar!

I have 2 friends that both have over 300 animals each and these are fed and cleaned every day and all are fed on defrost and all are in superb condition and breed every year. Barry my mate at the end of hatching season can have 1000 animals, he breeds 75% of his own food, and for his baby snakes he often starts them on a live pinky and then converts. Another friend has bought a second hand blast freezer that gets em down to -25 in 3 seconds or summat quick!

I only have 23 snakes and buying frozen is cheaper for me.

I am just curious whether its financial, mimicking their wild habitat or just the curiosity of watching one kill the other?? I do not class anyone here in the stupid category of the drunken eejits who feed live cos they get a kick from it!!!

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I breed my own because I save a fortune on feeders doing it. I feed live to almost all my snakes, the thrill of watching the "kill" wore off years ago. It comes down to doing what works for you and your snakes. Some snakes do well on F/T and others do not. For me to feed F/T it has additional costs such as CO2, freezer bags/vacuum sealer bags and the extra freezer I would have to run.