Do you use live or f/t food?

I don't know what them having employees has to do with them feeding f/t. They would still have employees to feed them all live too. If Brian had the time to feed all of his animals and still run the company all by himself he would do it. But since he doesn't he pays people to help him. But that has nothing to do with him choosing to feed live or f/t. He could pay more people to raise a rat colony for all the animals but that would be A TON of rats which he probably doesn't want to care for since he already has thousands of animals anyway. You don't have to care for a dead rat or worry about it fighting back. Soooo for him as it is for us all it's just what works best. Either f/t or live.


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Just remember that improperly thawed rats have killed plenty of snakes too. Rodents that still have a cold or frozen core throw snakes into a system shock.

Nothing is risk free.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Just remember that improperly thawed rats have killed plenty of snakes too. Rodents that still have a cold or frozen core throw snakes into a system shock.

Nothing is risk free.

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I 100% agree :) but with either live or f/t it's up to the owner to do it right so no one ends up hurt or killed. You can't blame the rats lol. But is pretty sad that people don't know if it's thawed or not when I'm sure people have thawed meat or fish to cook or used a microwave to warm up some leftovers. Lol people make it so much harder than it is.


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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

I buy a 50lb bag of food for $27.99 that lasts 6+ months.

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I go through that in 5 to 7 days LoL

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

I don't know what them having employees has to do with them feeding f/t.

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Time? I can use between 30 to 40 rats a week. Between thawing, dancing and throwing out uneaten that is too much time and money wasted for me.
My 6.112 breeding rats and 10.30 mice take me about 3 to 4 hours a week of total time to care for.

In the end its all about what works for you with time, availability, and space.

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Originally Posted by Snake Den

The way I see it, it is like falling over and scraping your knee, yes it hurts, but I am not going to bubble wrap my snakes, even though some of them are worth a lot.

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Now you've got me curious as to what a bubble-wrapped snake would look like, and how it might enjoy that.

Ive never fed frozen. I fed live then prekilled for a bit then live again. The worst thing thats ever happen was a small bite that didnt even draw blood. I cleaned it up and nothing ever became of it. For me feeding live is safe and easier/faster.

Used to use live, now using frozen for my new ball.

Frozen for two reasons. My snake can't get bit and im a rat lover as well so i don't want to watch a rat die.

I feed both f/t and live. I would prefer to feed all live, but my rats are in the house so I can't breed enough to keep up with my snakes. Live is so much easier. It takes less time for me to feed the snakes, I don't have to babysit doing rat zombie dances, I don't have to take the time to thaw rats, and I know the snakes are going to eat what I put in their tubs if it's alive.

My snake likes to hunt so I feed him live

For me I try to feed f/t because that's what I find easier. Not all of my snakes need the zombie dance and for me doing it for the ones that do is easier and less time consuming. It takes time to feed and clean the rats you breed. I have 47 snakes so buying them each week is out both financially and logistically. I always have some snakes that want live, though, and they get it. I don't believe in starving my babies to try to force them to take f/t. Rats are really pretty safe to feed at any size. Most will choose flight to fight. If you watch you can intervene with the ones that fight. Mice are only dangerous if left so long they get bored and/or hungry. If your snake's fat and happy, you should be too whichever way you go.

I currently have five ball pythons, three of them are large adults and two are subadults. I feed f/t only for a number of reasons. It's easier; none of the ball pythons I've had in the past required 'zombie dancing'. The only snakes I've kept that do are kings. The way I learned to feed ball pythons is holding the prey item behind the shoulders in the tongs directly in front of the snake's face, that works for my two subadults who haven't gotten used to eating rats from their enclosure floors. My three adults are trained, for lack of a better term, to simply eat f/t rats that are put in their enclosures. I do have a problem feeder who occasionally will go off feed. But she is also aggressive in general and would likely kill a live animal, then not eat it.

I also find the ethics behind it in favor of f/t. Frozen rats are humanely euthanized then frozen by the vast majority of major f/t suppliers. I acknowledge that predatory animals need to eat, I've kept various kinds for over ten years. But what I can do as a keeper is reduce the amount of suffering required to keep and breed animals. In the past I had a mouse colony hovering around 100 animals, I euthanized all mice intended to be feeders. Was it time consuming, yes. But no more than keeping that many live mice is. For me, it isn't about convenience or time (I'm a full time student with little time as it is), it's about doing what is best for all animals involved. I would use my methods whether I had five snakes or five hundred.

This in mind, I fully appreciate that other people have differing systems that work for them. As I said, these are my ethics, not anyone else's. They wouldn't work for everyone and I would never force my views upon another.

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Originally Posted by treeboa

For me I try to feed f/t because that's what I find easier. Not all of my snakes need the zombie dance and for me doing it for the ones that do is easier and less time consuming. It takes time to feed and clean the rats you breed. I have 47 snakes so buying them each week is out both financially and logistically. I always have some snakes that want live, though, and they get it. I don't believe in starving my babies to try to force them to take f/t. Rats are really pretty safe to feed at any size. Most will choose flight to fight. If you watch you can intervene with the ones that fight. Mice are only dangerous if left so long they get bored and/or hungry. If your snake's fat and happy, you should be too whichever way you go.

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Same here, some of my snakes are so lazy they dont even constrict, they just swallow it.

Mine also stopped constricting after a while when he was fed frozen. But lately he strikes again and constricts hos rats. Go figure. And its much easier and less stressful for me using frozen. One of live mice has biten him because of his poor strike and since then no more live ones.

f/t fluffs.. last feed was his 1st time with the fluffs.... needed very little encouragement. :)

I feed f/t mainly fur the purpose that I love mammals too much to feed live. It's also easier for me to not have to try and keep a feeder alive. Extra supplies and extra effort. With f/t I can buy them in bulk and keep 'em in the back of the freezer till it's time to eat. As long as they're heated up and wiggled with the tongs, I've never had an issue with a snake refusing its food, even when they were being switched from live.

Personally I don't get the whole 'saving time by feeding live' idea. with 90% of my snakes I hold the frozen thawed rat above their heads and BAM it's gone. With a few of them I'll have to jiggle it a little bit but I never spend more then 10 seconds doing that. If they don't eat it then I just drop it in their cage and check back an hour later. If they still haven't eaten it by then, then they don't eat that week. Eventually when they get hungry enough, they'll eat when the opportunity presents itself and not expect a show with their dinner.

99% f/t. live for the picky babies, and then f/t as soon as possible. Live is a royal pain in the arse. I can't stand rodents and the day I have to maintain a colony of live ones is the day I stop keeping snakes.

I only have the one youngster and when I bought him, he was already on f/t. To feed, I let the rat thaw overnight in the fridge, then take it out when I come home from work and let it come up to room temp. When we're ready to feed, I warm the rat to right around 100 degrees using water. I use a temp probe pressed against the rat in a few places so I'm not getting it too hot or too cool. My husband offers the rat using tongs. (Neither of us will touch the prey. We're not squeamish by a long shot; we just don't want our scent on prey.) Hubby doesn't have to do a zombie dance. He just hold the prey a bit above the snakes head and within about 10 seconds ZAP!

I buy prey from either the local reptile show where I bought my boy or from a locally owned pet store here. Since I've only the one, it's not very costly.

PERSONALLY I prefer to feed live. Each person has a preference. It doesn't make 1 better than the other. You use what you prefer and don't let someone tell you that your evil for doing it.

I've always used live

I use both. Most of my snakes eat f/t the majority of the time, but I like my snakes to accept both live and f/t, whatever I happen to have available at the time. I do have a few snakes (2 hognose, and 3 bps) that refuse f/t and will only eat live, though on rare occasion (and I do mean very rare occasion) they will take f/t.

On the case of live being "dangerous" or "risky", I have been keeping snakes since 2006 (wow, already 7 years!) and I have only ever had 1 problem feeding live. I have a corn snake that I had been feeding f/t for a long time and hadn't given her live in quite a while. (possibly over a year). She had grown so accustomed to eating f/t that she no longer coiled her prey. Simply grabbed and began wolfing it down. One day I had a live mouse and had no other snakes remaining that would take it, so I put it in her cage. She grabbed it but didn't coil and it reached back and bit her. She had a small, hardly visible wound that went away with a few sheds. She is now fat and happy and eats live and f/t on a regular basis.

I only feed live

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