live feeding

I feed live to all of my snakes, with the exceptions being the cornsnakes. I just don't have live fuzzies every week(even though the mouse colony is going full tilt). So I save back 1-2 litters of 10-20 babies at a time, euthanize them properly and freeze them. Lasts quite awhile for 3 small Corns.

The boa gets live rabbits, and she does wonderfully with them. They barely get to sit there 5 seconds to even think "Oh, this is a nice place *sniff sniff*" WHAM! And that's all she wrote. I scent the room by putting the rabbit in a carrier and placing it on top of Sonja's tub. This gets her in feeding mode so she knows what is coming. When a snake isn't prepared to accept food, that is when you end up with refusals and the snake shying away from the prey item.

All of the Balls get large adult mice, grown by myself. From the 250-450g 2006 babies all the way up to the 1500-1700g females. If you think a 450g 2006 female Ball isn't good growth on one large mouse per week, I don't know what is. They all get fed once per week unless "I" decide to skip a week or vary the amount of mice they get(say they usually get 3-4, I may give only 1 or 2 so they are very ready for the next week). I rarely have refusals, and if I do, it's because one of the shy babies is in shed and would rather not be bothered. Although I do have a few very aggressive babies who could care less what was happening(IE: the sky could be falling and a volcano erupting), they wanted that dang mouse.

I just prefer to feed live because it keeps my snakes active, their minds stimulated, and they do wonderfully with it. If they didn't, I wouldn't feed that way. They also feed very consistently, even the adult females haven't shown signs of wanting to fast.

Oh I know you're not arguing against the practice of feeding live. And if I sounded offended at anything you said, I wasn't. I was just refuting this particular statement you made. (emphasis mine)

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

I was saying that live is more dangerous vs. a dead rat in general.

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All I'M saying is...if both methods are done correctly, neither is more dangerous nor safer than the other.

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

There is always a chance a rodent can fight back.

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If you really believe that, it's clear (to me at least) that you don't have a whole ton of experience observing the preadtor/prey relationship between ball pythons and live rodents. It just doesn't work like that.

-adam

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Originally Posted by Entropy

there really isn't any proof that rats are more nutritious then mice. :)

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Ok see I read or heard that rats were more nutritious. Nothing to go on just regurgitating what I heard. With no reason behind it.

So what is the case then? are rats more nutritious then mice? is there proof saying that rats are more nutritious? or is there proof saying that they are equal? or is there proof saying mice or more nutritious? or is there no study in the matter and its just peoples opinions?

When everyone is saying they feed there snakes live are you refering to mice or rats?

are live feeders more nutritious than F/T?

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Originally Posted by kplunk

Ok see I read or heard that rats were more nutritious. Nothing to go on just regurgitating what I heard. With no reason behind it.

So what is the case then? are rats more nutritious then mice? is there proof saying that rats are more nutritious? or is there proof saying that they are equal? or is there proof saying mice or more nutritious? or is there no study in the matter and its just peoples opinions?

When everyone is saying they feed there snakes live are you refering to mice or rats?

are live feeders more nutritious than F/T?

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The main issue with all these questions is that no one knows what the exact nutritional requirements for ball pythons are....so how can you say any one thing is better than another?

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

If you really believe that, it's clear (to me at least) that you don't have a whole ton of experience observing the preadtor/prey relationship between ball pythons and live rodents. It just doesn't work like that.

-adam

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There is always a chance no matter what. A live animal can bite. If the rodents head is close to the snakes body, it would possibly bite.

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Originally Posted by JLC

The main issue with all these questions is that no one knows what the exact nutritional requirements for ball pythons are....so how can you say any one thing is better than another?

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Theres a nutrients breakdown somewhere on the rodent pro articles section

It's a moot point since we don't know the nutritional requirements of Ball Pythons. :)

It's really about the weight of what you feed. Say you feed 2 adult mice that weigh 20-25g apiece and your friend feeds 1 small/small rat that weighs 40g. Both snakes get the same amount of food regardless of what you're feeding, be it mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, chinchillas or ostrich(ok that was a stretch). You will get similar growth out of two snakes fed different types of prey if the prey items weigh the same(if they're siblings, the growth rate should be more similar than if the snakes weren't related, since size is also genetically predisposed).

When I said more nutritious what I should really have said is their is just more meat on the rats therefore more nutrition.

And if you are feeding rat pups that are larger than mice your getting more food with no danger. It helps alot with picky eaters (scardy cats) that won't eat untill they are undistubed and feel secure.