I thought most breeders fed live? What do you feed?

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Originally Posted by derrabe

Ok now im confused I was under the impress most people fed f/t for the simple reason they can hurt your snake. But this threat is saying completely different

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Well yeah the risk is there, however, it rarely happens. and when it does, it's usually not bad. A lot of the horror stories you will see are from rodents that are left in with the snake for days at a time with no supervision. There are thousands of people that feed live, every day. and there are thousands upon thousands of captive snakes that eat live, every day..and with no incident.

You just have to keep an eye on your animal to make sure everything goes well.

the key thing is to do whatever works for you. If it's f/t, then there's nothing wrong with that. If it's live, then there's nothing wrong with that either.

I can't speak for big breeders with literally hundreds or thousands of snakes...but with those numbers, I can't imagine how they thaw that many rodents each week. Maybe some have it down to a work of art....I have no idea...it'd be interesting to see if they did.

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Originally Posted by derrabe

Ok now im confused I was under the impress most people fed f/t for the simple reason they can hurt your snake. But this threat is saying completely different

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There are lots of threads on this exact subject. They key is to know how to feed live properly.

I use both. If I am having lower rat production for any reason I prefer to feed babies on FT.

There are definitely some big breeders that feed varying amounts of FT. Brian at BHB had a feeding episode of Snakebytes where he showed them feeding FT to the Corns.

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Originally Posted by derrabe

Ok now im confused I was under the impress most people fed f/t for the simple reason they can hurt your snake. But this threat is saying completely different

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Been feeding live to multiple ball pythons for over 3 years now with no injuries.

I would ideally like to breed my own rodents but I can't at the current time. As soon as I can though I plan on switching over everyone to live. Right now I feed 6 F/T and 1 live mice.

I'm not a breeder but I have a bunch of snakes and have switched them all over to live and never looked back. :gj:

I'd estimate that I get a visible injury that I'm aware of, probably twice a year... and that is feeding hundreds of snakes every week.

I've never had a bite that didn't clean up nicely with triple antibiotic ointment.

Justin

I'm definitely not a breeder (so I didn't vote) and I hope it's all right to comment. Anyway, I have just one BP and I recently switched him to F/T. I used to feed live and heavily supervised (I even did it in a separate container that I hovered over...) but that didn't prevent a mouse from scratching the side of Freddie's neck once. And it takes just that once. I treated it just fine (it was small and there's no scar) but since I just have him, it was a push towards F/T. I switched him over right away and haven't looked back.

I can definitely see how feeding F/T to a huge collection could potentially be a hassle so, if I had more snakes, I would probably feed live unless I found a way to save time with F/T.

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Originally Posted by Kathleen

I'm definitely not a breeder (so I didn't vote) and I hope it's all right to comment. Anyway, I have just one BP and I recently switched him to F/T. I used to feed live and heavily supervised (I even did it in a separate container that I hovered over...) but that didn't prevent a mouse from scratching the side of Freddie's neck once. And it takes just that once. I treated it just fine (it was small and there's no scar) but since I just have him, it was a push towards F/T. I switched him over right away and haven't looked back.

I can definitely see how feeding F/T to a huge collection could potentially be a hassle so, if I had more snakes, I would probably feed live unless I found a way to save time with F/T.

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I think the people who worry more and hover and are more fearful tend to be the ones that get the injuries.
I don't know why but thats usually how it goes.

Wow I didn't know so many of you guys fed live. I muuuch prefer F/T simply for easiness. I breed my own rats, when theyre up to size I gas 'em and freeze 'em. On feeding day, I just open up a bag from the freezer, dump desired amount into hot water, wait 10 minutes and feed. Haven't had a wasted prey item in quite some time. I have 17 bps that I feed frozen (rest are hatchlings getting live pups) but when I feed I don't thaw out 17 rats at once, I do it in groups of 5 or 6, then when those are gone I'll dump more in the water. I always save my most voracious eaters for last, because if I've got rats thawed out that no one else will eat, I know they will, so at MAX I would only ever waste 1 prey item in 1 feeding night. And that would be if one of the voracious eaters decided NOT to eat lol. I know I'm rambling and it sounds complicated, but to me it's easier than caring for 17 small's per week.