Is F/T worth the trouble?

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Originally Posted by JohnAvilla

The main reason to feed FT or PK is to avoid scars. Who wants to look at a snake with a bunch of scars, especially a morph?

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Over 5000 live feeds to 40 ball pythons with zero scars! :gj:

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Originally Posted by Mettle

As for those who say feeding live is safe. Obviously not as safe as frozen/thawed feedings.

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Never said it was safe, I said that it was minimal risk from my own experiences with my own collection and the number of times that I've even had one get a small scratch.

Frozen/thawed also has its risks if someone does not properly defrost a prey item and it rots in the belly instead.

However - it's up to each individual keeper to make their own educated decision as to what works best for them. For me, live works best, and I have no compelling reason or desire to switch to f/t for my ball pythons.

Well I guess for you guys over the water this is the main feeding type "live" but in england not so many feed live "not that i know of anyway" only for non feeders ,

In my opinion if i had the chance to feed live I would I guess they will get more nutrients from the live rather to freezing the prey ?

A buddy of mine got a pair of fires from bob clark they took f/t straight away ,
I got a bee from him and tried him last week didn't take so some are more lucky then others!

James

a little known but good source for frozen mice / rats is themousefactory.com . I've known the owner since my college years 20+ years ago and I've personally ordered from him and received good quality feeders. At this point I breed my own rats to feed our snakes, but if I ever get fed up with the rats, I'll be ordering from them again!

F/T is TOTALLY worth it. If you keep a number of snakes, buying live feeders is just a LOT more expensive--which means, if you're going to save your bank book, you would have to raise your own. Which costs about the same as using F/T, but is incredibly more laborious and stinky.

Plus, freezing kills parasites, reducing the risk of your snakes picking something up from the feeders (which happens more regularly than you might think). F/T rodents don't bite or scratch (eventually any snake can grab a rodent wrong, and receive an unpleasant bite).

IMHO, if you are asking "is f/t worth the trouble", then the answer is no, it's not.

Both methods are totally acceptable. What you should be doing depends on your snakes, and on you. If live works for you, and you are feeding responsibly, then don't let people tell you otherwise.

This has certainly been an interesting discussion, and obviously there is no "right answer" to the question... I guess it's just a personal thing, and we all do what's best for us (and our snakes). I do want to convert them to F/T, for all the reasons mentioned above, but at this time it doesn't seem worth the trouble. Plus I'm still waiting for my mice to breed, which could make it easier for me to do both - F/T for those who will take it, and live for the picky ones. Thanks again for all the responses! :gj:

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

F/T is TOTALLY worth it. If you keep a number of snakes, buying live feeders is just a LOT more expensive--which means, if you're going to save your bank book, you would have to raise your own. Which costs about the same as using F/T, but is incredibly more laborious and stinky.

Plus, freezing kills parasites, reducing the risk of your snakes picking something up from the feeders (which happens more regularly than you might think). F/T rodents don't bite or scratch (eventually any snake can grab a rodent wrong, and receive an unpleasant bite).

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The source that I buy live from is not any more expensive than buying f/t, his prices are the same. Edit - just checked - frozen is $.05 less per prey item than live - not enough of a savings for me.

Since parasites are host specific, the freezing doesn't really play into that argument. Even Dr. Scott Stahl addressed this when he was a guest on Reptile Radio and said that parasites are not passed from prey items since they are host specific (unless you put a live rat in with a snake with mites then offered it to another snake without mites if not eaten). Parasites that thrive in endothermic animals don't thrive in ectothermic animals.

Again, this forum supports each keepers decision to feed the method that works best for them.

I don't believe that one method is "in general" preferable or "better" than the other.

For what it's worth, I had 100% of my snakes eating f/t for a couple of years ( I only have 8). It worked very well. Gradually they started refusing more often and I tired of thawing and throwing away the uneaten prey. I have been feeding live for probably the last 6 months and they eat everything and it is much less work for me. While f/t is less expensive per rodent, when I factor in the uneaten throw aways it is pretty much the same.

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you would have to raise your own. Which costs about the same as using F/T, but is incredibly more laborious and stinky.

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Not sure you speak from experience on that but by raising my own feeder each feeder only cost me 1/3 of the cost of a F/T.

The advantage is also to know that I provide the best quality food possible.

I had the opportunity to visit a large feeder breeding facility and what they were using in addition to feed was just scary.