Why feed live prey?

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Originally Posted by Kyle7676

The " rat wasnt thawed out enough so it caused an illness " isnt really a valid argument against feeding f/t. Thats like saying UTHs are bad because they can burn the snake. They CAN if not used properly.

It is up to the owner to make sure the f/t is thawed properly.

You cant say though that you can guarantee your snake wont get bitten. Even if you are careful, the snake can wrap at an angle where you might not be able to see the rats head. I know some people argue that you should only feed rat pups since they cant really bite but personally i dont see how that is a viable option for a 3000g

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It's not really an argument on my behalf, just a bad experience I noted in a situation unrelated to my means of care taking that left a bad taste in my mouth.

I would never say that I can guarantee that my snake won't get bitten. I can say that I handle the individual rats before feeding, though, and any I've encountered that were overly aggressive to boot have been swapped for a more docile specimen. Any situation in the world can be dangerous, but with proper preparation one can keep most damages at bay. As the f/t rat just might be an odd case, and poison a snake, the seemingly docile rat just might become vicious.

Because of the means I take to prevent that kind of situation from arising, I feel comfortable feeding live. Not an argument or a stand... Just a personal preference.

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Originally Posted by LGray23

and I've still gotten bite wounds.

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Mouse bites suck...I had a little hopper dig its teeth into my finger one night and it would not let go.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Whatever is after the weaned stage under 100g.
I've never been bitten, so I wouldn't know.

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Yeah, rats that size can definitely deliver a good bite. I do what I can to socialize my rats/mice/ASF's as well...not always easy with anywhere from 100-300 of them on hand at any one time, but I put in work with them. Handling them helps for sure, but is still far from a guarantee that they'll cause no problems.

I feed live because its easier for me. We have 8 snakes all eating different sized prey and getting them weekly from our breeder can ensure I always have the right sizes with no waste.

This isnt to say once we have everyone in the same range we won't go to f/t. It just depends in what works best for us.

We do feed f/t for our nile most of the time (unless there are leftover live that we dont keep). Because she eats more often and the same size prey every week, its easier.



sent from my EVO

Sooooo I'm guessing the whole flicking the rodent thing is taboo

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Originally Posted by Rob

Sooooo I'm guessing the whole flicking the rodent thing is taboo

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I've just never heard anything about it before! :oops:

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Originally Posted by Rob

Sooooo I'm guessing the whole flicking the rodent thing is taboo

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I've heard of it, I can't do it. It's just me, I'm a softie. In my brain it's easier to stick a live one in and let the snake kill it as opposed to killing it or stunning it myself.

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Originally Posted by Amon Ra Reptiles

100% live 100% of the time 70+- snakes zero issues.

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Yet...

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Originally Posted by Rob

Sooooo I'm guessing the whole flicking the rodent thing is taboo

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The first rule of Flick Club is we don't talk about Flick Club.

Thank you for that, Slim. Bahaha.

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Originally Posted by Kyle7676

LOL yet you still fail to provide an example of how f/t is risky when the owner is careful. There is no risk.

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Do you breed, raise and freeze all of your own feeders? If not there is a risk that the frozen feeders you are buying were not frozen quickly enough, may have defrosted at some point in time before they were in your possession or something else could be wrong with them that you wouldn't have a clue about. Is it likely no, but there is still the chance. Same as with feeding live, even if you are careful there is a chance a bite may occur.
There are risks involve with whatever way you choose to feed along with every other choose we make. Both with our animals and how we keep them and in life in general.

I'm seeing a ton of responses here about one reason why you feed live that I'm just not buying. People are saying their snake WON'T eat a F/T. In my loosely founded opinion, if the animal gets hungry enough it will eat a carcass before death. Ball pythons are opportunistic feeders, which means if they're starving and come across a dead animal, they will eat it. They're also pretty simple creatures that seem to acclimate to various methods of husbandry pretty well, meaning once they start eating F/T they will continue to.


So here's my real input to the thread in the form of a question:

Can anyone cite a single specific instance of a BP dying of starvation or becoming fully emaciated (not just dropping some weight, DEATHLY thin) due to a hard switch from live to F/T? Did the animal have other issues? Did it take live on the first attempt (for emaciated)? It would probably be hard to identify since it would take serious balls to speak of it on the forum for fear of flaming, but if I were a betting man I'd say that you could probably force any BP to switch to F/T if you really, truly forced it.

Does that mean every snake will warm up to it completely? I'm not going to speculate on that as I have no foundation. Getting them to breeding weight with that strategy or simply keeping them at a healthy weight may be difficult. I'm really confident that the snake wouldn't allow itself to die over eating something that it can definitely identify as palatable.

Just playing devil's advocate here...