Do you use live or f/t food?

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

Thanks so much for a perfectly thought out answer :) that was the kind of answer I was looking for. And if BHB and Royal Constrictor Designs and other large scale breeders can feed their snakes f/t and they have hundreds (500+) even thousands of animals to feed. I think I could feed 100+ as well. But I'd never acquire that many snakes if I didn't have the time or finances to provide them what they needed. Whether it's caring for the feeders or preparing f/t rats whatever works for you is best :)

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They also have employees ;)

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Originally Posted by sunshinenorcas

By that logic, why use incubators for eggs? Maternal incubation is what they do and they've been using it for thousands of years.
There is so much that is not seen in nature (the tubs, the substrates, incubator, quad gene animals) that its just a little bizarre that live feeding is generally the thing where I see people being "ITS NATURAL AND WHAT THEY DO AND WHAT THEY'VE BEEN DOING FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS"

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To take the burden off of the female and hope she gets back on feed sooner than later.
Read what you want into it but live is the way I go.

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

Thanks so much for a perfectly thought out answer :) that was the kind of answer I was looking for. And if BHB and Royal Constrictor Designs and other large scale breeders can feed their snakes f/t and they have hundreds (500+) even thousands of animals to feed. I think I could feed 100+ as well. But I'd never acquire that many snakes if I didn't have the time or finances to provide them what they needed. Whether it's caring for the feeders or preparing f/t rats whatever works for you is best :)


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They have employees for that!

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Originally Posted by jxl

Live prey costs almost twice as much.

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Depends on where you live. In my neck of the woods, only PetCo and PetSmart sell frozen feeders and they're mice not rats and is only big enough for baby bps. To get the medium rats, you'll need to get it shipped... and the shipping cost is just as much, if not more than, the cost of the rats so it gets pricey. Live prey at the reptile store ends up comparably priced. The reptile store around here doesn't sell F/T - they'll pre-kill for you, though, for free, but you get to buy it at live price. But yes, you'll have to drive to the store every week.

There's usually someone selling F/T at Reptile Shows but those only come around once or twice a year so you get to buy in big bulks and then you'll have to get a freezer to put them all in.

The cheapest method, I think, for a small collection (more than 4 snakes but less than 40 snakes) is raising your own feeders. If you have a good method going, it doesn't take much time to clean after the colony. For more than 40 snakes, I'm thinking you'll need a much bigger space to house the colony which is much much bigger than the space needed to keep the snakes. Okay, I'm just pulling those numbers out of thin air. I only have 6 snakes so I don't really know.

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Originally Posted by anatess

Depends on where you live. In my neck of the woods, only PetCo and PetSmart sell frozen feeders and they're mice not rats and is only big enough for baby bps. To get the medium rats, you'll need to get it shipped... and the shipping cost is just as much, if not more than, the cost of the rats so it gets pricey. Live prey at the reptile store ends up comparably priced. The reptile store around here doesn't sell F/T - they'll pre-kill for you, though, for free, but you get to buy it at live price. But yes, you'll have to drive to the store every week.

There's usually someone selling F/T at Reptile Shows but those only come around once or twice a year so you get to buy in big bulks and then you'll have to get a freezer to put them all in.

The cheapest method, I think, for a small collection (more than 4 snakes but less than 40 snakes) is raising your own feeders. If you have a good method going, it doesn't take much time to clean after the colony. For more than 40 snakes, I'm thinking you'll need a much bigger space to house the colony which is much much bigger than the space needed to keep the snakes. Okay, I'm just pulling those numbers out of thin air. I only have 6 snakes so I don't really know.

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I agree, it's not that time consuming to care for the feeders, and cheaper by far for me. Shipping frozen is a nightmare on price (at least where I'm at), I did previously look into it.
I have a local store who sells mice for 1.50 per, and small rats $3, med $4, asf $4
I have started my own mouse and asf colony, so I won't really be spending too much at all, as I can sell the excess

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I work at a pet store, and we sell all manner of prey, from mouse pinkies to jumbo rats, even asfs.(you can thank me;) ) The price is the same, whether its frozen or live. My manager looks at it this way: a mouse costs me the same whether its dead or alive, so Im not selling frozen ones cheaper. I do think our prices on rodents are pretty good when you look at our local competition. I would have to say most of our customers buy and feed live, with a few regular frozen customers. With large facilities like BHB, yes they have employees that thaw out the rodents and feed the snakes. My collection will never get past 30 animals...that many is overwhelming enough for me lol. I think breeding your own is the way to go...esp with asfs. Even if you only had a moderate collection of say 6-10 snakes, one colony of asfs would prob do for you. If I stopped buying them toys and treats from work lol and went with simple free stuff like toilet rolls and bones, I buy a 50lb bag of food for $27.99 that lasts 6+ months, and a $5 bale of bedding from tractor supply that lasts about two months. That's roughly $7 per month cost. That's a HUGE savings when you compare buying frozen rodents, not to mention the time it saves me thawin all those buggers out every week.

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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

I work at a pet store, and we sell all manner of prey, from mouse pinkies to jumbo rats, even asfs.(you can thank me;) ) The price is the same, whether its frozen or live. My manager looks at it this way: a mouse costs me the same whether its dead or alive, so Im not selling frozen ones cheaper. I do think our prices on rodents are pretty good when you look at our local competition. I would have to say most of our customers buy and feed live, with a few regular frozen customers. With large facilities like BHB, yes they have employees that thaw out the rodents and feed the snakes. My collection will never get past 30 animals...that many is overwhelming enough for me lol. I think breeding your own is the way to go...esp with asfs. Even if you only had a moderate collection of say 6-10 snakes, one colony of asfs would prob do for you. If I stopped buying them toys and treats from work lol and went with simple free stuff like toilet rolls and bones, I buy a 50lb bag of food for $27.99 that lasts 6+ months, and a $5 bale of bedding from tractor supply that lasts about two months. That's roughly $7 per month cost. That's a HUGE savings when you compare buying frozen rodents, not to mention the time it saves me thawin all those buggers out every week.

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I have 6 snakes. They feed off of 2 breeding pairs of ASFs that average about 24 babies every 3 weeks (both my breeders are well over a year old so they don't produce as much). One breeding pair is not enough to feed 6 snakes consistently every week. But 2 is a tad bit too much so sometimes I get overrun, which is when I retire the male breeder (the females are my pets!) and keep a male baby to grow out with the breeder female in the tub which slows down production (incest! Lol!). When the female breeder retires, I keep a female baby to grow out as my new pet and get a baby male from the reptile store to grow with it and they become a new family (new blood. whew!).

This method has worked out for me.

In the end just do what works for you. Theres no right or wrong way.


Its just better for me personally to feed live and breed my own rodents. If I bought live or f/t feeders locally, it averages over $30+ per feeding(week). It costs less than that to maintain my rodent colony for a month.

Buying rodents online is cheap until shipping costs several times more than the total shipment....So yeahhhhh..............That's going to be a pass for me. I did it once. Doubt I'll do it again.

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When I had two snakes I fed F/T because it was not hard to thaw two rats and feed them. As my collection grew (we now have 20) it became easier and easier to feed live. Granted I still buy my live because I am still working out the logistics of starting my own colony (I live in a trailer), so buying live is not very cost efficient. I do keep a whole variety of F/T sizes in my freezer for those times when my supplier runs dry, which happens more than I would like. I think I will be setting up a live colony in the new year in preparation for clutches I am expecting and increasing numbers. I really don't mind the "risk" involved with feeding live. I have had snakes being bit by rats, but no harm has ever come of that, it happens in nature too. 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.

So to answer the question, I feed both live and frozen, but I find it much easier and efficient to feed live. And efficiency is important to me because I am in vet school and short on time as it is.

We feed both F/T and have a colony of live ASF. It all depends on the situation. Live is cheaper for us, raising our own is safer for all animals involved due to correct sizing, we know what the feeders conditions are and their health. However, I also purchase F/T rats, mice, and ASFs. Everything is a balancing act between how our colony is doing. If we are running low on live ASFs I will switch the animals to F/Ts and if our colony is very full we will up feedings to 2-3 ASFs a week to reduce the size of the colony. I will also feed medium F/T rats to large females that i am trying to put weight on.

I use f/t because my BP is a great eater and I doesn't need the danger of feeding live .