Live prey vs......

There's a dynamic of the whole "live vs dead" arguement that I think gets left out sometimes...I'd like to preserve my snake's natural instincts to ID and strike and constrict etc etc as opposed to just tossing a dead item that they just begin to swallow w/o effort. I mean, we gotta realize that these guys are wild animals after all. There's a reason that zoo's often hide the food they give to scavenger type animals or attach meat to moving ziplines in cheetah cages and thiings like that. Let the ball python be a ball python! What do y'all think?

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Looks like you're the man boss! LOL

http://www.8ballpythons.com/images/lesser-breeding.jpg

-adam

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lmao nice thats what im talking about lol
Ok I am still laughing at the male lol little guy you go

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v444/VFT/cuz.jpg

so what is the lenght/weight on that one?

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

There's a dynamic of the whole "live vs dead" arguement that I think gets left out sometimes...I'd like to preserve my snake's natural instincts to ID and strike and constrict etc etc as opposed to just tossing a dead item that they just begin to swallow w/o effort. I mean, we gotta realize that these guys are wild animals after all. There's a reason that zoo's often hide the food they give to scavenger type animals or attach meat to moving ziplines in cheetah cages and thiings like that. Let the ball python be a ball python! What do y'all think?

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Not me ... once you take a ball python and stick it in a cage it's not really the same wild animal anymore ... zoos do those things to exercise mammals that normally in the wild would have hundreds of acres of territory to roam on, but have you ever seen a zoo feed their crocs? They just toss the food in. I feed live because it's the cheapest and most convenient method I have available for feeding my collection and it works for my snakes ... if the same were true about F/T, then that's what I'd do.

-adam

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Originally Posted by VFT

lmao nice thats what im talking about lol
Ok I am still laughing at the male lol little guy you go

so what is the lenght/weight on that one?

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That "little guy" is 720 grams in that picture to give you some perspective. I have racks filled with females that size ... she weighs A LOT! ... LOL

;)

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Not me ... once you take a ball python and stick it in a cage it's not really the same wild animal anymore ... zoos do those things to exercise mammals that normally in the wild would have hundreds of acres of territory to roam on, but have you ever seen a zoo feed their crocs? They just toss the food in. I feed live because it's the cheapest and most convenient method I have available for feeding my collection and it works for my snakes ... if the same were true about F/T, then that's what I'd do.

-adam

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Yeah I see what you are saying. I guess I'm just playing with the idea that live food might be a little more stimulating for them, and possibly contribute to their overall health in a positive way.

(goes to google and starts researching for any relevent info on this...)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

That "little guy" is 720 grams in that picture to give you some perspective. I have racks filled with females that size ... she weighs A LOT! ... LOL

;)

-adam

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lmao that is sweet
little guy rocks
I have yet to try any of my smaller males.


i still am going to feed large rats ;) lol

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

Yeah I see what you are saying. I guess I'm just playing with the idea that live food might be a little more stimulating for them, and possibly contribute to their overall health in a positive way.

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Well, I think that you are on the right track. I was just talking to my vet yesterday about the lack of stimulation and exercise in captive boids and the effect it has on their immune systems and their ability to naturally rid themselves of respiratory infections. The idea of a boid that is so accustomed to eating dead food that it doesn't even use its muscles to constrict anymore is certainly alarming unless there is sufficient supplementary exercise provided.

But in the end, I believe that you must first and foremost make keeping the animal as trouble free as possible on the keeper. In theory, the easier the animal is to care for, the better and more frequent care it will get allowing for an overall healthier specimen. That's just my opinion and certainly not an "answer", because as we all know that there are many ways to keep these animals successfully.

-adam

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Originally Posted by VFT

i still am going to feed large rats

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Good luck with that.

-adam

WOAH


huge image!


Any possible way you could resize that so folks don't have to scroll back and forth to read the posts?

wow ... 58 replies on a live vs. feeding thread and no warning from the mods!! .... that's gotta be some kind of record!!! :rofl:

-adam