Feeding live?

I have heard many horror stories on feeding live. If you feed live, please share your thoughts on why you feed live, and how you do. If you feed F/T Share how and why you do. Thanks!

-Payson!

In the history of snake keeping a f/t mouse never bit a snake.

Also, I like that I can keep them in a bag in the freezer rather than driving to a pet store every week.

There is no option for both.

I normally feed f/t, but when I need to, I feed live.

The horror stories you hear of are from irresponsible keepers leaving a hungry mouse in with a snake for days on end. Not from responsibly feeding live.

Kaorte well said. Personally I feed frozen but mine take F/T. I think that feeding live is Ok as long as the keeper is responsible and keeps control of the situation. Rodents will try to defend themselves the keeper needs to be able to prevent injury.

I have seen 2 of your posts where you are advocating people to feed F/T and not to feed live, not because of personal experience but because of "horror stories", what you need to know that there is often a lot more to those horror stories and graphic pictures.

Many of those horror pictures used were the result of irresponsible owners Leaving a rodent without food or water in a snake enclosure for days.

The key when feeding a snake (whether live or F/T) is to be responsible and knowledgeable.

In the case of live feeding here are a few things that can be done to ensure a safe feeding experience.

Pre-scent the room
Do not stress out the feeder prior to feeding
Feed smaller preys
Remove the feeder if not eaten within 20-30 minutes
Never leave a feeder unattended with your snake

There is no "I am a proud this or proud that" when it comes to feeding, just like here is no F/T vs Live debate.

Each owner should be knowledgeable regarding feeding options (knowing the pros and cons) and decide for him/herself what works for them and their animal.

I feed a few hundred of live preys each months (mice and rats) and I also feed a few F/T each month (mice) and I never had any problem.

15K live feedings, 5 insignificant scratches - works great for me!

I have fed both live and f/t. I greatly prefer f/t, so as long as my snakes would eat it, that's what I would always choose. However, like I said, I have fed live before when necessary.

I have fed thousands of live rats, mice and ASF's and have never had an issue. To each is own I respect those who choose to feed FT. I just don't like it, no horror stories here if they don't eat in 5 to 10 minutes its a refusal plain and simple. Like Deborah posted earlier if you leave a prey item in to long thats when horror stories are realized.

I feed live now, and only live. I used to feed frozen thawed, but I hate waiting for them to thaw, then having to pre-scent the room, and then blow drying them. With live, there is no wait, only my supervision. As long as you watch them to make sure they kill it, and begin to swallow it, you will be fine. Do not just throw it in and watch them coil and leave, sometimes they will not always kill it, and then when they take their little break, it can "come back to life". That is how you will become one of them horror stories. Just supervise the feeding up until the swallowing, and you will be fine.

I proudly feed a bit of everything. Because I am proud to be able to feed even the picky eaters! Rats mostly, a few mice to a picky one, a few ASFs to another picky one. Live and F/T for all of the above. I breed norway rats an ASFs. My spare freezer is full of norways, ASFs and mice. It depends on the snake.

As for thawing and warming I found a better way. I just put the bag in a small plastic litter box for a few hours til thawed. Then turn on the human heating pad under it until good and warm. Some people use a piece of flexwatt for the same purpose.

I've always fed live, easier as that's all I could get locally and now I breed my own, no waste if my bp decides he's not eating that night, just goes back in the tub for next week. Just supervise and take it out if the bp isn't interested, with mine if he doesn't strike within a couple minutes, he isn't going to.

I have fed thousands of live prey off in many different settings and never had any issues you just have to be responsible like deborah said and make sure to supervise your snake as it eats. Personally I perfer to feed F/T but one of my snakes really would rather starve than eat frozen so off to the petstore I go for a small rat every 5 days.

Well, I know I'm new at all this, but I prefer f/t. I have no problem waiting for the mouse to thaw. For me, it's better than maintaining and caging/keeping any live feeders.

My bp was raised on live and had not had f/t until she was relinquished to the rescue group I got her from. They converted her to f/t and she has never missed a meal. They had her for about 5 weeks before I adopted her. She and her cage mate were the same (I would have adopted him too if I'd had another cage set up) and neither had a problem switching to f/t. I know I'm lucky in this regard... ;)

I have no problem with feeding live and I think it's a personal choice dependant on what works for you and your snakes. I would certainly feed Ella live if for some reason she started refusing f/t. Judging by her piggy appetite though, I doubt we'll have issues with that. Just my thoughts....

I'm just scared to feed live because of all the things I hear, i'd hate to see my snake in any pain or have any markings on him. Thats why im so curious.

Reason i feed ft?

$$$$$

I was paying $1.50 from a pet shop for my mice when we first got him. Not to mention gas money spent to go pick one up.

Now i get em for $0.35 each. So $17.50 for a bag of 50 :gj:

Oh and dont waste gas to go get em every 5 days :rofl:

I feed both. Its economical for me because my female will take whatever you give her, but my male will only take live. So if I give my male a live rat and he refuses it I can just give it to Louise. If he constricts and then changes his mind I can give it to her. If he doesn't take it at all I can freeze it and save it for another meal, and I don't have to put it in with my pet rats and risk spread of diseases. I also breed my own rats because its easier for me to humanely euthanize them myself then to buy them for $7 or $8 a piece already dead from PetCo (which is 20 miles away and not a store I really want to support).

Plus, I don't really like to take the hunt away from them, it's natural to me.

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Originally Posted by Paysons Bps

I'm just scared to feed live because of all the things I hear, i'd hate to see my snake in any pain or have any markings on him. Thats why im so curious.

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Well here is the solution if F/T works for your snake and this is what makes YOU comfortable than just feed F/T, however remember that this has to be done responsibly as well, an un-properly thawed rodent could lead to severe issues as well.

Again proudly feed what works for YOUR animal and YOURSELF.

I voted f/t only because I like having them on hand, I had trouble finding the right size mouse for my snakes as they are all diff sizes... Frozen ones stay the right size lol... Plus in some instances f/t can be cheeper. Two of my snakes will only eat live but I tricked the other two by feeding with tongs (hemostats) and kinda waving them around so the tail fans in a circle( it's very life like lol) and they both have been eating f/t since. Gonna try to get my male to eat a frozen one today guess we will see if I can finally "trick" him into it lol... Also I have reptile caves for my snakes and just move the cave ( snake inside) to a tub and drop the live mouse in. Once the mouse smells snake it foes to the other side and gives the snake a chance to come out enouph to grab the mouse. I often see my pastel drag it into the cave to swallow it in peace. Then I pick up the cave and put it back in the cage. Feeding takes like 2 minutes for me... Hope this helps

I feed both.. I have several snakes that will take F/T, P/K, or live without hesitation and others that are currently live only. I do what I have to to care for my animals. :)

I do have a rescue that was badly injured from a live rat, but it was because they threw it in with her and forgot about it... she didn't eat it and she's now blind in one eye and has a lot of scarring on her head and body. She's doing well now, though.

I proudly feed f/t.

I also proudly feed live.

I feed live for one reason and one reason only: The snake is picky.

Right now the only snake I feed live to is an oddball young rainbow boa. He took f/t for us last week, but this week he flat out refused. He gobbles live pinks and fuzzies with gusto however, so we'll switch it up on him every now and then and try to get him 100% converted to f/t eventually. Our other rainbow has the typical aggressive feeding response you often read about, but the picky boy is just an oddball.

I personally would never feed live unless I had a snake that was willing to starve itself if it didn't get it.

All three of my snakes readily accept F/T and even though I have no problem with people who responsibly feed live ,i/e watch the entire time to make sure there are no mishaps, It's just not for me.

I have no personal interest in breeding mice, and any refusal of a live mouse would likely turn into a pet.


So happily it's f/t for me. But like I said there are plenty of people on here who feed live safely and responsibly and I support that. I just prefer f/t.

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Originally Posted by Paysons Bps

I'm just scared to feed live because of all the things I hear, i'd hate to see my snake in any pain or have any markings on him. Thats why im so curious.

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Nothing personal, but I'm so tired of reading this. If you dont want scratches on their paint job, OK understandable. But the scratch it self, even a small bite is nothing to the snake, they will heal and go back to normal. People tend to make a bigger deal of it than what it really is because it's their "cute little pet."

These are snakes, and that's what they do. That is why they have scales. :snake:

IMO feed whatever is best for your snake! I feed both live and F/T..If it works for my snake, it works for me! OUT!:gj:

Not voting because you don't have a both button, I proudly feed both when I need to depending on the snake and the situation