Do you Prefer Live or Frozen?

I'm sure this has been asked over and over lol But i wanted to be special! So what do you suggest? Pros and cons? Where is the best place to buy live or frozen feeders? Mice or rats, what is more nutritious? Is it better to breed your own? Thanks :banana:

I would suggest the search engine. There are a bazzilion threads on that.

But I feed live.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

I would suggest the search engine. There are a bazzilion threads on that.

But I feed live.

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where do you get yours from?




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I breed my own.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

I breed my own.

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I assume it's much easier lol i only have this one. So I'll see how it goes!



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yes this will be a subject that will always raise tempertures in opinions and beliefs so my advice would be go with your heart make a decision based on how you feel about it because truth be told the snake will eat either at the end of the day.

:)

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Originally Posted by snakey68

yes this will be a subject that will always raise tempertures in opinions and beliefs so my advice would be go with your heart make a decision based on how you feel about it because truth be told the snake will eat either at the end of the day.

:)

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cool

I feed live and frozen.
Imo live is a little more costly. My adult will only eat live and my local pet store is 6$ a rat.
My young guys just switched to f/t and its cheaper because you can buy in bulk.

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I feed every snake that will take it f/t. I always used to feed live. But f/t is easier for me because my schedule changes often and it's much easier for me to go to the freezer and let a rat thaw than it is for me to drive to the petstore before 7pm when it closes. Also, f/t ends up being cheaper per rat. However, I currently only have one snake eating f/t. I will be switching my mojo over next week though after I pick up some f/t rat pups from the show.

I thought about breeding my own too, but they can be costly little buggers. They go through food and bedding like nobody's business! lol. It's a personal preference really. Whichever works best for you and your snake. :)

I wish i could breed my own. I'd rather feed live.

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Originally Posted by PorcelainxDoll

I feed live and frozen.
Imo live is a little more costly. My adult will only eat live and my local pet store is 6$ a rat.
My young guys just switched to f/t and its cheaper because you can buy in bulk.

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true! Mine ate live today..a weaner? lol The breeder i got her from said she is on live and i can try to get her to eat frozen over time. I'm new to this! lol

I plan to feed frozen mostly, but I will be breeding my own and freezing them. If the need arise I will feed live.

I feed live only because my snake will not take frozen/thawed (yet!) It is cleaner and less smelly to feed live. If I had more than 2 snakes, I would switch to frozen/thawed for availability.

I get my feeders from the East Bay Vivarium which is a specialized reptile shop with healthy animals.

I think it would be better to breed your own if you have a large collection, as you can e sure the rats are healthy and tame enough for your skittish snakes.

I think rats are better just cause they seem more sturdy and meaty. All the rats Ive seen always just look like they were built to actually be alive, and mice are like shivery, scrawny little snake peanuts.

Cool


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Originally Posted by MrBrute

I'm sure this has been asked over and over lol But i wanted to be special! So what do you suggest? Pros and cons? Where is the best place to buy live or frozen feeders? Mice or rats, what is more nutritious? Is it better to breed your own? Thanks :banana:

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It's all personal preference and what your snake will take. There's nothing wrong or better with either method.

I feed live. I also breed my own. Many of my snakes will not take f/t. And two of those particular snakes are really picky with live as is. Can't imagine trying to offer f/t to them. I also know what goes into my snakes as my rats are on a quality diet.
And thawing out a bunch or rats and doing the zombie dance for everyone of my snakes is a huge waste of time. It would take hours.

And it's also just convenient to drop a feeder in a tub, then move onto another. When I hear a strike, coil, and rat squeals, I look in that particular tub and see if the snake has a good hold then move on. If the rat is in a bad position where it could bite my snake, I stick a chopstick in its mouth. After waiting for the rat to pass, I just continue feeding everyone else. If someone doesn't eat their rat, the rat returns to the colony and gets saved for next weeks feeding or I give it to the ferrets. I'd rather prefer that than throwing away or refreezing f/t.

And feeding live is also cheaper for me than buying f/t in bulk. The rats I sell as pets pay for my breeder rats' supplies. So basically my snakes are getting fed for free.

I also love breeding rats. Its fun. The rats are amazing little critters. I really enjoy playing with them and the babies are very cute. But it's not worth breeding if you only have one or two snakes in my opinion.

Rats and mice have almost identical nutritional value. Rats have a slight higher fat content, but only by a percentage or two. So if you're feeding the same size rat as a mouse, they're pretty much the same. However, I hate feeding mice. They have an awful odor. And feeding a single rat vs multiple mice is more convenient when your snake grows bigger.


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Originally Posted by satomi325

It's all personal preference. There's nothing wrong or better with either method.

I feed live. I also breed my own. Many of my snakes will not take f/t. And two of those particular snakes are really picky with live as is. Can't imagine trying to offer f/t to them.

And it's also just convenient to drop a feeder in a tub, then move onto another. When I hear a strike, coil, and rat squeals, I look in that particular tub and see if the snake has a good hold then move on. If the rat is in a bad position where it could bite my snake, I stick a chopstick in its mouth. After waiting for the rat to pass, I just continue feeding everyone else. If someone doesn't eat their rat, the rat returns to the colony and gets saved for next weeks feeding or I give it to the ferrets. I'd rather prefer that than throwing away or refreezing f/t.

And feeding live is also cheaper for me than buying f/t in bulk. The rats I sell as pets pay for my breeder rats' supplies. So basically my snakes are getting fed for free.

I also love breeding rats. Its fun. The rats are amazing little critters. I really enjoy playing with them and the babies are very cute. But it's not worth breeding if you only have one or two snakes in my opinion.

Rats and mice have almost identical nutritional value. Rats have a slight higher fat content, but only by a percentage or two. So if you're feeding the same size rat as a mouse, they're pretty much the same. However, I hate feeding mice. They have an awful odor. And feeding a single rat vs multiple mice is more convenient when your snake grows bigger.


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Great info!


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Originally Posted by MrBrute

I assume it's much easier lol i only have this one. So I'll see how it goes!



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If you only have one snake, breeding your own would probably not be worth it. For me, with 8 snakes and one more on the way, totally easier to breed my own. A bag of Mazuri is only like $25.

Plus I like the rats too.

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Originally Posted by Capray

mice are like shivery, scrawny little snake peanuts.

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Lmfao

I feed live will be switching all to frozen once my collection grows more and I breed my own rats which it self has become fun ha my male normal ball is a beast he refuses frozen rats but will take any sized rat live

I feed frozen and live, but prefer live. Thawing out, blow drying and zombie dancing ~15 rats takes forever. Thankfully I just had my first two litters of rats this week! :D I need to pick up another male if I'm going to keep breeding though, seeing as my last one was fed when someone wouldn't take their f/t and I got frusterated :P

live rats all day and tomorrow too :)
No shriveled peanut snacks here, well except one female that won't take rats, and being pretty much irreplaceable means I feed her what she will eat, mice(s) :P

my feeling, feed whatever is easier for you

I'm feeding frozen/thawed, bought from a local reptile store. I prefer f/t because it is easier for me in that I don't have to go to the pet store every week, and I don't have any desire to breed my own right now. I also like buying them already killed so I don't have to do it (I could if I had to, but I don't like to if I can avoid it). I prefer dead prey over live prey because I think it's more humane to the prey (if killed properly in the first place, even though the snakes can be pretty efficient at their job) and safer for the snake (though it may not happen often, the potential risk of rodent injury to snake just isn't worth taking the chance, to me). My rosy boas took f/t from their first meal, and the ball pythons I just got were taking dead prey too, so works for me!

I feed both. One of my ball pythons is picky and will only take live. The rest of mine will eat whatever. I breed my own rats though because it's cheaper, and I don't have to worry about getting to the pet store if i'm out of frozen. I'd only suggest that for large collections though, otherwise you'll have a ton of rats you don't know what to do with. Lol

where do you all suggest to go to buy live?

Live, I trade snakes for rat credit with another breeder.

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And to those who feed f/t and say live can be dangerous. There are precautions to take to feed live responsibly. (i.e. appropriately sized prey, no adults, kept properly fed/watered, kept with snake for a limited time, etc etc,). F/T can become equally dangerous if done improperly too. Pros and Cons to both....

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Originally Posted by MrBrute

where do you all suggest to go to buy live?

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Find a local breeder or find a reptile shop.

You can find a feeder breeders on Craigslist usually.

I feed frozen to all my animals except for a couple I'm trying to convert to frozen thawed. Not because I think feeding live is gross, or dangerous for the animal. The reason I don't feed live is it's less convenient for twelve snakes (I don't want to start a breeding colony) . Once I tried feeding live to my snakes that would stubbornly only eat live food, so I bought three hopper mice. They gave me fuzzies by mistake. I also ordered a live adult mouse for my pastel. They were in paper "chinese takeout" boxes. I left them in their overnight and when I woke up in he morning the boxes were CHEWED though (I should have known that would happen!!) The adult mouse was in the with babies but one was missing. I saw mouse organs littering the shavings and ya, that's what happened to third mouse. Not pretty.

Frozen/thawed here. I like the convenience. I breed mice and order rats from Layne Labs -- their rodents are very clean and don't smell when thawed.

F/T is really pretty easy. Even new baby balls will start on warmed frozen.

Cool


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I've fed live before. It was more interesting and "easier" than f/t, but sometimes I don't have the right sizes available cause they grow so fast. Also, when the snakes are in shed and I want to feed them, they tend to miss really bad. So even though I watch them, it still increased the chances of a bite by a lot. I did pre-killed for a long time. It was easy because they are already as hot as they should be. But then there was the same problem with the mice growing too fast. I now feed f/t. This way I can pick out all the mice I need for my snakes, then leave the rest to sell to people. That way I for sure have enough food. Pre-killed is the easiest in my opinion though. But it wouldn't be worth it for you to spend the extra money to buy live, then have to kill it anyways.

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Originally Posted by Andrew21

I've fed live before. It was more interesting and "easier" than f/t, but sometimes I don't have the right sizes available cause they grow so fast. Also, when the snakes are in shed and I want to feed them, they tend to miss really bad. So even though I watch them, it still increased the chances of a bite by a lot. I did pre-killed for a long time. It was easy because they are already as hot as they should be. But then there was the same problem with the mice growing too fast. I now feed f/t. This way I can pick out all the mice I need for my snakes, then leave the rest to sell to people. That way I for sure have enough food. Pre-killed is the easiest in my opinion though. But it wouldn't be worth it for you to spend the extra money to buy live, then have to kill it anyways.

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thanks




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I have 22 ASF breeding colonies and 2 mouse colonies and I still feed both live and F/T. I live in Alberta and it is against the law to own live rats, the exception being ASF. and some of my girls are big so I feed them jumbo F/T rats.

Thanks for the info!

I buy my rats from a local breeder and he just has them freshly prekilled for me. I then weigh and ziploc bag each one and throw them in the freezer when I get home. I find it a lot cheaper to buy it like that than to buy those f/t from petsmart. They even thaw out and warm up nicely. No extra moisture or anything.

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Originally Posted by mercerasian

I buy my rats from a local breeder and he just has them freshly prekilled for me. I then weigh and ziploc bag each one and throw them in the freezer when I get home. I find it a lot cheaper to buy it like that than to buy those f/t from petsmart. They even thaw out and warm up nicely. No extra moisture or anything.

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thanks

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http://www.metalmonkeyexotics.com/blog/?page_id=331 i was checking this out to see was it worth it.

http://www.metalmonkeyexotics.com/blog/?page_id=524

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Originally Posted by MrBrute

http://www.metalmonkeyexotics.com/blog/?page_id=524

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Good find, thanks.

I prefer live because it's easier, I hate taking the time to thaw the rodents. But, I'm not producing enough rats for all my snakes and I really hate having more than 100 rats, so I'm feeding live and frozen. I'm feeding f/t mostly to the bigger snakes so I don't have to spend time getting the rats up to size.