Feeding live to BPs opinion

I keep ball pythons and most of my snakes eat f/t except for 2. Although I do have those picky eaters, they still eat f/t. However, I think after 2 years of just f/t, I think I might go live for some of my snakes because of the fact its a little bit more convenient and I won't have to wait 30 minutes or a day to see if the snake ate the rat. What do you guys think, live more convenient or f/t?

*side note*
-I just need to get over my fear of holding rats before going live LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. But probably won't take that long after I see someone hold a rat in front of my a few times. I used to fear snakes, but got over that fear and now i have like 13.

Live is more expensive, unless you breed. Also if you get a refusal with live you have to keep it alive until the next feeding day. So long as it's done responsibly, there's very little risk of your snake getting injured by a live feeder. A lot of people here do it and never have issues. I don't feed live because 1) I get attached to refused feeders and want to keep them 2) F/T is cheaper 3) I can buy F/T in bulk online where I have to get live feeders one or two at a time.

I personally think f/t is more convenient, because I only offer for about 20 minutes regardless of the method of feeder. If he doesnt hit it within a half-hour, he's just not hungry. If he doesn't feel like eating that week, I can pop a dead rat in the freezer no problem, rather than maintaining the livelihood of a rat for another week (and possibly falling in love with it in the meantime, because rats are my favorite creature next to snakes lol.)

I have a rodent place here that sells rats pretty cheap here. I have only 2 or 3 live eaters. If they don't eat, then I can feed them to my other good eaters that never miss a meal. They eat like crazy. I say 3 because one of my snakes did take a f/t rat, but just coiled it. Checked on it today and she didn't eat it.

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

I personally think f/t is more convenient, because I only offer for about 20 minutes regardless of the method of feeder. If he doesnt hit it within a half-hour, he's just not hungry. If he doesn't feel like eating that week, I can pop a dead rat in the freezer no problem, rather than maintaining the livelihood of a rat for another week (and possibly falling in love with it in the meantime, because rats are my favorite creature next to snakes lol.)

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Do you only have one snake? Because its a bit different with me. I have like 13 and I know some breeders here in my area and others and they all fed live because of big collections; and I agree with them because my snake collection is growing too.

I feed live. I prefer it over F/T.
I find it more convenient and cheaper because I do have quite a few snakes. I also breed my own rats. The rats do pay for themselves, so my snakes are basically eating for free. If I had to thaw out frozen rats and do the zombie dance for all my snakes, it would take an hour or two to feed. Not pleasing for me at all.
With live, I just place the feeder in the tub, and move onto the next one. If I hear a strike, I check out that tub to see if the snake has a good hold and then leave them be. If the snake has a poor grip, I just stick something in the rat's mouth to prevent bites. But otherwise, not usually an issue anyway.
For feeders that are not eaten, just go back into the colony to be saved for next week or are tossed in with my ferrets. Feeding is a quick process.
With frozen, I'd rather not refreeze rats more than once, so I feel like a lot of my feeders would go to waste. Especially since 80% of my snakes won't take f/t.

I prefer live. It's much faster and more convenient for me. No time spent messing around with thawing out rodents, also no wasted rodents.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ly-feed-F-T%29

I feed live and not only prefer it but I hate doing f/t.
I do f/t occasionally to a few of my best eaters, but picky eaters will never see a f/t

We're transitioning all of the snakes to f/t because the only place near us that sells live isn't open on Sunday, the day we prefer to feed, and it's not really all that close.

We also have some boas and kings that will happily gobble down f/t rodents if the picky BP's decide they aren't hungry.

I recently switched from F/T to live back in January and I love it. I noticed that my snakes readily eat better than with F/T. I also found a local breeder who sells the rats to me cheap. I also don't have freezer space to keep a bunch of F/T mice and rats (I feed my corns F/T mice). I'm getting ready to start breeding my own rats in the next year or so to help with feeding all the babies I'm going to start getting.

Live and f/t here. It all depends on the snake.

I feed live and have never had an issue. I prefer it because for me its cheaper and much more convenient and I enjoy breeding my own rats and knowing that my rats are eating quality feed and in quality care.

I switched back to live last year (when I found a breeder whos rats sre very healthy) plus thawing out food for 30 snakes is a headache.
Live is much more conveinant.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

We're transitioning all of the snakes to f/t because the only place near us that sells live isn't open on Sunday, the day we prefer to feed, and it's not really all that close.

We also have some boas and kings that will happily gobble down f/t rodents if the picky BP's decide they aren't hungry.

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How has the converting to f/t been so far? What's your technique (s)? Thats another reason about f/t converting is that some won't take it f/t no matter how many techniques you try.

Live is much easier. You just have to be responsible is how you feed and you should never have a provlem.

My snake doesn't eat F/T so I have to feed live. Also I agree with the people that say live is more convenient.

I started my snake collection with corns so I've only ever fed F/T. However, after reading many threads on this forum, I agree that live is safe when done properly, quicker, and cheaper when you have a large collection and breed your own rats. It's a matter of personal preference. F/T takes more time and can be more difficult but at the same time, there is no chance of a F/T rat getting a hold of my babies (my albino has scars from where a rat got a hold of her at the breeders so...). Even my '10 male pastave who'd never had anything but live switched to F/T as an adult so I have yet to have any issues with feeding. That being said, my routine is I put the rats in the fridge before I go to work. They go under a heat lamp around 7 so they are warmed up by the time it's dark and then the feeding starts. I only offer one rat per snake so that if someone isn't hungry that night, one of my growing girls will take a second one, keeping me from having leftovers. The whole process takes about an hour and a half with only 7 bps. As my collection grows, it is very likely that I will be switching to live in order to make things go a little faster.

Honestly, it depends on how many you have and how much time you have to feed. To make things faster, I may split up the feedings in the future so that I don't have to do this with 10+ animals in one night. It will still take more time than live, but it may take me longer to feel truly comfortable with feeding live than it will to grow my collection.

I feed live, but of course for me there's the reduced risk since I feed live chicks...

feeding live is my only option. my wife wouldn't let a bag full of dead rats within 10 feet of our freezer. I toss a rat in, wait for my bp to pounce and use a plastic rod to keep the rat's mouth away.

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Originally Posted by Peoples

I feed live, but of course for me there's the reduced risk since I feed live chicks...

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wait a minute...chickens don't have teeth???

I always feed live it's much easier when you have 150 snakes. The only snakes I give FT is the bloods and the retics I keep.

So from what I've read about feeding live is you have to sit and watch them because they can really mess your snake up. So how many of you sit and watch them? Do you just throw them in there and keep going down the row and check back if you hear a strike? Seems like that would save time but I'd be really worried about not being able to watch them all. The pics of rat bites that have been posted are burned into my brain.

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Originally Posted by Marrissa

So from what I've read about feeding live is you have to sit and watch them because they can really mess your snake up. So how many of you sit and watch them? Do you just throw them in there and keep going down the row and check back if you hear a strike? Seems like that would save time but I'd be really worried about not being able to watch them all. The pics of rat bites that have been posted are burned into my brain.

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I recommend watching live feeding for inexperienced keepers.
However, I never sit and watch unless the snake has the rat in a poor position.

This is what I personally do:

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Originally Posted by satomi325

With live, I just place the feeder in the tub, and move onto the next one. If I hear a strike, I check out that tub to see if the snake has a good hold and then leave them be. If the snake has a poor grip, I just stick something in the rat's mouth to prevent bites. But otherwise, not usually an issue anyway.

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This is on top of the other responsible live feeding methods that I practice, such as feeding the appropriate size feeder, keep the feeder well fed and watered, and do not leave feeder in with the snake for longer than 30 minutes.

The pictures you have seen are feeders that have been left with snakes for extended periods of time and have gone hungry. Hungry rats will eat whatever else is in the tub with them. AKA the snake.
These are irresponsible feeding incidents.



Some responsible live feeding tips:

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Originally Posted by satomi325

1) Feed the appropriate size food. I like smaller and more frequent meals than larger and less often. Weanlings and small rats are safe and harmless(to some extent). They're also not as conscious to danger as an adult would be. Adult rats can pack a nasty bite and are much stronger at fighting back, which is why "smaller and more frequent" is the way to go. I feed all of my adults weaned/small rats once a week. And multiple smalls for the big girls. A live medium size would be the max appropriate size for a ball python.

2) Keep the feeder well fed and hydrated. They're less likely to see your snake as food. Hungry rats are dangerous rats. They will eat your snake if left unattended for extended periods of time. This is the reason for most snake killing incidences.

3) Don't dangle the live feeder. This puts them in panic mode. A freaked out feeder is a dangerous feeder. Gently place the feeder into your enclosure. Calm feeders are good.

4) Keep a tool, such as tongs, on hand to assist your snake in case the feeder tries to bite down. I use a chop stick to stick in the feeder's mouth if its in a bad position.

5) Don't keep the feeder in with your snake longer than 30 mins max or so. Some people have a shorter time frame. If he doesn't eat within that time frame, take out the feeder and save it for next week.

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Ok cool. I may just breed rats for my snakes when I eventually breed and get up a good size collection. Thank you for all the tips/rules and information. :)

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Originally Posted by Marrissa

Ok cool. I may just breed rats for my snakes when I eventually breed and get up a good size collection. Thank you for all the tips/rules and information. :)

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You're welcome. :)

And another thing that I noticed is that when breeding my own rats, they're much more tame and calm compared to unsocialized rats from stores. So that will help ease personal fears of a rat attack on a snake.
And breeding calm easy going rats will help since aggression is heritable in rodents.

With 9 snakes that all eat live I get a bite once a month or so, however they are all small and minor, never deep or very damaging. You don't have to watch the whole time, but check within 15 to ensure that the prey has been eaten. If not I remove the prey item and will try again next feeding day.

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