Live or frozen

Hey,
I have read that it is a good idea to feed your python pre-killed rats. My question is why?
>I have rat snakes now that I feed live mice to and they have never had any problems. Also, I would think it was better to feed live because it gives the snake a chance to sharpen their hunting skills.
What do any of you feed your snakes?Why?
>Any replies will be greatly appreciated.

A mouse when threatened will stay absolutely still and not move. A rat when threatened will fight to the death. Even a mouse can do lots of damage to a ball python. Think about this. A prey item will fight with all of its worth because that means its survival and will defend itself it will bite and scratch. Even if you feed 100 times with no bad accidents eventualy the odds will catch up to you.

Feeding live doesnt sharpen their hunting skills. For snakes hunting is not learned its instinctive. Snakes know how to eat right out of the egg and dont need to be taught. I have beed feeding Jojo fresh killed rodents since he was a baby and still hits with full force every time and i have had him for 2.5 years. If i had to choose to kill the mouse and do the mousey dance instead of the mouse maybe taking out an eye or biting its head. These snakes have beautiful markings and it would be an absolute shame to put a scar on it.

Feed fresh killed please. It tears my heart out when i see a post where someone's snake lost scales and has a scar because they fed live. Even national Zoos feed killed rodents. I say if the pros do it then i should too.

Someone please post that pic of that ball python that was attacked by a mouse.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/PNphpBB2...ic-t-2304.html

Because those nasty little rodents can hurt our precious babies. There is more pics out there but this actually happened to one of our members.

http://ball-pythons.net/careimages/ballchew2.jpg < Thats why we feed frozen.

Thanks for the tips. I will reconsider feeding live mice.

Glad you'll reconsider. Feeding live can be really dangerous, as I'm sure you saw from those pictures. It's also more humain for the mouse/rat to be killed quickly than constricted to death by a python.

Don't forget that most BP's are very timid and if they get bit once by a rat they will in all likely hood go off feeding.

Vette, I'm wondering why you would want your snake to "sharpen its hunting skills." Hunting is not a skill any captive snake should need. We've been able to transition nearly all of our snakes (11 out of 14) to frozen/thawed. We have a few that have never even seen a live mouse because their breeders fed them frozen/thawed, and I have to say, if anyone is considering buying a new snake, ask the breeder what they feed. If you have a choice between a snake that has only fed on live prey and a snake that has never seen live prey, go with the latter!

I took everybodys advice and also did some research and decided for sure not to feed live.
>And when I said "sharpen the hunting skills" I didn't mean like practice, I couldn't think of a way to describe what I meant. What I did mean is it gave them a chance to comply with their natural instincs sort of.
>But anyway, now I even switching my rat snakes to pre-killed, they have had it before so it should'nt too hard.
Thanks for the advice and also for listening to my noobish questions!

No problem we are all here to help you and your herps.

http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ_answer...ng_thawed.html <---why I don't feed live combined with:
The chace of live prey carrying a parasite
The fact that frozen is WAY cheaper
The face that frozen is WAY easier (I have twenty weaned rats in my freezer right now - mom is thrilled ;)
The fact that frozen is more humane for the prey

It is a very good question and I'm very glad you asked :)

As far as re-creating as "wild" an environment as possible I struggled with that as well until I talked to KLG (brilliant and experience snake keeper- works at NERD) and she explained that any confined space (i.e. tank) is not really like the wild. In the wild if a snake is threatened it can go hide in a burrow or slither away, not a lot of escape room in a tank. Plus the injury factor as well - I would love to hear her chime in on this - she knows a LOT about it :) but it's a great question and never hurts to have a refresher or re-open the discussion- thanks for bringing it up and thanks for being here! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vette

I took everybodys advice and also did some research and decided for sure not to feed live.
>And when I said "sharpen the hunting skills" I didn't mean like practice, I couldn't think of a way to describe what I meant. What I did mean is it gave them a chance to comply with their natural instincs sort of.
>But anyway, now I even switching my rat snakes to pre-killed, they have had it before so it should'nt too hard.
Thanks for the advice and also for listening to my noobish questions!

---

Good for you, Vette! When you're ready to switch from pre-killed to frozen/thawed, check out www.rodentpro.com

i'm one of those odd balls that feels this topic is incredibly overrated.

Treat your snakes for parasites a few times jamming a syringe down their throat and watching the meds bubble out of their nose and the look of ACK! in their eyes - not fun.

The only thing cheaper than frozen is breeding your own. It's not too much a throw-away topic, yar.