What snakes can be feed ball pythons?

I'm thinking that if I ever get into ball python breeding and get too many normals in a clutch I might make sure no life goes to waste. I think Kingsnake maybe?

But is it a stupid idea? Will the snake always be able to smell my other snakes and be hard to handle/be uncomfortable in general?

-EDIT: I wasn't planning on killing off the normals I don't want, if I can't use them as feeders I'll keep them of course.

I have to admit that this is a good question. My problem with it is I love snakes and to see a snake to be used as an unwanted feeder kind of bugs me, but couldn't this be said about people who love pet mice? I am not really sure how to answer your question, whether it would be right or wrong. I am sure that an adult king snake could eat a hatchling BP but I am not sure how I exactly feel about it. The thing is, by the time the normals are old enough to be sold, and by the time you figure they wont sell, they will be too big and feisty to feed to your king snakes. Also, quite a few breeders have told me that their normals tend to sell quickly as they are very cheap.

Maybe and hopefully someone else will have more of an input on the subject...

I mean, I have a pet mouse and I would look differently at someone who was breeding mice for the purpose of feeding versus someone who was breeding and caring for a litter and just decided to feed them off because they weren't the proper color or whatever... I don't know. I mean, I get that everything needs to eat and some snakes eat other snakes, I just don't personally like the idea of feeding something off just because it's not the right morph when its life is the result of your actions to begin with...

That is a touch subject that may or may not ruffle some feathers. In my opinion I don't think that's the right mind set you should be in. Its one thing when there's complications and it's unlikely that the animal is going to survive, it happens. Line breeding is a less ugly word for inbreeding, but another entirely when you want to kill them off just because they are normals. I know for a fact that there are rodent breeders who breed with the intention of their animals being pets and not used for feeders.
That's just me, unless you are breeding 4+ gene males to 2+ gene females there's going to be a good chance for normals in your clutch. A $20 normal might not mean much to you but might mean the world to someone else.

I know, the moral issue will be odd to decide on, but I grew up with parents who let us kids help raise pigs that were later put on the dinner table. It is possible to care for some animals and eat other if you shut it down. We kids hated it and refused to eat and our parents stopped having pigs, but now my sis has hens, kills then ones that are sick or the rosters that won't be sold(and eats the rosters) event hough it's hard on her, and I wonder if I wouldn't be able to do the same with snakes. Mom is even thinking about breeding bunnys for food, and she has always had bunnies as pets. So I know some people can do it without being odd people. Most farmers do. Cows are some of the most beautiful heartwarming creatures, but I still eat them(haven't killed any though).

But, I imagine that caring for the eggs would make it hard for me to kill them. I would definitly kill them out of the egg and freeze to avoid growing attached to them and them becoming too big.

Thing is, in Sweden we don't have a huge market, and normals from beginner breeders are not sold that quickly. Sometimes they're given away to people who shouldn't have animals. So should I send my snakes off to people who buy cheap snakes and hope for the best or feed a beloved pet? I've grown used to the idea of giving rodents(mind you, I have yet to get a snake. Maybe I can't handle giving f/t to my snakes) even though I love and have rodents, so maybe I could even breed and kill on my own?

I raise goats, chickens, and rabbits for our own consumption. If you live on a farm or homestead, most of that goes into the soup pot at some point. I love and care for our animals (they all have names), but I'm sentimental about very few. The occasional older breeder rabbit might be more likely to get a burial than a butchering. I have had pet rabbits too. I would rather butcher an extra animal than send it off to someone questionable.

Life is a circle. At the end of the day, we all feed each other.

I have a few adult king snakes that take care of the kinked or stillborn neonates.

Ball pythons are really not that different from any other animal we use as food or for feeders. I loved my pet rats dearly and sobbed over some of their deaths. But I also raise rats for feeders and kill and feed them to snakes and lizards.

If you have extra ball python hatchlings and you humanely kill them off and feed them to another snake that typically eats snakes as a diet, then I don't see anything at all wrong with that. I have fed DEAD hatchlings(ones that didn't make it out of the egg or were so badly deformed to not be viable) to one of the monitors before. I wasn't killing healthy hatchlings though, but I do have a market for normal hatchlings.

The only types I know of that eat other snakes though are kingsnakes and cobras, lol. So I'm little help there.

It's a touchy subject indeed. But then we also have had rat lovers who get angry at the very idea that ANYone would deliberately breed rats that they can't find good loving vetted pet homes for, and then use them for feeders. So a ball python forum would have a lot of folks who may feel similarly about hatching ball pythons.

this is an interesting question... I have some cool snakes in my collection at the moment, but honestly, none of them are as priceless to me as my first ever ball python, a normal girl. she is such a sweetheart, I would do anything for her. If the babies were deformed..or already dead, then it would be fine to feed them off, because they don't have a chance at life anyways. but feeding a healthy hatchling, normal or not, wouldn't be right at all. just knowing how much myself and others love their normals, I can't stand the thought of potentially taking away a certain someones beloved normal... :( they may not be worth as much, but that shouldn't make them eligible to be feeders.

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Originally Posted by maudie

this is an interesting question... I have some cool snakes in my collection at the moment, but honestly, none of them are as priceless to me as my first ever ball python, a normal girl. she is such a sweetheart, I would do anything for her. If the babies were deformed..or already dead, then it would be fine to feed them off, because they don't have a chance at life anyways. but feeding a healthy hatchling, normal or not, wouldn't be right at all. just knowing how much myself and others love their normals, I can't stand the thought of potentially taking away a certain someones beloved normal... :( they may not be worth as much, but that shouldn't make them eligible to be feeders.

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Understand your feelings but you also have to take "YOU" out of the situation.
I have fed off and given away normal males because they are useless in a business plan.
That being said, I have also see what can happen to a free animal when someone doesn't know or care how to care for it.
Its facts that many wont like or agree with.

This is just my opinion but I PERSONALLY would not do it.

I understand that people breed rats as feeders, but those were bred specifically for the purpose of being feeders. These are bred with the intent of them being pets, so feeding them off just because they didn't have the right genes is a little unfair to the animal in my opinion.

People probably feel this way about us when we feed rats as well.

I 100% understand though that from a business stand point, it makes sense. People probably do this with rats too, so I get it completely, I just have a hard time imagining it, but y'know, you do you, if you don't have a problem with it, that's fine!

Like I said, this is only MY opinion, and I know that you have no bad intentions, so do whatever YOU think is right!

Before the explosion of morphs ball pythons were bred as both feeders and pets. Some people still produce them as feeders for snake-eating snakes.

I've sent a few male normals to local pet-only homes as freebies, with the caveat that the snake comes back to me if the new owner no longer wants it. So far only one has come back.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Understand your feelings but you also have to take "YOU" out of the situation.
I have fed off and given away normal males because they are useless in a business plan.
That being said, I have also see what can happen to a free animal when someone doesn't know or care how to care for it.
Its facts that many wont like or agree with.

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I think in many cases, a feeder is the more humane solution.

The way I see it, a free snake is much more likely to be accepted on impulse. In the case of "free," the necessary thermostat, temp gun, etc. are going to look relatively expensive. A $500 animal has a much better chance of getting good care and a proper set up in its new home.

Personally, I prefer the look of the normals, but I wouldn't accept even a "free" snake without already owning the enclosure, the necessary equipment, and having the food source in place.

From a farming perspective, "extras" are just a fact of life. Extra roosters, extra bull calves, extra bucks...
Due to time as a volunteer at our local animal control, and also at a no-kill cat shelter, I've become jaded; there are worse fates than death.

I don't see anything wrong with it, personally, but I think there could be complications for you...
1. You'd have to get a kingsnake (or other type of snake) large enough to take decent-sized BPs for food.
2. If pre-killing the BP hatchlings, you will need to figure out a humane way of doing so that doesn't destroy their body (so that they can be fed off later)... This, I think, is the bigger issue, because if my reading is correct, the only truely humane way of killing a reptile is destroying it's brain matter (crushing it's head)... and if you did that, I am not sure if it would then make a suitable feeder.
3. If feeding them live, your kingsnake would need to be able to deal with a sizable prey item and might get hurt in the process.

I think it could be done, but as I said above, there are complications. I, myself, am starting to raise rats primarily to breed for pet purposes, but I intend to use the pups that do not show good temperament or health, etc. as feeders until I get my lines established.. Basically, I don't want to sell babies that might have bad temperaments and bite people, so I feel that humanely euthanizing them, then using as feeders is a better option.

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Originally Posted by carolineleven

I'm thinking that if I ever get into ball python breeding and get too many normals in a clutch I might make sure no life goes to waste. I think Kingsnake maybe?

But is it a stupid idea? Will the snake always be able to smell my other snakes and be hard to handle/be uncomfortable in general?

-EDIT: I wasn't planning on killing off the normals I don't want, if I can't use them as feeders I'll keep them of course.

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You don't have to get another snake for that purpose you can very well wholesale your normals as either pets or feeders. That's another option as well.

In my case, after working at a locally owned pet store in Florida and seeing just how poorly your average normal ball python gets treated, I decided that any normals I produce (unless there is a holdback worthy animal) would be sold for feeders, or fed to my kingsnake. I know several people with king cobras, or large kingsnake collections that would benefit.

I would rather the animal be humanely euthanized and fed to an animal, than left to live in subpar living conditions and lacking a good quality of life. Like distaff said, there are worse fates than death.

It's interesting, I was just tweeting about the whole predator/prey/circle of life thing yesterday. And this thread is actually doing really well, for potential feather-ruffling.

As stated, the practical issue would just lie in how to humanely euthanize. I don't believe that selling normals "cheap" to potential pet homes with less than ideal conditions (unknown if the future owner would be willing to afford vet care, thermostats, proper equipment) is better than humanely euthanizing baby BPs as feeders/selling them online to snake-eating species. If you would rather sell them "cheap and fast" on craigslist and not deal with it, then humane euthanasia could possibly be morally preferable...

But then there's the option of upping the prices of your normals so that they may have a better chance at going to a responsible pet home AND educating/screening the potential owner on BP husbandry and equipment before selling it to them- it would just take a little more effort on your part.

Urr... to the OP's actual questions though, I have no experience with kingsnakes and how they fare with smelling ball pythons. Ahaha.