feeding live to corns

okay, so i choose to feed live. i prefer to have my snakes eat like they would in nature... i figure there's no one doing f/t in the wild after all.

unfortunately there are so many people who feel this is wrong... "the snake could get injured" - i know that with balls... the only injury a snake is going to get is because it's not being fed/watched/cared for correctly (remove the mouse if not eaten etc)

so is it really bad for me to feed live to my corns? :confused:

I think the same applies (live is fine as long as the snake and rodent are monitored) to all snakes...I plan on feeding live to my corn (if and when I ever get one).

I feed live to my Rosy, my two corns and my ratsnake. It is very interesting to watch the Ratsnake have at a mouse(he's on f/t weaned rats because that is what I had on hand), because he doesn't coil around it, he just bites and lays on it! Very neat! The Rosy and the Corns just coil and constrict for about 5 minutes straight(well Rowan constricts the poor thing for about 10 minutes JUST TO BE SURE it's dead....dork).

We feed either live or f/t to Emi the milksnake. It is odd to watch her eat as she does not coil and constrict. Like Becky said, she will sort of pounce on the prey and lay on it or if it's f/t she'll just check it out carefully then snarf it down. I don't know if it's normal for these snakes but she tends to eat butt first a lot of time. I've heard they will sometimes "slam" prey, something about grabbing it and smacking it against the ground though I've never seen Emi do this behaviour.

I feed my gopher snake live as well...and have never seen him eat because if he even thinks someone is watching him, he won't go anywhere near the mouse. I drop the mousie in and then cover the tank with a big towel so he knows no one is watching. LOL I usually feed him two fuzzies instead of a single, older mouse...since I can't watch to make sure nothing goes wrong.

my corns weren't doing very well (coiling and killing) their pinkies but now that i have them on hoppers, they are constricting really well. it's like they know instinctively that this size mouse needs to be killed so they don't get harmed.

thanks for everyone's input... i really appreciate it!

i feed f/t to my hoggy because it's kind of sad to watch him kill mice... the couple times i gave him live, he'd just grip it real hard with those rear fangs and bash it against the glass for a few minutes. the pythons on the other hand have NO problem ;)

ew ya that would be sad to watch :(

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

my corns weren't doing very well (coiling and killing) their pinkies but now that i have them on hoppers, they are constricting really well. it's like they know instinctively that this size mouse needs to be killed so they don't get harmed.

thanks for everyone's input... i really appreciate it!

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Funny but I also notice a big difference in how Emi dealt with her pinkie mice compared to the fuzzy mice she's now on. She used to be a very slow eater...sometimes up to 15 minutes of nosing about before finally eating her pinkie. First time we put a fuzzy mouse in there (f/t) she nearly freaked LOL. It was hilarious to watch her rear up and almost look totally surprised at this new and fascinating prey item. She literally threw herself on top of the fuzzy mouse and was just vibrating with what I can only guess was excitement (I know it wasn't but I've no clue what to call that in a snake LOL). She's only been on fuzzies for about 3 feeds now but she's definitely more interested in them than she ever was in the pinks.

:wuv:

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vibrating with what I can only guess was excitement (I know it wasn't but I've no clue what to call that in a snake LOL)

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:wuv:

no comment... hahahahahahahaha

well my corn just strikes it really hard then just eats her f/t pinky... dunno

We've had Kish since mid-Dec and she's coiled only twice in that entire time. I've fed her FT because that's all I had and PetCo said that's what they fed. Except for the once right before she shed she's eaten w/o any problems. I had given her a newborn rat because she's grown enough, but w/in minutes she regurged and I went back to the pinky mice. Now she's had the extra growth and once the fuzzies get here she'll start getting those. :D


RG, I think live is fine, as long as you take the safety precautions to minimize the injury to your snake, no matter what species it is. In some ways (to me anyway) live would be faster/more convenient but now that I have more critters and they're all different sizes, it's cheaper for me to feed the FT. < My fridge freezer is now almost exclusively SNAKE lol >. Then the rats aren't growing faster than the snake can eat 'em and since I can't seem to get the mice to breed AND rear the litters for P Snake, I'll just have to buy 6-8 at a time and eat the $1.29 ea. cost. (Unless he cooperates and will start taking FT again! *prayerful wishing!*) He WAS eating rat pups, but unless I breed my own, no one around here consistantly sells live rats that small.

well my wee boy valentino (blood red corn) did a regurge. first one i've ever had. i think it's because he's blue but who knows really???

he shed perfectly last time and ate during it so i really have no idea. perhaps the fuzzy was too large? although he took it down easily...

oh well... if he does it again, i'll analyze further. i think i'll continue with live as long as they are available, otherwise f/t will the way to go. ;) convenience and availablity do play a major role in this.

Hey everybody, it is me....The EyeLashViper....

Personally, I love feeding live to my snakes. I monitor them closely to ensure that nothing untowards happens - But I find it a fascinating process to observe the different ways my snakes have of dispatching prey. My Bull snake is perhaps the most efficient predator in my collection. He immediately detects the mice that I drop into his enclosure and he wastes no time in closing in and seizing the mouse and beginning to constrict it. My Western Hognose is on pinky rats and she grabs them from the butt and literally eats them alive and screaming. it sometimes takes her 20 minutes to choke one down and it is kicking and thrashing the whole time.Geez....

I get a bang outa feeding live. I never have really gotten into the whole "frozen, thawed , microwaved....ect...ect...every time I tried it my snakes would just stick up their noses and refuse to eat.I personally think that feeding live is the natural way - nobody out in nature is doling out mouse-popsicles if you get my drift....man....that reminds me of when I still had my big Ball pythons and I used to feed them ADULT rats...holy moly....you aint seen nothing till you have seen a large male rat get taken down...they scream bloody murder ( I guess that IS what it IS ) I used to literally jump outa my skin when my big female BP Trinity used to nail an adult rat. I can only imagine what it is like to feed live bunny rabbits to big predators like reticulated pythons or adult Boa constrictors...crazeee.....

EyeLashViper

Actually we feed live to Rauri the 6 foot or so male BCI we are fostering for Becky and while any snake feeding is interesting, he's not any different really than the much smaller ball pythons or even the tiny milksnake. He does take jumbo rats, guinea pigs or baby meat rabbits with equal zeal and simply strikes very hard, blindingly fast and is highly efficient about the whole process. Nothing suffers as he's so strong that it's over in seconds, it's rare to hear even a squeek once Rauri's hit his prey and nothing escapes those coils.

The only wierd thing is once he's on the hunt nothing in the room can move or he will strike at the glass sides of his enclosure. If he bumps his nose....he'll refuse to eat or hunt any further that night (he's a big weenie about his nose apparently LOL). He also likes to glare about the room to see if anyone is moving around before he settles down to eat his dinner.

Basically though if you compare him to our small male ball python they are pretty similar...both males with major appetites and very strong feeding responses...they like their meals and they like em on a real regular basis (geesh am I talking about our snakes or the guys in our family now LOL).

hahaha jo it's funny cause my snakes are like that... i have to stand soooo still and the kids can't come in the room or they all stop eating with a look like "excuse me? did i ask for an audience... no i don't think so!!! get out now!"

LOL snakes are sooooo cool. i just love them!

I use to feed live to my BPs but not anymore, to dangerous. I personally see no reson to risk the snakes health to feed live unless it absolutly necessary. Most snakes that people say will only take live will usaully take pre-killed as well. Pre-killed has the same scent and warmth as live food. Yes feeding live is cool to watch but not at the risks of your snakes health. But thats just my opionion.