What's your feeding method?

Do you feed live or F/T, and why?

live.. its what breeder had her on

I feed what works and what is convinient, in this case I feed live because I have over 40 snakes (and counting) and F/T is no longer convenient for me - I also breed my own rodents.

live, i cant convince my BP that f/t is food...

I feed live, but will start freezing some so I have some on hand, in case I have to go out of town. That way if I'm gone for maybe 3 weeks, my roomate can do the f/t. I don't trust anyone else to feed my babies live meals.

I now have Henry on F/T but he was fed live from the breeder and would not take a F/T at first. Now he strikes right out of his hide at a F/T. :D F/T is much more convenient because its a nasty drive to where I have to get the live prey, this way I can buy 4 at a time and only make the trip once every 23ish days. :)

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Originally Posted by Deborah

I feed what works and what is convinient, in this case I feed live because I have over 40 snakes (and counting) and F/T is no longer convenient for me - I also breed my own rodents.

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Same here

I feed whatever I happen to have. Sometimes live, sometimes F/T. If I had the choice, I would only feed F/T because it is more convenient for me to just grab one out of the fridge. Plus, mice stink like no other.

Live...way to many snakes to mess around with f/t.

I feed live with my one baby. It's just what she's used to. I would like to try frozen soon, but with live if she doesn't eat it, I can just keep it. However, I wouldn't have to worry about a bite from a frozen.

Frozen all the way. Just keep 'em in the freezer, take rodents out in the morning during feeding day, heat 'em up with a hair dryer, automatically pre-scent the room, and feeding. ;)

F/T finally...Keep my collection small so I can order in bulk and last for 4 -6 months...Comes out to be around $2.42 a small rat...Cheaper than 4+ bucks minimum at local pet stores...

F/T to those who take it, live to the one who won't. I also breed my own feeders so I can be assured of their quality and that they were raised/euthanized humanely.

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Originally Posted by M&J in NC

Do you feed live or F/T, and why?

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Neither, I feed peanut butter and Gold Fish crackers.

F/T all the way. When I had my first boa I had a bad experience with him getting bit by a little mouse so I do not want that happening again.

Up to 13 snakes now and all eat F/T no problem :)

When I was new to the hobby, I preferred live so I could watch it die as my Anaconda squeezed the life out of it(i had alot of built in anger) lol, but now I prefer F/T because of less chance of the mouse or anything having any kind of disease, and because my snake bit itsself going after a mouse one day it don't really show intrest in live mouses, so then I had to start plucking the mouse to kill it then just wiggle it for a second in front of her then shed start eating it, so I said ah? what the hell, I started getting Frozen ones. So she switched to F/T herself.

Live to all the BP's (around 40 of them) and f/t to the kingsnake (because I don't have a steady supply of appropriately sized mice, and he doesn't care). Have always fed live to my ball pythons, never pre-killed or f/t. No problems!

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Originally Posted by Slim

Neither, I feed peanut butter and Gold Fish crackers.

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Yeah, that works too.

We feed our rescue f/t... He takes it straight away and a bit of a tug after the first wrap which gets him to give it a better "hug". As others have said, live or f/t sometimes it is a matter of convenience for the human, or preference of the snake. Mikey has had no issues on coming out of his hide, and snatching a f/t adult mouse out of the tongs within 20 seconds of offering. Even if a missed strike or two, still a go getter...

We feed in cage with paper towels down over the substrate. When we doe this he seems to know it's time to eat. Please it keeps the substrate off the prey item.

F/t, so mouse bites can be avoided.

F/T. My collection is not large enough to warrant a rodent colony. Additionally, it helps keep the cost down and when purchased in bulk I have plenty to go around for months. They were on live and the transition was very smooth to my surprise. Hope it helps.

F/T. its a convenience factor for me. I live in an apartment and have 2 cats as well as the snakes. I dont want to add live rodents into that mix unless necessary.

i started with f / t... when I only had one snake. NO way in hell would I even consider it now. I have over 25 snakes, and about half of them eat two ASF's at a time.... so that is about 40 rodents a week. WAY too many to deal with defrosting and getting the temperature right.

On a side note, breeding the ASF's is such a rewarding experience all by itself, I would recommend it to anyone with more then 2 snakes.

There is nothing like feeding rodents you created, selectively bred and cared for to the highest standards. I can honestly tell you that my snakes eat the absolute highest quality food every time.

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

i started with f / t... when I only had one snake. NO way in hell would I even consider it now. I have over 25 snakes, and about half of them eat two ASF's at a time.... so that is about 40 rodents a week. WAY too many to deal with defrosting and getting the temperature right.

On a side note, breeding the ASF's is such a rewarding experience all by itself, I would recommend it to anyone with more then 2 snakes.

There is nothing like feeding rodents you created, selectively bred and cared for to the highest standards. I can honestly tell you that my snakes eat the absolute highest quality food every time.

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Mike, could you tell me a little about your set up for your ASFs? And if you perfer them over standard rats and mice? If this is off topic of the post feel free to PM me if you have the time.

F/t or p/k is the only way to go for me. I fed live for a few years when my snakes were younger, but the stress was too much and my snakes were getting bit too often, nothing serious, but I don't like to take chances anymore.

I feed live. I tried to feed F/T and they never ate them. Also, all my snakes only eat "all white rats". There has been times that I brought home rats with grey or brown markings and my snakes would not eat them. Very strange.