Live food...why? Honestly & with facts!

[zmd0827]

Sav monitors shouldnt be fed rodents period,

He is fed a well balanced diet. Rodents aren't his only source of food. Lizards are in there too, beef, eggs. That's about it so far. We're experimenting with him, but he just got over scale rot, so you can see where we're coming from.

[KingPythons]

Of course, in the wild they aren't in a newspaper lined tub. In the wild the rat has a chance to escape, and so does the snake if it doesn't want to eat. I still don't think feeding live is any more 'natural' unless the snake was given a total hunting experience.... Dangling/tossing in a rat in a box isn't the same, though I can see it's pros and cons.

Our male IS occasionally fed live, when he's being picky. Thankfully he's never been hurt. Came close a few times though!

I don't understand what you mean by hunting experience

[purplemuffin]

Well, I guess what I mean is it's a different experience than it would be in the wild. Yes the ball is an opportunist who will wait for prey to come to it.. But it's hard to compare a confined experience in a tub with the real outdoors. I don't really mean like true hunting, that was a poor choice of words. I don't have problems with feeding live, I just wouldn't call it natural--for either the predator or the prey really. I think of live feeding being fed more so out of convenience as well as to know what the rat was fed.

[KingPythons]

Well, I guess what I mean is it's a different experience than it would be in the wild. Yes the ball is an opportunist who will wait for prey to come to it.. But it's hard to compare a confined experience in a tub with the real outdoors. I don't really mean like true hunting, that was a poor choice of words. I don't have problems with feeding live, I just wouldn't call it natural--for either the predator or the prey really. I think of live feeding being fed more so out of convenience as well as to know what the rat was fed.

Oh, I find it to be very natural. I know what my rats eat. I mean if you think killing a rat yourself or thawing a rat is natural that's fine lol. To each there own.

[hut8822]

Personaly it`s alot easier for me to feed live because for me to buy f/t i have to drive an hour.Live are only about 10 min away.I just started and haven`t had any problems so far.
The way i see it they eat live in the wild and have no problems so why not feed live? It`s all personal preference.

If you watch and make sure nothing happens nothing will happen!!

[Missy King]

agreed purplemuffin (btw love the frog).

I'm glad to hear that it seems everyone watches their snake though, to make sure things are okay. The facts are these snakes are NOT wild, and not IN the wild....they can't get away if they feel like not eating...and the rats or rabbits (the one BP i have has a huge healed rip down his whole belly from a rabbit kick) can chew them, hurt them, attack, etc. (I have been attacked by a rat, and a rabbit *lol* they are vicious if they want to be. Rat was actually trying to attack a grasshopper...and the rabbit was just a jerk who hate people *lol*)

I don't know, now we're getting into opinion, rather than fact.....see, it's like saying well a dog is "supposed" to be wild, so it should be able to catch prey on it's own, etc. A LOT of ball pythons are bred in the pet trade, and a lot of them are very domesticated. For a lot of them, they are just instinctively inferior to their wild brotheren. I'm sure there are quite a few that, obviously, do well, too.

I just can't really justify the risk of bits, scratches, eye injuries, etc. My snakes get pretty excited chasing and eating dead water warmed rats when wiggled and drug across a towel. They have learned when it's time to eat, and where, and they get very excited. It's realllllly cute. I like the bonding, and the feeding, and all of it. I prefer f/t.

Now, though, if i had a snake that no matter what refused food...i would always try to transition it to f/t....but i would do what i had to, to get it to eat. More than likely though? I would have no problem bumping the rat in the head/dazing the rat so it was only barely alive.

Does anyone do that? Or do you just put the rat/mouse in the cage with the snake? Do you put the snake in a feeding box?

[purplemuffin]

I don't think pk or ft is natural either! Nothing is natural about a snake in a cage, cleaning, handling, substrate, and feeding included. Does that make it wrong? No! It's just not nature. We don't find wild rack systems in the wild, LOL! If we did, I'd be out herping more often and grabbing some racks! I wasn't arguing against live, just the idea that it's exactly like the wild! Captive care is a unique thing, unnatural, but in a way meant to still be healthy. And we do a darn good job, considering how much longer our critters our living in our care Sorry if my post was confusing! No negative intent, I promise! <3

I feed in the cage with our male, we have stunned the rodent before, but of course that time was the one time maru did NOT strike perfectly(99% of the time he gets them right on the neck and perfectly gets the legs) and ended up getting very close to a bite when the rat figured out what was going on. Was very stressful! But that was our fail-experience. We seemed to struggle finding that delicate balance of outright murdering the rat or just ticking it off! He usually will grab the rat the second it hits the floor if it's live, but if for any reason we are concerned (he is in blue/is acting finicky/specially active or twitchy rat) we will just try to keep the two separate--like put Maru on top of his hide, give him a bit of an advantage so the rat can't reach. He will take it down like a charm.

And thanks! I'm trying to do pixels of all my pets! maru's next!

[spitzu]

We breed our own so it's just quicker and easier to feed live or P/K. Most of ours take them P/K now, which makes for a much quicker feeding day since they don't have to be monitored.

[Slashmaster]

A LOT of ball pythons are bred in the pet trade, and a lot of them are very domesticated.

I figure this is because of the breeding intervention... ball pythons in the wild have a lot of eggs in a clutch because most of them won't survive. The ones that do are the most "genetically superior" but because we have a vested interest in the animals, we ensure that (to the best of our ability) all of the animals survive. Even those who wouldn't have survived in the wild due to appetite, etc. And those animals breed and pass on their genetics.

[WarriorPrincess90]

I have a rescue female and a male I've raised from a baby, and both will only take live. And even then my male is finicky about that. Picky little mouser. :/ Haven't tried feeding my new boa yet, but I'm hoping she will take PK/FT. If not, it's really no hassle to get an extra live feeder every week. -shrug-

I watch them the whole time the food is in there with them. If it's lively and they miss the head, or it fights back, I thump it roughly on the head to knock it out, hold it's back legs, etc. Whatever is necessary to keep them from hurting my babies. I'd take a bite before I'd let them bite my snakes.