What do you pay for live feeders?

[RPlank]

There is a member of another forum who regularly feeds roadkill to his snakes. I think his retic is what normally gets it. I don't think I would ever take the chance of parasites.

[JLC]

I think I know who you're talking about. I wouldn't do that either...seems way too risky to me....although if one were patient enough to deep-freeze them for a month or two, first, it MIGHT be ok. I don't think I've ever heard him say he freezes them thouigh.

[Smulkin]

Ew hell no. Plenty of large deer get chonked to the side of the roads here but even if I had a huge and hungry AfRock I'd not feed it blowfly meat. Hell I'd even go so far as to go out and hunt one down if i needed to and I am not much the hunting type. Just way too many unknowns in that equation.

I saw one website that had plans on how to build a CO-2 vchamber for "humanely" killing rodents. I gesus that's how most of the frozen-rodent suppliers do it; I guess it would be tiime-consuming to whack thirty dozen rats in the head before shipping.
To answer the original question... my local shop charges $3 for feeder rats. But I use f/t because you know that they have NO parasites.

You are correct, this is how most if not all of the major rodent dealers kill their products. I only buy from RodentPro and I know this is how they do it.

[Marla]

Well, I was specifically referring to fresh-killed roadkill and to freezing it for a period of weeks before use. When I lived in Athens there was a guy profiled in the local paper who was a well-known local eccentric who ate roadkill himself. He had a route he regularly patrolled for fresh opossums and such and would take them home and cook 'em up to eat. I certainly wouldn't take the risk of feeding something that had been there for hours or days and couldn't see doing it without freezing it for at least a week first, but I doubt the risk is much higher from roadkill than it is feeding dead imported ball pythons to a king cobra. The parasite probability is probably near 100% either way.

[AsRock]

I pay $1.99 from Petland and $1.50 at Petco. Both are live pray. My snake don't seem to be taking dead at all. Think the shops woke it's instinks lol.