Live or Frozen?

[maniac]

Hmm... I have been feeding my ball crippled and immobolized mice since I got him. Marla has made a couple of posts and told me about the dangers of feeding live (parasites,bites, etc..) which made me think twice about live feeding.. I was wondering If i can get somebody elses opinion on there feeding methods and views about feeding. Is live feeding as dangerous as someone might seem? .. Are frozen mice that much better to and healthier for your snake? ..

[elevatethis]

There are so many different ways to look at this issue.

The only real advantage that feeding live has, that I can think of, is the thrill the owner gets out of seeing the drama go down. Does this single advantage outweigh all the advantages that feeding f/t prey does? Lets see...

f/t mice have zero parasites. Not to say all live mice do, but wouldn't you rather make a sure bet?
f/t mice don't fight back. We've all seen those heartbreaking pictures.
f/t mice are CHEAPER than live.
f/t mice can be bought in almost any size that you need.
f/t mice meet their death humanely with CO2. You can't just freeze them because mice will empty their bowels before they die in the cold. Would you rather go to sleep and pass on or die of circulatory arrest like you would if you were being constricted?


Any additions would be welcome......

[sophie42204]

I agree with, elevatethis. F/T is a much better solution to the feeding issue. Positive far outweighs the negative. I was worried that Sophie wouldn't eat f/t as she was being feed live prey for the first couple months of her life, but she took to the f/t quicker than the one time we fed her f/k (well, it wasn't quite dead, but retarded at least). I learned from that one experience that there was no way I was going to be able to feed her f/k and I refuse to feed her live as I don't want to take the chance....so, I'm a proponent of the F/T all the way!!

[gozetec02]

Also a FT or FK mouse cant bite you. One time i was going to knock out this huge mouse and when i opened the box and jumped on my shirt and bit my finger well he got what was coming to him but a FT mouse would have never done it.

You can also buy FT rodents in bulk at www.rodentpro.com and have a supply of feeders for the whole year (52 animals) thus never having to travel to the pet store and deal with those people say aww poor thing. LOL. Lots of times local reptile shops will sell FT rodents. Where i get my feeders they sell live feeders and also euthenize them to sell as FT.

[elevatethis]

Yeah, luckily my local shop sells frozen and live. The live ones go for 1.40 a piece (buy 5 @ $1.68 and get the 6th free, works like a sandwich card or other promotion), and the frozen thawed mice go for 1.16 a piece. Thats about the same as most mailorders after you figure shipping in; not to mention I don't have to keep 50 mice in my freezer, I can buy just 3 or 4 at a time.

[Eddie_Z]

I have never fed Hissy live. However, a BP that a friend of mine used to have ate live. He was only eating mice & they were "thumped" or whatever you want to say. Well, after a semester full of no problems, I went to visit my pal & Diablo (the BP) that next semester. Well, Diablo had a chunk taken out of his face! I asked Matt (the owner) what happened. He said one of the "thumped" mice came to life as Diablo was eating him & bit the side of his face during constriction. After that I knew I would never feed a snake live.

I feed F/T mice (switching to rats soon) & she eats them like a machine! I really cannot think of anything good that comes out of feeding live especially when there are SO MANY advantages to feeding F/T!

There are some snakes that will not take f/t at first but even the trickiest of feeders can eventually be coaxed into taking dead prey. Everyone else has pretty much said all there is to say about frozen/thawed rodents....all I can add is my seal of approval. I use f/t for all of my snakes except one ( a baby Black Blood who was fasting for a while but is eating live rat pups now).

[Smulkin]

Yes - agreed. Live is just too much a crapshoot. It pleases us and makes us proud (even) to see our snakes take live prey - but it really just feeds our ego and doesnt benefit the snake at all. Seen and heard too many horrid things. We're on our third shipped order of frozen, incidentally converted as well. Ours are all on frozen, but as similar to David we have a baby Red Blood who is taking rat pups also (eyes shut, soft claws, minimal dange but monitored nonetheless).

[CTReptileRescue]

frozen thawed here.
For one I wouldn't be able to stand all the rodents we would have to feed here if they were live (god, could you imagine the smell..lol). But that is just for my benefit.
We have taken in a few snakes that were injured or crippled by their prey items.
we have also taken in countless animals that were positive for trichomoniasis etc. (which is passed to reptiles through live prey items).
I will always recommend feeding dead prey items.
Thanks
Rusty

[MacWin]

(Straps on flamesuit)

I feed my BP live Gerbils yes I said Gerbils.
Now that my King is on F/T I am gonna try to get Bob switched first to rats again (He's a tad picky) then if that works out well I will make the plunge to F/T.

The reason I feed him Gerbils live is because thats the only thing that seems to peak his interest at this point. Actually he is fasting right now has been for almost a month. I am gonna try to feed him either next week or the week after I have not decided yet.

But I am not one of these folks that feed live just for turds & tickles as I said he is a picky little booger. And he will probably be the only Ball Python that I get because of the feeding issues. Besides variety is the spice of life but still deciding between the BCI and the Carpet for my next critter.