A Vent... Feeding Live

[Stormyva]

I have got to vent.... this is one of my peeves... I understand that there is a rare, and that is a very rare occasion, when a snake will completely refuse to take a frozen/thawed prey item. I have had several snakes that have all been successfully converted over to F/T, some were very difficult to convert. The trick is offering the prey properly. It can sometimes be a lot of work, but patience always will prevail.
Why is it so hard for people to understand this?
Why F/T prey items are so much better for thier snakes?
Why is it that some immature keepers still think that snakes need to "hunt" live prey?
Worst of all....
Why is it that some people do it simply because it is cool when a snake goes after live prey?
Heres a link to a nice article published on rodentpro.com but written by Melissa Kaplan....
http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_01.asp
For those that still refuse to go with F/T here are a few pics......
( I did not take these pics... they were taken and posted on RTB.net by a user named Ravnos)

[First_time_herp]

Thats horrible. And yeah, I fell the same way about immature keepers feeding live.

[iceman25]

I feed live...are you calling me immature?

[First_time_herp]

I mean like people who have no clue what to do when feeding live. Like watching to make sure there isn't a bite or anything. I have no problem with expierenced peopel feeding live.

[Alkaurkharim]

While I don't advocate feeding live because I just don't see any real benefit, there are alot of people who have gone years and years without incident feeding live when its monitored feeding. Unless you know otherwise, I'm willing to bet that the damage caused in those pictures was from a rodent left in the tank overnight without supervision.

[iceman25]

Oh ok. Cause I just got Merry to take a fresh killed today! Now only if Pippin would be as oblidged.

[First_time_herp]

I really hope my snakes will eat F/T. And congrats on the fresh killed!

[Stormyva]

iceman... no I am not calling you immature... you have taken measure to start converting your snakes over to f/t. If you need any help or any other ideas feel free to email or pm me.

[EyeLashViper]

Ah, I think I have aroused the wrath of Stormyva with my posting about how I enjoy watching my snakes take out live rodents.Well, I must say that I agree that feeding F/T is no doubt a completely safer approach to the whole business but I actually think it is a lot harder than it sounds trying to get all snakes to take pre-killed. In my observation it appears that a lot of snakes are genetically cued to warmth, movement in a prey item and will flat out ignore prey that is just laying there. I monitor the introduction of the live prey to my snakes feeding area and I do not just plop a mouse in there and walk away and forget about it....so I do not have mice or rats gnawing away at my snakes while I am off playing with myself or something.

Fundamentally, as far as the more graphic aspects of observing a mouse or rat being consumed by a boid are concerned...I feel that this is nature in the raw and if you cannot handle it you are in wrong hobby....nature is NOT pretty and when animals eat each other it is pretty much a gruesome process...look at lions running down an antelope and ripping its throat out. I myself I like to watch..it dont bother me a bit to see a rat getting the life choked out of it. but I am a rough dude anyhow....
EyeLashViper

[Alkaurkharim]

When you offer F/T or F/K to your snakes, have you tried the mouse dance? By that I mean wiggling it around or dragging it on the paper a little bit to simulate life? It seems that works pretty well. Also, isolation with the prey in a small container with the lights out also seems to work well.