Feeding. Live vs FT

[NYHC4LIFE8899]

I recently changed my guy over to rats,which he took the same as he would a FT mouse. I have a spot near me that has all sorts of live feeders,from mice to rats to gerbils to baby chicks...now my other baby BP will only eat live mice. I tried everything FT and he wouldn't budge. I then tried a a rat pinky ,live. He did want that either. So point is I been feeding them live the past few weeks. I can understand how some people feel. Now my big guy will eat anything,but I kind of like giving him live,I feel it gives him the enjoyment of the hunt hewould get in the wild. Think I'm staying with a 50/50 here live and FT with him. As for my other guy,he's only eating live now,hope to switch him over. Plus problem is I don't have a spot where I can buy FT mice and rats. Only FT mice and they only go up to large,so I may just have no choice to feed only live in the future,which I'm fine with. What does everyone feed there

since i I am putting live in both there enclosures I am monitoring everything. But they are pigs and the prey is never in there longer than 5 mins before being murdered

[The Serpent Merchant]

I feed frozen thawed or pre-killed. I'll feed live if necessary, but I only do so if necessary. Things like mice/rat pups are ok live as they pose little threat to the snake, but I really wouldn't want to put a live medium rat in with one of my snakes if it can be avoided.

We'll see how things go as I start to switch my BP's over to ASF's.

[Physician&Snakes]

It's really what you and your specimen are comfortable with. I purchase my frozen feeders in bulk from Rodent Pro and they take up one freezer shelf plus about 1/3 of a rack...I also save some serious dough.

[Garnet]

My boy has only had F/T since his 4th feeding out of the shell. I'd like to keep him on that. I'm lucky in that there is a locally owned pet store in my town that has quite a large herp business. They have a variety of F/T in both mice and rats. Their stuff is a little more expensive than the big box stores but I'd rather pay a little more to keep it local. Besides, their customer service is amazingly good.

[Crazymonkee]

Mine are on live mice right now. I have decided to keep the 2 asf that I have and start a colony.
Have the worst feeling that Lex is gonna be a mouser, but I'd like to get the rest on asf.
Honestly I am sticking with live for 2 reasons... cost and convenience.
I am not into the thawing and warming process.As long as it's appropriately sized prey I don't fear for my snake, and feeding is always supervised.


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[Marrissa]

I just got my own group of 1.3 rats. I've been wanting to breed my own feeders since I can't breed my ball pythons yet I want to breed something. Plus I adore two of my female rats. One dumbo girl has herself a home for life now. She's always begging for me to take her out.

Anyways what spurred me to start is my clown female won't take F/T no matter what. Wasted many mice and rat feeders over several months. Put a live mouse in there and now she comes out of her hide whenever we are in the room to see if it's dinner time again. Where as before she wouldn't budge at the smell of F/T rats. Everyone else takes F/T her. I know I'll be nervous though once I feed my adult BP a live rat. I'll have a pencil at the ready and my heart going.

[EAC Reptiles]

I feed live, but I do so purely for convenience. When I had a smaller collection, F/T was the way to go, it saved money ad the hassle of going to the pet shop to get rats. As my collection grew and I had some snakes that were 'live only' I started to breed my own rats and feed live. If I ever have a snake that doesn't eat I can just pull the rat out and throw it back in the rack.