F/T to Live

[Jakemh91]

Hi everyone,
My Ball, Lucie, eats F/T rats and even eats regularly for me. I was just curious if offering her a live rat, as like a treat or something, if that's something would mess with her eating habits or anything like that?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Hi everyone,
My Ball, Lucie, eats F/T rats and even eats regularly for me. I was just curious if offering her a live rat, as like a treat or something, if that's something would mess with her eating habits or anything like that?

Are you prepared to feed live for the long run or even forever?

Live is more enticing and if you go back to live chances are your BP will not go back to F/T or might take months so it's something to really think about.

Honestly I don't recommend it.

[Bogertophis]

Also, snakes being fed f/t get used to the fact that it doesn't fight back. No matter how "aggressive" their feeding behavior appears to you, it's more likely they will slip &
get injured by live prey when it's suddenly offered to them. DON'T do it...or be ready to pay the vet for medical care. After even minor injuries, some snakes also become
fussy about the color of rodents they're offered...seeming to associate the color of the one that bit them with being more dangerous. For all these reasons, I wouldn't do it.

[Reptile$ 4 Life]

Yeah the store I got my bp from feed live and I haven't been able to switch him yet. Hopefully, he will switch the next time I try but he is definitely a picky eater. For some reason he will only eat white rats, and it's been like that for a long time.

[Absololol]

I don't understand why you would actively want to give an animal that is consistently on f/t a live rodent. It's more dangerous for the snake, and just seems like complicating things for the sake of complicating them.

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[Midwest]

I think maybe you are also assuming that snakes consider food the same way humans do, as a reward etc. I am no expert but would guess their brains are more basic than ours and it would not be considered a treat to eat live any more than eating a F/T would. When they are hungry they want to eat but aren't getting the different feelings we as humans get eating one meal over another.

[EL-Ziggy]

I've fed a couple of my snakes live after they went on long food breaks to jump start their appetites. After 2-3 live meals they went back to f/t with no problems. There's no need to do it for an animal that's eating f/t prey consistently though.

[Jakemh91]

I think maybe you are also assuming that snakes consider food the same way humans do, as a reward etc. I am no expert but would guess their brains are more basic than ours and it would not be considered a treat to eat live any more than eating a F/T would. When they are hungry they want to eat but aren't getting the different feelings we as humans get eating one meal over another.

Well I have read that Balls actually do prefer rodents like hamsters and gerbils. So much so that once you feed them one it's unlikely they'll got back to mice or rats.

[Jakemh91]

I don't understand why you would actively want to give an animal that is consistently on f/t a live rodent. It's more dangerous for the snake, and just seems like complicating things for the sake of complicating them.

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I was asking more so for the sake of knowing if there were any benefits to offering one every once in a while. She's consistently on F/T now, but was fed exclusively live before I got her.