Poll- source of your mice/rats/rabbits/birds/etc.

[Aric]

I feed F/T now but I used to feed my snakes live. Never had a problem with the live but some people I know had lots of problems, mainly leaving the snake in a tub with the rat unsupervised and the rat would chew on the snake. When I fed live I was always there and never had a problem, the reason I switched over to f/t was that it was getting hard to keep live feeders in the house with cats and my sister (she loves anything that moves) and keeping them in the cage, they would always find a way to get out.

[_BoidFinatic_]

Basically, I feed f/t for psychological reasons and have no beef against people who are more well-adjusted than I am and aren't careless when feeding live.

THIS IS THE KIND OF SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING THAT I WAS HOPING TO FIND BY JOINING THIS FORUM. IF YOU PEOPLE HERE LIKE EACH OTHER AND UNDERSTAND EACH OTHERS' IDEAS/OPINIONS, THEN DON'T EVER VISIT ANOTHER FORUM (NASTY PEOPLE THERE). Once again, i thank those who voted and those who share their ideas on this topic.

[Diceman]

Yeah my main reason is I guess youd call it psychological...I have no problem killing an animal or the blood and the anything like that but sense my ball got the tip of his tail bit I just refruse to feed live unless I have too...all my snakes take thawed or pre killed and even if they grab it wrong it can never bite them

[The Cannibal Monkey]

I feed F/T MAINLY because it's more convienent, but also because I personally have a soft spot for rodents and would find live feeding or killing them myself upsetting, not to meantion it's definately safer since my guy WILL NOT EAT if I'm watching him and he's not completely covered for at least a half hour.


Oh, and I don't know what live mice prices are like in the areas you all live in, but it seems like you can't get live mice for under $2 around here...in some shops it's around $4 because they try to discourage snake owners from buying them in an effort to avoid controvercy (pretty lame if you ask me). I've found ONE pet shop in the two towns I've lived in (home and school) that sells "designated" feeder mice for $1.25 a piece (for small ones). In the end it's just easier to buy a 6-pack of mice for $10 and keep them in the freezer.

More power to you, man, if the live works out better for you, there's no reason for anyone to be attacking you over it, especially other snake owners.

[TheNooB]

question- When you buy them to freeze, do you just knock them out first and stick them in the freezer? Can you buy them frozen? And when you go to thaw them out, whats the process....

After reading this sites caresheet and that link to the "argument" how would one know if the mice at the pet store have parasites or not?? I mean when I buy my bp I am pretty sure I would like to feed it live .....

If theres somewhere that explains this all clearly... please point me in that direction!

thanks

[_BoidFinatic_]

question- When you buy them to freeze, do you just knock them out first and stick them in the freezer? Can you buy them frozen? And when you go to thaw them out, whats the process....

After reading this sites caresheet and that link to the "argument" how would one know if the mice at the pet store have parasites or not?? I mean when I buy my bp I am pretty sure I would like to feed it live .....

If theres somewhere that explains this all clearly... please point me in that direction!

thanks

Yes, there are ways to kill rodents humanely. I myself have not done any of the 2 ways i have heard of. One is simply by stunning the rodent by giving it a sharp blow to the head (kills instantly) and the other way where you put the rodent on a table and you press a ruler down just behind its head and you pull quickly on the tail, severing the spinal column and causing no pain and a quick death. Then you freeze them. I have heard that freezing for a week or two guarantees no parasites, but the chances that captive bred mice have any is low. The most effective way i thaw whenever i do frozen/thawed is to put lets say a frozen fuzzy in a ziploc bag and put the sealed bag under hot water for 10 minutes. this is usually enough time to thaw the fuzzy all the way through, but i always feels it to see if it is soft everywhere. as you get a bigger rodent than a fuzzy mouse, you keep it underwater longer.If you read my whole argument, then you may realize the truth about live and how it is not a bad thing to do, as long as you do what i said i do in that argument(for example, watch the whole scene and realize right away, if the snake has interest in the prey or not, and if not, get that prey out right away). any more questions?i almost forgot, you can buy them frozen at almost any petstore and they are usually a lot cheaper like this, but you shouldn't base your choice on price.your decision

[joepythons]

I prefere to feed frozen thawed to all of my snakes if possible.I have this one female ball about 5ft and she weighs over 5lbs and she refuses to eat anything but live rats.Well i tried everything to get her to switch over to f/t with no luck.So i figured since she laid 8 eggs last season(her first clutch) i will give her anything she wants .My 05 male pastel is the same so i figure since he is breeding my females allready at 6 months of age and just over 500 grams he also can have whatever he wants to eat.The rest of my snakes eat frozen thawed rodents.I breed my own rodents because of one reason this way i know what my snakes are eating.

[Bdadawg]

For me it all depends on what size prey the snake is on. For my large female I feed her F/T rabbits bought from a breeder or F/T rats that I breed (Her last owner left a rat in with her unsupervised and she lost the tip of her tail).


For my 2 small nic's I feed them live mice pinkies or frozen rat pinkies. The rats I breed the mice I buy.

And for my 2' central american its a combo of f/t and live rat pups (2.5 weeks old).

As I dont have a lot of breeder rats when the pups get to the right size ill pull the majority of the litter and toss them in the freezer.

To answer thenoob ... It really depends on what size the rats are when you are ready to reeze them. Pinks can go into a ziplock and then into the freezer ... as they have no or little fur they freeze quickly.

Once they have fur then you should kill them first. There are many methods:
Put them in a sack and slam them into a wall or the ground.
Co2 gassing.
Break their necks.
Or smack them in the head with a large object.

It is suggested to leave the prey in the freezer from 1 week to 1 month to kill parasites. Personally I think it depends on the type of freezer. I have a 21cu ft deep freezer that is only for animal food. One week in this is sufficient to kill parasites (IMO). On a combination fridge/freezer it would take longer as the temperature doesnt get nearly as cold as a deep freezer.

Bryan

[TheNooB]

So if you can buy them frozen why buy live, and then kill, just to freeze them again???

Still think i'll try and feed live so if it ever wont eat the f/t then it would know whats its doing with somthing alive still.... ? (bad theory?)

[Shelby]

Some pet stores do not sell frozen rodents, so that is a reason to buy live.

Still think i'll try and feed live so if it ever wont eat the f/t then it would know whats its doing with somthing alive still.... ? (bad theory?)

Yep.. bad theory. They don't 'forget'.