feeding live VS f/t

[sweety314]

A, You're asking about your hoggie, but for Wrigley, my RTB, I feed f/t. That's what the breeder was feeding when I bought Wrigley. He got a live mouse and a live rat pup a couple of times because I didn't have f/t at that time, but he's gone right back to f/t w/o any problems.


Kishnah gets f/t because they were easier. Now that she's eating nb rats I'll stick w/the f/t because I dont have any that size. When I had pinky mice, she actually ate one live w/o the constricting, so I don't want to take the chance she'd try to do that with larger prey and get hurt.

What few rats I've bred, they're the wrong size for the feeding I need to do. With the last litter too, I found it personally difficult to feed the rats live. Some of them have become pets.

P. Snake was eating a live mouse 2x/week when I got him in Dec. As he grew, I gradually got him to eat f/t rat pups. He then went on a hunger strike, so I shifted back to live mice. He's eaten that only once, and he's refused the live mouse again this last Sunday. I did notice when he ate last, the mouse tried to bite while coiled up, and as P. whent to eat, the mouse wasn't dead yet, so P had to coil around it again. It would be more convenient for me to feed live, but if they don't eat, then the prey gets too big. (That's how we ended up w/Scabbers, Peekaboo and Smudge rats as pets now.)

All the others have been taking f/t w/o any problems. Even Oreo now eats the f/t pinky w/o any reluctance. The first time I had to feed live (I had one avail) but now she'll eagerly eat the f/t.

As long as the snake is eating, do what works for YOU. For my schedule, thawing is a PITA and I don't have a lot of time for it, but it's better because I'll always have the correct sized prey for the snakes, and now that my collection is more than just an adult BP, everybody is taking all sorts of different sizes and I wouldn't be able to breed mice or rats correctly to always have the right size.

Hope this helps.

RuLyn

[4theSNAKElady]

Just mice and rats???? What about for really big boas???? I been feeding my larger boas guinea pigs and small rabbits too! The 8ft boa would've given me a real funny look had I offered him mice..LOL!

[recycling goddess]

hahahahaha sooo true.

[frankykeno]

Just mice and rats???? What about for really big boas???? I been feeding my larger boas guinea pigs and small rabbits too! The 8ft boa would've given me a real funny look had I offered him mice..LOL!

I don't wanna even know what Rauri would do if I offered him a mouse LOL He likes the rats well enough but I think his best feeding response seems to be with the baby meat bunnies. We are so lucky though (as Becky will find out shortly when he ships out to her) that Rauri is just not picky at all and will take any reasonable sized rat, GP or rabbit with pretty much equal zeal.

[recycling goddess]

i wonder if they'd even bother to take the mouse or simply see it as nothing.

[fish21]

the previous owner of my 7 ft red tail said he fed him 3 large mice a week. ( it was all i could do not to laugh at him). now he gets a jumbo rat once a week and loves it.

[sweety314]

Just mice and rats???? What about for really big boas???? I been feeding my larger boas guinea pigs and small rabbits too! The 8ft boa would've given me a real funny look had I offered him mice..LOL!

If and when my newest lady gets that big, I'll be buying rabbits for her, but most all my snakes are still in the mice/small-med rat sized prey group. Rob did say that my newest BP took large rats, and he's quite the chunk. We'll see what happens Sunday on Feeding Day.

[Emilio]

I thought rat's ruled guy's what's up with this poll? Well you guessed it I feed live rat's.

[recycling goddess]

ya i noticed it was split pretty evenly... with live mice and f/t rats - weird eh?

[muddoc]

We feed all of our snakes live prey items. The balls get appropriately sized rats, the boas get rats and the corn snakes get mice. We have always fed live, and have yet to have a snake get bit by a prey item. We have occasionally left a rat in with one of the balls overnight, accident, but normally, the rat chews through the hardware cloth on top of the tub and gets out. If I had Freedom Breeder style racks with metal tops, I think the outcome may be different. I do hate having to put a patch on the hardware cloth, so as a result, we pay closer attention at the end of feeding day.