It seemed so wrong, but felt so right...

[BILLB OKC]

Just get a little tack hammer and knock the rats teeth out before you feed.
No worries then

[WingedWolfPsion]

While the Veterinary associations may prefer CO2, if you have only a few animals, it's not practical, and it's not more humane than the alternative.

A quick blow to the back of the skull with a hard object will kill a rodent instantly and painlessly. It's somewhat brutal, but if you can crush a rat's face to keep it from biting, you can most certainly hit it over the head hard to kill it. It's not pleasant, but all of this is your choice--if you don't want to feed FT, then pre-kill the rodents, it's MUCH more humane than intervening while the snake is killing them.

For BABY rodents, a bar can be placed at the back of the neck and pressed down, and the tail pulled back sharply, breaking the neck. This is called cervical dislocation, and is used to euthanize animals in laboratories. It will not work on adult animals.

Freezing is always cruel and painful, for mammals and reptiles alike.

The store won't prekill the rodents for you, and your snakes will appreciate them more if you prekill them immediately before offering them, so they are still body temperature.

[Chocolate Muffin's]

Just get a little tack hammer and knock the rats teeth out before you feed.
No worries then

Really?..Are you serious or kidding. Sorry, at this point I really don't know.

[BILLB OKC]

Just messing with ya.

[redstormlax12]

Okay. The rodents are going to die. So are you. So right before you die can i crush your jaw? And im glad you brought up the nature aspect. If you want to bring that up, then let nature take its course with your snakes. Snakes in the wild get bit and scared. Thats nature. Yes the rats are going to die anyways and i understand that. But to crush them, even while restrained by the snakes, is in everyway awful. No matter when you did it, as long as they were alive on conscious, its awful. And just because you are offended by my response and opinion doesnt mean what i have said does not contribute to the thread. So next time you feed live, since in nature animals are cruel, let nature take its course and let your snake deal with its prey. The species has gotten this far so i think it can handle itself.

[redstormlax12]

And it seems a few other people feel the way i do. Some people have brought up how is safety is such a concern then why not feed F/T. This is a perfect arguement. Feeding F/T is easy. You put paper towels down, dangle the rat, the snake takes it, constricts, eats and you remove the paper towels and throw away the clean bag you thawed them in. To have a bloody bag is beyond me. If your so concerned about your animals safety then feed F/T. There no torture involved. And what you did is tortue in my opinion and i bet in alot of peoples opinion. I dont care when you did it. As long as the rodent was alive, then it was torture.

[DemmBalls]

That sickens me! Whatever floats your boat I guess...

I feed both live and f/t and I have only ever had one minor nip from a live rat. That has since healed over and is not even noticeable. 99% of the time the snake will do what it was meant to do by nature. If i do encounter a rat that seems like it could be a threat...I give it a quick thump, then let the snake take over. As long as a live feeding is properly supervised, there should be no worry a serious injury occuring.

I'll admit...watching the snake take live prey can be a rush, but please keep it as humane as possible.

[Chocolate Muffin's]

And it seems a few other people feel the way i do. Some people have brought up how is safety is such a concern then why not feed F/T. This is a perfect arguement. Feeding F/T is easy. You put paper towels down, dangle the rat, the snake takes it, constricts, eats and you remove the paper towels and throw away the clean bag you thawed them in. To have a bloody bag is beyond me. If your so concerned about your animals safety then feed F/T. There no torture involved. And what you did is tortue in my opinion and i bet in alot of peoples opinion. I dont care when you did it. As long as the rodent was alive, then it was torture.

What I don’t fully understand about some of the arguments about cruelty stems from something you said also: It seems that it’s humane to hit a rodent in the back of the head so that it dies quickly and painlessly. I realize this is kinda the standard, but it’s something I don’t really want to do. I didn’t take any pleasure in hurting the rodent, but I panicked because it appeared to me to be hurting my snake, and I didn’t want my snake injured at any cost. Some people here have suggested that snakes have thick skin, or that as long as the snake is in the mood to eat, then the animal is not in jeopardy. All of my research has indicated that rodents should never be left alone with any snake, feeding or otherwise, unless the keeper is there to intervene should things go awry.

I understand that you and many people may think that I have tortured these rodents, and I will continue to disagree. – That’s fine. My snakes are the first priority, and if my preventing them from harm was cruel, inhumane, torturous, gruesome, then so be it. I am still going to feed live, I am still go to be fiercely protective of their health and well being, and I will look for more humane ways to protect them from rodent aggression.

I would never expect to duplicate in captivity, what occurs in the wild, so this notion is not a practical solution. Snakes do a lot of things in the wild including eating their young, but this is simply not acceptable while in human care and you know that.

I’d like to think that if my greatest mistake in life was that I mistakenly tortured a feeder rodent once, then I have many great and productive days ahead of me, with my 2 snakes, and any others that happen to come my way.

[Chocolate Muffin's]

That sickens me! Whatever floats your boat I guess...

I feed both live and f/t and I have only ever had one minor nip from a live rat. That has since healed over and is not even noticeable. 99% of the time the snake will do what it was meant to do by nature. If i do encounter a rat that seems like it could be a threat...I give it a quick thump, then let the snake take over. As long as a live feeding is properly supervised, there should be no worry a serious injury occuring.

I'll admit...watching the snake take live prey can be a rush, but please keep it as humane as possible.

This is not about floating any boats.

You of all people should understand the importance of being present when live food is being presented to your animal. People seem to think that "thumping" the rodent is not cruel, but pinching it with the tips of tongs is, somehow. I see no difference if the end result is that my animal is not hurt - a healthy happy animal with no mishaps because I failed to properly supervise will never happen here - THAT is what floats my boat.

[het.pied]

most of the time when a ball python constricts its live prey, it is squeezing the animal so hard to the point where the rodent cannot shut its jaw to be able to bite. especially if the snake hit the rodent in the back of the neck like it is suppose to.