feed- Live or Thawed

[AlbertaBP]

I,ve been on here awhile now just reading and trying to learn as much as i can before my 3 BP's arrive.

I noticed alot of you feed frozen thawed rather then Live feed! why is that?

Is it just more of a humane thing to do for you guys? I,ve read a few storys of the snake getting injured if left unattened with live feed, but if watched I cant see it being that big of a deal

[Swingline0.0.1]

This ends up being a very heated topic, and there have been lots of threads on this subject. I feed live, and always have. If you feed live, just do not leave a live rodent in the tub unattended, it is simple to avoid unnecessary danger. There will be the people who say it is not safe, but it is as safe as you make it. If you use ft or live, remember it is your choice!

[pascofishboy]

My Snakes wont eat FT I never leave them un attended and I use a large pair of forceps to hole the teeth of the rat afer the snke coils around it even if I need to dig for it I feed 1 time every week and have not had a snke bitten yet.

[AK907]

I feed both. Some snakes will simply not take to f/t. The ones that aren't picky eaters I feed f/t to. Others that are pickier only want live, so I give them live. As the person above me said, feeding live isn't always a danger as long as you use a little (un)common sense and supervise the feeding. I've had a few make bad strikes which could have resulted in injury had I of not been there to assist by giving the rats a little thump or adjusting its coils. So far none of my snakes have ever been injured eating live.

As for being humane to the food/prey, well, this is nature. Nature can be cruel, but there are far worse deaths out there. In my experience thier deaths are rather swift, almost always less than a minute, which is far quicker than most of us will die.

So my advice is find what works for you.

[AlbertaBP]

So when feeding frozen, After you thaw them out do you just place them in the container or do you have to intice your snake, by using forceps or something to dangle it in front of the bp?

[gibleis]

So when feeding frozen, After you thaw them out do you just place them in the container or do you have to intice your snake, by using forceps or something to dangle it in front of the bp?

Totally depends on the snake. Some will eat with it just laying there. Some you have to make the rat dance a bit. Some just wont eat a F/T.

For me F/T is better cause finding feeding rats in my area is not easy. I have found a couple people who sell rats (when they have some available) but sometimes its very hard to find a live rat that is the proper size for my different sized BPs. I am trying to switch all mine to F/T so I always know I have food for them and proper sized food at that.

[jben]

The one thing I hate about feeding live is all the poop the rats leave behind.

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[Stewart_Reptiles]

The old live VS debate to me does not boil down to safety ( I feed over 200 live preys a months and never had any issue) to me regarding of what one might chose it come down to being educated about your choices, feeding responsibly, choosing what works is convenient, readily available and affordable.

In my case with the number of animals I own breeding my own food and feeding live was the obvious choice for me.

[Skittles1101]

For me, it's MUCH cheaper...I don't have to smell rats/mice from breeding them, I don't have live rodents in my house, IMO it's easier because you don't have to supervise feedings...I can leave a rat in the tubs overnight for my picky eaters and not worry about injuries, I can buy in bulk and just store them and not worry about having a pet for the next week if one doesn't eat, and I don't have to give my son the "circle of life" talk anytime soon.

[flyingsqueak]

I feed f/t. It takes some enticing (dangling with forceps), but it seems safer to me. Ari always eats tail first which would be dangerous if I fed live. Also, there's less risk of parasites from a frozen rodent than from a live one. Some people say live are more nutritious and more interesting (because of hunting) for the snake. I might switch to live once Ari grows up a bit, but for now f/t just seem safer and easier.

I let them thaw sitting on top of Ari's enclosure for about two hours and then heat them up with a blow dryer