Live versus Frozen

[momma_mia]

I have discovered that my bp is preferring live feeders versus frozen feeders. Right now he is taking fuzzies, but eventually he's going to move up to larger prey.

Anybody do live prey? Can you give me some advice please or point me in the right direction. We finally are getting the hang of it, and I don't want to blow it.

Thanks!

[KrazyKevin]

I am new to this and Fang only will eat live as well I wish I could get him to eat thawed.

[Mike41793]

Yea I feed live no problem. Its your choice. My only advice is you must monitor when feeding live. If the rat starts biting your snake once he wraps him up then you have to be standing by with a ruler or feeding tongs to stick in it mouth so it doesnt bite the snake. Also if its scratchin the snake grab its foot until it stops. This is what i do and ive never encountered any issues feeding live.

[snake lab]

I feed all live rats. As hatchlings they go straight on rat pinks and then go up as they grow. I breed my own rats so for me its how i feed. My advice is start feeding what your always going to feed. It gets harder to switch once the snake gets older and bigger

[Crawly's Mom]

There are pros and cons to both. Most big breeders who have a lot of animals strictly feed live because the prep time for frozen/thawed is so long. There is nothing wrong with feeding live, you simply have to be cautious. You do not want the rat biting or scratching your snakes. I never leave my snakes alone with a rat longer than 15 minutes. There have been nasty examples of what can happen when a rat attacks a snake... my rescue gal Bonnie has several scars from rat fights.

Conversely feeding frozen/thawed can be tricky too. You need to make sure that you are heating the rat enough, but not too much. Too hot or too cold can actually be bad for the snake too. Most of my snakes who eat frozen/thawed they will not eat it it you just lay it there. You have to wiggle it with tongs, do the zombie dance until they strike it. Then I give it an extra wiggle to get them to coil tighter, then let them take over.

Some of my snakes are great frozen/thawed eaters, some or not. I even have one snake who refuses to eat live food. She will kill it, then refuse to eat it. Strangest little gal around lol.

[DooLittle]

We started out doing frozen thawed, thought it would be easier. Turns out its more of a pita to me at least. Gotta keep rodents in my freezer, mess around with thawing them, mess aroumd trying to make them look alive so snake will eat. Much easier to just drop a live one in. You do have to watch, until snake has coiled and rat is dead. You have to stand my with tongs at hand ready to intercept. Don't ever leave them alone. Unless it is a young snake, and a blind rat pup. Imo so much easier to stop at store once a week, and have feed day.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It's really a matter of what works with your animals and is convenient to YOU.

You just need to be knowledgeable about both practices and decide for yourself which is best for you.

I mainly feed live, I feed a few animals F/T (allows me to take care of possible surplus), I used to feed F/T exclusively until I reached 10 snakes but after that it just became time consuming.

[SlitherinSisters]

I would say a good majority of people feed live. You will always have the people saying that you should never fed live because it's so dangerous. It's really not, as long as you aren't dumb about it. You can't leave a rodent in with your snake hours on end and not expect things to go wrong. Rodents have a very high metabolism and will eat the closest source of food when they get hungry, your snake. Don't keep a rodent with your snake more than 15-30 minutes and you will be fine. The only bites I have gotten, were from medium-large rats, they have a lot more strength to bit through the snake's skin. I am going to pick up some large frozen rats at the next snake show to feed the large snakes that will take f/t just to help avoid that. Plus it will be a little easier for me to keep up with the large snake since I go through so many rats every week to keep up with the youngsters.

Other than that, it's up to you and what you want to do. It's not all that dangerous to feed live, but you will get bites here and there. Most of the time the bites don't need any care other than a clean cage. I have had one bite that I cleaned up, but it healed within a couple days.

[mattchibi]

I feed my snakes both live and f/t. Having two snakes (200 grams and 300 grams) not eat for 3-4 weeks consecutively because I was offering only f/t is not a good feeling, especially because they are so young. I decided tonight feed my pastave, who was previously on live prey, a live rat pup and after a little hesitation, he slammed it down no problem. I have to say that it gives me a lot more peace of mind knowing that my snake has eaten, and I think sometimes, you have to just give in and feed them what THEY want to eat, not what YOU want them to eat. If you get my drift.

It's important for me to keep trying to switch them to f/t, but I'd rather have a strong live eater, rather than a weak f/t eater. Hopefully they switch to f/t for me some day, but at this point, Im just ecstatic that he actually ate for me for his first time tonight!

[Arock]

I feed live. I feel feeding frozen just takes one more thing away from a snakes natural instincts and seems to me that it makes snakes more lazy than we already have but there are some perks to frozen. Frozen has already started to break down so it's a little easier for your snake to digest, frozentends to be cheaper, and depending on your schedule, having 2 mos worth of feeding right there doesnt hurt.Switching from live can be tricky. You can try going per kill first and then trying frozen after that. Or sometimes just skipping a feeding or two to ensure an appetite.