Eating rat alive (not killing it first)

[Expensive hobby]

And take it from someone who was a hard sell on F/T or P/K, my life has gotten so much better and easier switching to frozen. I was doing live because it was "more natural" then it was pre kill because I refused to hop on the F/T bandwagon, and now I do frozen.

When you start getting snakes worth a couple thousand a piece, or your collection hits the multiple dozen range, it makes life so much easier and safer for the snake, and the owner.

I couldn't imagine feeding live for as many snakes as I have now. All I do now is pick out the right size, fill up a couple 5 gal buckets with rats and add hot water. Then once the water has become cold I refresh with hot again and we are good to go.

Hop on the bandwagon, trust me, it's a nice ride lol

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3

[Chavo]

My first ball python was a large imported boy, who would only eat live. He would grab a big rat by the head and slowly get to work, no constricting at all. Rarely, but it happened...all I was trying to say.

[John1982]

My first ball python was a large imported boy, who would only eat live. He would grab a big rat by the head and slowly get to work, no constricting at all. Rarely, but it happened...all I was trying to say.

That is surprising, did he never take a bite? In my experience as soon as claw, tooth or talon offer the snake discomfort they will do what is necessary to subdue that prey before continuing. Seems like swallowing a big, living rat head first would incur some nasty retribution from the rodent which would in turn trigger that snake to react accordingly. Many snakes will not bother to subdue helpless prey and swallow it alive. It doesn't get much more helpless than a pinky rat.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

My first ball python was a large imported boy, who would only eat live. He would grab a big rat by the head and slowly get to work, no constricting at all. Rarely, but it happened...all I was trying to say.

I'm not even sure how this would be possible. Even my hopper rats go CRAZY when man handled. I cannot imagine an adult rat just laying there while being eaten. Sure, they would suffocate eventually, but until they do I'd imagine the rat would bite and claw the hell out of the snake in an attempt to get loose.

[ViperSRT3g]

If the snake senses that the prey is too small to be of any threat, they will just swallow it without striking or constricting it.

[barbie.dragon]

It's because the prey item you're feeding is way too small. You should get a scale that measures in grams and weigh him. Feed 10-15% of his body weight I'd he's not that big

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

[StellaStarr]

He's 74 grams


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pythonfriend]

one thing i see people do in frozen-thawed feeding videos is that when the snake just starts to eat without constricting, you pull at the rats tail or use tweezers to pull at it and wiggle it, and that causes proper constriction. when the snakes feel that the food item is struggling or pulling away, they get the message and hit it like a train.


the problem is i have no clue how this could apply to live feedings. when the rat already has a really bad day, giving the tail a hard pull or pulling at the fur with tweezers may only add to the suffering.

but maybe teaching the snake that the food item may get pulled away unless properly constricted can get them conditioned to always properly constrict.

and maybe the most humane way is to switch as many as possible over to frozen-thawed or pre-killed.

[Pythonfriend]

i guess i make threads die . i post, and silence strikes. maybe im too serious . anyway i would like to hear some more.