I feel this statement is a bit hyperbolic. Driving 10 over the speed limit is adding risk. Driving 50 over the speed limit is reckless. I am in total agreement with you that feeding live adds risk to the animal. As I posted earlier I currently have a snake in the hospital because of a feeding gone badly. And it was not a lack of responsibility on my part. That being said, feeding live rats to animal that would eat live rodents in the wild is not reckless. It is adding risk. In the wild there is no way for a snake to avoid the risk of being bitten in the activity of a kill. In captivity we can choose and the mitigating factor is we have a vested interest in the welfare of the animal and any risk we can minimize is worthy of consideration.Originally Posted by LostWingsInTime
As far as natural goes, I think we can all agree there is nothing natural about this hobby other than it involves an organism. If we were truly trying to duplicate nature then we would all be breeding normals in diorama style enclosures, allowing the females to maternally incubate the eggs. We would be feeding our snakes wild caught rodents in the dead of night. Where's the fun in that? We are, as humans always do, manipulating something to satisfy our whimsy. The differing of opinions is about our own comfort levels more then the animals. What are we comfortable doing, providing, trying? We can never know if we are getting it absolutely right because the snake can't tell us and the evidence is often not quantifiable. But we are usually left with no doubt when we get it wrong. Just my $0.02
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