Live? F/t? Or P/K?

[psycho]

MUCH better! I don't know how you can be used to typing like that, would annoy the crap outta me.. Looked like one long sentence to me. Kind of like when people write in all caps, but worse.

LOL! Well no advice for my bp?

[frankykeno]

so its not true about live having more nutrients?

It's not true because you simply can't make a broad statement about any prey type like that. You could have really nice f/t prey bought from a good rodent supplier or crappy, thin, badly frozen stuff. You could have nice chunky live rats or mice or you could have thin, underfed ones. It always comes down to, in my mind, buying or producing the best possible prey item that is your snake's only source of nutrition. Where you find that and how you personally choose to feed your snake is in the end up to you. The only other thing is understanding fully the method of feeding you choose so you can do it correctly.

[Demon280z]

LOL! Well no advice for my bp?

oops sorry lol

I feed F/t for a number of reasons. It is more convenient, safer than live and I prefer not to have to pre-kill. I don't have any snakes that won't take F/T so it is very easy for me to weigh out their meals. Yes, I'm anal but I can be sure I am feeding appropriately based on their weights. I will always feed F/T if the snake is willing to take it. So, far out of the 10+ snakes I have, I've never been refused.

I buy from a friend that buys in HUGE quantities so I just place an order with her and pick them up when I need to.

[Blue Apple Herps]

I say go for f/t. While the risk of injury is small when being fed responsibly, there is absolutely no risk with f/t. Plus with f/t its usually cheaper, especially if you buy in bulk. And its also useful if the petshop/breeder is out of live feeders in the size you need. You can always have some on hand.

[Slim]

Where do you find them shipped??????

If you're asking about live being shipped, I can't help you with that. I feed F/T. There are dozens of places that ship F/T. I don't mess with shipping because I'm lucky enough to have a large exotics store in my area that has great F/T. I also live about a mile from the Hampton Mousery in case I need a certain size of, say rat pup. I can get rat pups from them anywhere from 16 grams up to 38 grams. I have a lot of reptile expos around here as well. That's always a good place to pick up feeders at a good price.

so its not true about live having more nutrients?

Not in my mind, no. If it were to be proven one way or the other, I would look at the evidence, but right now, I don't think it's been proven.

[anatess]

I saw an episode of snakebytes a while back where they said that there is no nutritional differences between live and f/t that is frozen for less than 6 months. After it has been frozen longer than 6 months, then the nutritional value starts to decline. Something about proteins starting to break down. Somebody might want to verify this info because I might have misunderstood it.

I myself feed live because I grow my own rats. I can guarantee quality rats and if my snake decides to go on a diet, then I just put the rat back with his family to enjoy life for a week longer. I have ASFs so they can't outgrow our bp's.

[rabernet]

I say go for f/t. While the risk of injury is small when being fed responsibly, there is absolutely no risk with f/t. Plus with f/t its usually cheaper, especially if you buy in bulk. And its also useful if the petshop/breeder is out of live feeders in the size you need. You can always have some on hand.

There actually IS one risk with feeding f/t and that is not properly defrosting the prey and it still being frozen in the middle. That can cause the prey to rot in the belly of your snake, potentially leading to its death.

There are risks in both live and f/t and the keeper should be aware of all risks.

I only feed f/t to my kingsnake, but that's simply for convenience sake.

I breed my own rodents and have only fed live to all of my ball pythons, and have never offered them f/t or pre-killed. I've been feeding live for over three years and never experienced any life threatening injury. A nick or a scratch here or there, but nothing that endangered the life of any of my collection.

[kc261]

Please don't buy into the "live has better nutriton" argument. It hasn't been proven one way or the other.

so its not true about live having more nutrients?

It's not true because you simply can't make a broad statement about any prey type like that. You could have really nice f/t prey bought from a good rodent supplier or crappy, thin, badly frozen stuff. You could have nice chunky live rats or mice or you could have thin, underfed ones. It always comes down to, in my mind, buying or producing the best possible prey item that is your snake's only source of nutrition. Where you find that and how you personally choose to feed your snake is in the end up to you. The only other thing is understanding fully the method of feeding you choose so you can do it correctly.

I saw an episode of snakebytes a while back where they said that there is no nutritional differences between live and f/t that is frozen for less than 6 months. After it has been frozen longer than 6 months, then the nutritional value starts to decline. Something about proteins starting to break down. Somebody might want to verify this info because I might have misunderstood it.

I want to add a little to this. First of all, as Joanna (frankykeno) pointed out, there is going to be a MUCH bigger difference in nutrition based on the quality of prey you start out with, than whether or not it has been frozen. So looking for a source of quality feeders is more important than whether that source is live or f/t. You might have other reasons to choose one or the other, but nutrition shouldn't be it unless it is because you choose f/t because you can get quality f/t shipped to you and you can't find quality live feeders.

As far as it breaking down in the freezer, yes, it does. Vitamins, protein, etc. It all starts to break down. But it doesn't magically start at 6 months, that is just a rough estimate of when enough has broken down for it to start to be significant. It will also depend a lot on how you store it. Unopened vacuum-sealed packages stored in a freezer that never gets opened will keep the food better for longer than something like a ziplock bag that you open every feeding day stored in a freezer that gets opened multiple times every day. Also, just because a vitamin breaks down, does not mean it evaporates. The building blocks are still there. So whether or not it is still useful to the snake depends on whether or not the snake needs that vitamin, and whether or not enough of that vitamin remains in an unbroken down form, and whether or not the snake can use the building blocks to create the vitamin itself. Since most of this has not been studied in BPs, we can't say if the difference between live & f/t matters, but the number of people who successfully feed snakes on a diet of purely f/t prey indicates that it is not an issue.

[Superfictious]

I just fed my new (and first!) male for the first time yesterday.
He's just under a year, and has been on f/t all his life. Took it right away.

I'm lucky, because the people I got him from run a store in town, the Reptile Feeder Shop. They're both serious about reptiles, breed most of their own feeders, and their own mice and rats. All of their f/t are fresh and vacuum sealed.

I'm happy with f/t for convenience, easy disposal if they don't take it, and because I'd still be sad watching a live mouse get eaten at this point. I've had pet rodents all my life, haha.

[psycho]

why isnt nobody recommending me to feed p/k isnt the same as f/t?