I think I can understand the desire to allow a snake to feed live even though it's established itself on f/t rodents just to satisfy a personal curiosity. However, I cannot wrap my head around how someone can deliberately crush heads and feet to prevent the possibility that a tooth or nail might mar the snake. To crush the skull or extremities of a still living, breathing animal in an attempt to calm it down? That's entirely cruel and inhumane.
I have no qualms about feeding live animals to snakes provided the feeding is supervised and the rodent is removed if the snake isn't interested. I prefer feeding freshly killed rodents to my own snakes because I don't like having a freezer full of rats and mice and I also don't want to risk a well-placed rat bite injuring or scarring any of my snakes. When I kill rodents, I believe it's relatively quick and painless for them. To mutilate or maim them prior to offering them to a snake only increases already heightened stress levels and then leaves them in far more pain than necessary and I honestly don't know how someone could bring themselves to doing that to a living animal whether it's intended to be eaten or not. I'll get off my soapbox now....
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