It seemed so wrong, but felt so right...

[GoBoilers]

Aw, man...Look, you made a mistake and you realize that...'nuff said.

I think what some people are having a hard time understanding (myself included) is this: you've made it CRYSTAL CLEAR that the health and safety of your snakes is your top priority; however, you've chosen to switch them from a feeding that is inherently safer (f/t = 0% chance of scratches or bites) to one that carries some risk. Moreover, the reasons you've stated for switching from f/t all boil down to the fact that it is inconvenient for YOU. Essentially, you're saying that your snakes' health and safety is a priority...as long as it doesn't inconvenience you. Can you understand how that might look a little fishy?

Anyway, I'm not here to start another f/t vs. live debate...but might I suggest, for your own sanity, stick with either f/t or prekilled. I've seen the consequences first-hand of that "one-in-a-million" bite that ultimately killed a snake and this was not the result of an irresponsible owner who left a rodent in with his snake unattended. The tragic part was that the owner was a 12 year old boy whose care was immaculate (he even schooled the vet a couple of times )! He had always fed live and did exactly as others had instructed him to do: "don't leave the snake and rodent unattended." The bite happened on impact and the rat just got lucky and bit the snake through the eye and the roof of the mouth piercing the skull. It just happened so quickly and the kid witnessed the whole thing. He was absolutely devastated. Like I said, "one-in-a-million," but that was no consolation to the kid that just lost his beloved pet.

So like I said, if your snakes' safety is truly your #1 priority, stick with f/t or prekilled 'cause having that doubt in the back of your mind can't be good for your peace of mind!

[Chocolate Muffin's]

Someone posted about us all being on the same team ect., and they are right! So in that spirit I am sorry if I insulted you. But please rest assured that your animals can more than handle their food and dispatch it quite efficiently. If they are eating frozen keep feeding frozen, but be confident in the odd(like 2x's a year) live feeding that they will be fine. All my guys are on F/T, except for one, like I said and she will be switched eventually to F/T. I am not against live feeding but F/T is just easier. I also have 2 daughters who turned an uneaten rat into a pet because BP's being BP's, they decide to stop eating sometimes, and now you have to care for a new PET! I had it hidden in the basement until feeding time ( at the time I only had one BP), but my oldest tamed her down and made her a pet. Needless to say not happy!!!!! All I am saying is that crushing anything is really not necessary, though in retrospect I remember when I was new to snakes. I would go crazy about feeding and when they wouldn't eat I would freak out! Now I have a male hog nose snake that hasn't eaten in 52 days. Eventually he will eat and all will be fine. You will learn, we all did and do! Please no more crushing of anything!
Mike Kelly

Apology accepted, I'm sorry too. I do now realize that I was being cruel, just not intentionally. Next time I will handle these rodents much more humanely and keep in mind that they are fully capable of feeling pain. They are after all, cute little critters and I don't want to be inflicting pain on any animal, thats not the kind of person I am.

[Patricia]

I don't want to be inflicting pain on any animal, thats not the kind of person I am.

That's good to know, as your title and prior posts indicated otherwise. That's partly what got the rest of us upset.

[J&Rmooney]

I had never done “it” before….lots of heavy breathing, long anticipation, the longing for the real thing!


in your original post you said this about why you wanted to fed live, let me tell you the excitement goes away after the second/third time. then its just old hat, my carpet does like to play with her food for a bit. so its exciting to see what new way she strikes.

we feed all three of our snakes live, because as snakes they eat live animals. so thats what i do.

the watching and excitment ended fast, now its just observe and a check on the feeding schedule.

yes there are horror stories about injured or killed snakes, those are very few and very far between and are mostly caused by owners turning prey loose and walking away.

if live is what you chose to fed, then drop in food and just watch. it is over in the blink of an eye. if its a fiesty rat then a hard thump to its head will do the trick.

i cannot agree with what you did, no matter what the eventual outcome. i have had rats bite me and i didnt harm them, they just got bumped to the top of the feeding list. yes we breed our own rodents, hell some of them have names.

people here are just trying to help you, take their advice. like you stated you have alot to learn.

[harm286]

I still say everything is up to u... do wut u wonna do

[singingtothewheat]

I had never done “it” before….lots of heavy breathing, long anticipation, the longing for the real thing!

I treated my precious animals to live food for the very first time – My baby ball ‘Muffin’ has NEVER been fed live food, nor has my 17 year old adult. For some reason today I got a wild hair and decided to feed them live rodents. I went in knowing the risks and decided ahead of time that I would keep a very close eye on the rodent, and keep the tongs attached to the feeder until it stopped fighting.

For me, it was the wildest thing I had ever seen, in the flesh. Normally when I feed F/T, I do a little dance and dangle, and then I get a rather sluggish pull at the tongs, and then a ‘thud’ and it’s done. Simply drama free. With the live feed, I put the container with the rodents in for a short time and those snakes came alive like I had never seen them before….the real predators came out in what I thought were sweet little slithering puffs of goodness.

Anyway, for ‘Fat Nico’ my adult BP, I had to crush the rats’ feet, to prevent it from scratching Nico. Muffin’s mouse was far worse however, I had to take my hemostats and crush his face to get him to calm down. I was terrified of these rodents hurting my animals, so the tongs never left my grip.

I now recognize how easily this could have gone awry, but the snakes got to those rodents faster than I have seen them do ANYHTING. It was quite a sight, and it happened so fast, that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been intent on not letting the rodent scratch/bite my snakes.

What an experience for a ‘Live feed’ virgin – I just had to share….

I am assuming that I can’t go back to F/T now?

WOW. um, go back to f/t. I'm just really shocked at the brutality here. I often feed live but I do not feed live if they are big enough to bite or scratch. I'm not a snake owner that can't handle the heat either. I have no problem with doing a cervical dislocation on a mouse / rat just before giving it to my snakes but crushing an animals feet and head instead of just killing it first. Unnecessary brutality. It just is.

[DarkSmoke]

i always feed my 2 snakes live mice.
my ball python 3-4months old was fed his first adult live (cause the shop fed them f/t)
he took like 3mins looking at the mouse jumping, the mouse went near the hideout, boom. dead.
2days ago was his second feeding , he attacked the mouse in less then a minute without anyprolems.

my corn has been feeding live for about 6months now and he attacks instantly without giving the mouse a second to move.

what i can say to you is this. once they start on live they will get better at hunting day by day. my snakes never missed, never got attacked.
i dont see any problem at my adult mouse scratchig my ball python , the nails are so small it didnt even scretch my skin while running on my hand.

the real problem comes at the teeth. you could just use that think i dont know what it is that makes the nails of persons preventing of beeing sharp (sry im not english) and use it on the mouse' teeth that way the mouse wouldnt hurt. personaly i just watch over them while they eat and if i see a little bit of fighting back from the mouse i would eat it myself LOFL, no really, i would be ready to throw it out instantly.

i dont love how the forums (im on 2 forums abt snakes) threat the ones who feed live, in my opinion everyone should feed how they love it, even if its for personal pleasure. damn man, we pay money for the snakes dont we have the right to see them kill a mouse and eat it like they do in the wild? for the price of a bite in a lifetime wich usually doesnt even happen and can be prevented with supervision.?

but please dude, stop breaking faces and feet. your still cheating on your snake like that but trying to make him think that its a difensive angry rat/mouse while its not.
thats cruelity , something i would never. the snake killst hem without much less pain, at least my ball kills them in less then a second. i would never do such a damn thing. pls if you wanna feed live, just put a live mouse/rat and inspect carefully, if you don't have guts to do that, then go back to F/T im sure it can be done. again i feed my corn live but when the mouse dies because he gows in shedding i freeze and then feed him after shedding., he eats without probs.

[STEW]

Next time just hold them by the tail and step on their heads. Or like twirl em around like a helicopter real fast and sling em into the wall first.

You just argued with these knuckleheads for 12 pages (insanity at best). They are just worried about bad press and looking bad.... boo hoo. Give them a tissue.

[DarkSmoke]

Next time just hold them by the tail and step on their heads. Or like twirl em around like a helicopter real fast and sling em into the wall first.

You just argued with these knuckleheads for 12 pages (insanity at best). They are just worried about bad press and looking bad.... boo hoo. Give them a tissue.

lol!! what can i say... somebody finally said it.
forums are becoming war places day after they with the pros attacking the n00bs paranoid about the sickhead american goverment banning their snakes.
i was a victim on another forum too wich by time realized what STEW just said.

[reptidude1]

Next time just hold them by the tail and step on their heads. Or like twirl em around like a helicopter real fast and sling em into the wall first.

You just argued with these knuckleheads for 12 pages (insanity at best). They are just worried about bad press and looking bad.... boo hoo. Give them a tissue.

We are worried about the press because with all the bills coming around to ban our pythons bad publicity will just make it a lot worse. It will make all of us snake keepers look evil