Quote Originally Posted by djansen View Post
Wow, strong opinions here.

Now if I could get all my snakes to eat FT I would

What are the pros of feeding live?

Cons for me are:
-cost, FT in bulk is less expensive.
-have to drive and get rodents (large amounts for some people).
-Rodents are messy and alot of live rodents in transport containers is gross, they cannibalize eachother at times, they smell.
-they poop and pee in the cages, chew up paper, splash in water bowls, if not eaten right away.
-what to do if your snakes dont eat them? now I have to either make a place for them and feed them or kill them. if you have lots of snakes this may not be a problem.
-and now the small chance of a rodent bite that is not even an issue with FT.

I personally dont see any advantage to live, I dont think its wrong and if you want to thats great but I have yet to see any advantage here.
I breed my own, much cheaper than driving into town to spend a butt load on live/frozen mice. I know how mine have been raised and know what quality of nutrition they have in them. My mice have no smell and don't splash in water bowls (yay for water bottles).

To the OP, do what fits your situation. A mouse once sit and gnawed on my snake while she was constricting it. There was no injury besides some scraped up scales. I do recommend Repti-wound healing aid, though. It helps with healing, prevents infection, etc. Comes in a little one ounce container with yellow liquid. Stuff is really oily, but it seems to help.