Do you ever feel bad feeding live?

[Jerhart]

If you feel bad feeding your snake...you shouldn't own it. Give the snake to someone who will feed it and go buy a goldfish.

[ClarkT]

I guess it shows my noobness, but I got bit by the rat the first time I tried. I don't care much for them to die. They gotta die to feed my snake. It's the full measure of their creation . Just like cows are here to feed me hamburgers and steak, and supply milk for me and my family. Just the food chain of life.

[Eyeball]

I feed live...i like the feeding response that live rodents bring out in my snakes. rodents are part of the food chain and snakes eat them ...that's the way it is. Eyeball

[medusasmorphs]

I feed live every 5-7 days, and all the points people have made I agree with, it is nature, it is the snakes survival and I don't have a problem feeding but I don't look forward to it like I once did when I had 1 snake.

[Greez1986]

I haven't got a chance to feed my BP yet so I wouldn't know but I really doubt it will bother me, as few things do. I feed my Piranhas live food and although its a fish and not a rodent it has never bothered me. Maybe its from all the hunting I did when I was younger, I don't hunt now because I simply felt my big gun up against a little deer or squirrel didn't seem like sport.

[mrmertz]

I posted in a similiar thread so no details here but way back when (like 20 years ago) when I had my first Burm live was all you fed snakes.

Then one day Bogart decided he didn't want to eat the live 7 pound New Zealand white buck rabbit so after keeping it around for a few days (intending to try feeding it to him again in a week or so)...it ended up becoming a family pet for 2 years before dying from cystitus. Thumper turns out was litterbox trained and everything. He was great.

I tried to remain calloused to it all knowing when I got him (the snake that is) that this is what he ate. I knew it going into the hobby. Like someone else posted here one time when he was younger he got a bad wrap on this rat and the thing let out a blood curdling squeeling constantly for what seemed like an eternity. That was kinda nerve-wracking for me though I didn't interceed and just let nature take its course.

Now with F/T's there is no way I'd ever go back to live, particularly when the RTB we got had a good sized gouge from where he was snagged by a live rat as that was what he was raised on. Gopher now eagerly accepts F/T's though it took some phsysiological doin' on my part!

[Crazy4Herps]

If you feel bad feeding your snake...you shouldn't own it. Give the snake to someone who will feed it and go buy a goldfish.

I don't see any problem as long as the snake owner is willing to feed live. They don't have to be comfortable with it, but as long as they are willing to there's no issue. I really like pigs; I feel bad when they die, but it doesn't keep me from eating bacon for breakfast.

[exiled reptile]

Feeding live is only the second worse thing when it comes to owning snakes. Having to kill the rat yourself to assist feed or because your snake is a dumby and didn't grab the rat right to aviod injury..that the worse part..

yes i agree but found out that if you gas the little suckers with c02 they just die in a matter of seconds.it might sound cruel but i know many people do it that way.circle of life and all that jazz.

[LunaBalls]

Here is my situation, my wife wants me to part with my ball pythons because she "does not want their blood on her hands" even though they are mine. I have to move them all (38 of them) over to a friends house and maintain them there. Im torn and upset. I hate the fact I pay for everything and cannot keep them at my own home. My daughter can keep her 4 ball pythons according to her mother, but I am cruel for keeping my own.

I Wouldn't Listen To Her.

[A.VinczeBPs]

I do feel bad feeding live. I dislike seeing any animal die, and I've never had a ball python refuse a F/T rat or asf, so feeding live has been unnecessary as well.

Second, most of the ones I buy were fed F/T before they come to me.

If I did buy one who was very very stubborn about only eating live, I would do it. I put the snake before the rat. However, I wouldn't enjoy it, and would try to turn it to f/t as soon as possible.

I don't look down on people who prefer live, so please don't look down on me for feeling bad for a small animal who I have to witness dying.