Feeding live?

[GoingPostal]

I've always fed live, easier as that's all I could get locally and now I breed my own, no waste if my bp decides he's not eating that night, just goes back in the tub for next week. Just supervise and take it out if the bp isn't interested, with mine if he doesn't strike within a couple minutes, he isn't going to.

[ed4281]

I have fed thousands of live prey off in many different settings and never had any issues you just have to be responsible like deborah said and make sure to supervise your snake as it eats. Personally I perfer to feed F/T but one of my snakes really would rather starve than eat frozen so off to the petstore I go for a small rat every 5 days.

[Evenstar]

Well, I know I'm new at all this, but I prefer f/t. I have no problem waiting for the mouse to thaw. For me, it's better than maintaining and caging/keeping any live feeders.

My bp was raised on live and had not had f/t until she was relinquished to the rescue group I got her from. They converted her to f/t and she has never missed a meal. They had her for about 5 weeks before I adopted her. She and her cage mate were the same (I would have adopted him too if I'd had another cage set up) and neither had a problem switching to f/t. I know I'm lucky in this regard...

I have no problem with feeding live and I think it's a personal choice dependant on what works for you and your snakes. I would certainly feed Ella live if for some reason she started refusing f/t. Judging by her piggy appetite though, I doubt we'll have issues with that. Just my thoughts....

[Paysons Bps]

I'm just scared to feed live because of all the things I hear, i'd hate to see my snake in any pain or have any markings on him. Thats why im so curious.

[BuckeyeBalls]

Reason i feed ft?

$$$$$

I was paying $1.50 from a pet shop for my mice when we first got him. Not to mention gas money spent to go pick one up.

Now i get em for $0.35 each. So $17.50 for a bag of 50

Oh and dont waste gas to go get em every 5 days

[sarahlovesmiike]

I feed both. Its economical for me because my female will take whatever you give her, but my male will only take live. So if I give my male a live rat and he refuses it I can just give it to Louise. If he constricts and then changes his mind I can give it to her. If he doesn't take it at all I can freeze it and save it for another meal, and I don't have to put it in with my pet rats and risk spread of diseases. I also breed my own rats because its easier for me to humanely euthanize them myself then to buy them for $7 or $8 a piece already dead from PetCo (which is 20 miles away and not a store I really want to support).

Plus, I don't really like to take the hunt away from them, it's natural to me.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I'm just scared to feed live because of all the things I hear, i'd hate to see my snake in any pain or have any markings on him. Thats why im so curious.

Well here is the solution if F/T works for your snake and this is what makes YOU comfortable than just feed F/T, however remember that this has to be done responsibly as well, an un-properly thawed rodent could lead to severe issues as well.

Again proudly feed what works for YOUR animal and YOURSELF.

[SpyderGirl]

I voted f/t only because I like having them on hand, I had trouble finding the right size mouse for my snakes as they are all diff sizes... Frozen ones stay the right size lol... Plus in some instances f/t can be cheeper. Two of my snakes will only eat live but I tricked the other two by feeding with tongs (hemostats) and kinda waving them around so the tail fans in a circle( it's very life like lol) and they both have been eating f/t since. Gonna try to get my male to eat a frozen one today guess we will see if I can finally "trick" him into it lol... Also I have reptile caves for my snakes and just move the cave ( snake inside) to a tub and drop the live mouse in. Once the mouse smells snake it foes to the other side and gives the snake a chance to come out enouph to grab the mouse. I often see my pastel drag it into the cave to swallow it in peace. Then I pick up the cave and put it back in the cage. Feeding takes like 2 minutes for me... Hope this helps

[coldblooded]

I feed both.. I have several snakes that will take F/T, P/K, or live without hesitation and others that are currently live only. I do what I have to to care for my animals.

I do have a rescue that was badly injured from a live rat, but it was because they threw it in with her and forgot about it... she didn't eat it and she's now blind in one eye and has a lot of scarring on her head and body. She's doing well now, though.

[mainbutter]

I proudly feed f/t.

I also proudly feed live.

I feed live for one reason and one reason only: The snake is picky.

Right now the only snake I feed live to is an oddball young rainbow boa. He took f/t for us last week, but this week he flat out refused. He gobbles live pinks and fuzzies with gusto however, so we'll switch it up on him every now and then and try to get him 100% converted to f/t eventually. Our other rainbow has the typical aggressive feeding response you often read about, but the picky boy is just an oddball.