This is why you should NEVER feed live

[zina10]

. Hey, they survive just fine eating live prey in the wild - right?

In all fairness, in the wild the snake and rodent won't be confined together in a small area, either ! So while there are many reasons to either feed live, or not, this is not a valid one.

Feeding live carries risks, but doing it responsibly cuts down on the risks immensely. Like its been said, feeding in the snakes enclosure is safest. Its also
very, very important to stay nearby and supervise. If the snake doesn't grab and constrict the rodent immediately, the risk goes up. If the snake strikes and misses, the rodent will then
be on the alert, defensive and aggressive, since it cannot get away. If the snake is not interested in eating, the rodent might start gnawing on the snake.

In the wild the rodent that was "hit and miss" can run away. In the wild, a snake that isn't interested in eating, will not be forced to bunk with a hungry (and ticked off) rodent. In the wild, most reptiles
don't live to ripe old age. In captivity we try to make them last

I've fed live, pre-killed and f/t. So far, no mishaps. If I feed live, I supervise until the rodent is dead. If not struck/eaten within a few minutes, I remove the rodent.

[sho220]

I've had a few that fed live and one thing I always had handy was a pencil, pen or something I could get in the rats mouth if it was in a position to bite on the snake while being constricted. I only had this happen once, and I'm not sure if it would have resulted in much damage to the snake but I could see the rat starting to bite and I felt better intervening.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

We will agree to disagree here.

I am curious you are telling people not to feed live based on YOU getting bit? I am curious how much experience do you have with feeding live, how many snakes and for how long, and how many severe injuries have your snakes sustained?

Have been bitten by a rat and bled due to it? Yes it happened twice, in both cases they were adult females protecting their babies (they never had a opportunity to do it again ).

Have my snakes ever sustained any severe injuries due to live feeding (I feed a few hundred live prey each month)? NO

Here are a few tricks to live feeding

1# Pre-scent the room
2# Feed off animals that are well fed and hydrated
3# Don't stress the feeder prior to feeding
4# Do not feed over-sized prey (an adult BP does not need a large rat to thrive)

BP are very efficient hunter don't forget that.

The bottom line here is that people should be educated when it comes to feeding, they should know their options and the possible risks associated with those options (live and stunning are not as safe as you may think).

Than based on their knowledge THEY should chose what works for their snakes, is convenient and what makes THEM comfortable.

People should not chose something out of fear instigated by a "graphic" picture of any kind with no history.

[Patrick Long]

Again...another heated debate...over something STUPIDLY silly.

[snakesRkewl]

It seems snakes are better prepared to defend themselves than the standard human hand

Several thousand live feedings and 3 minor bites(the snake not me)

[Clint Bundy]

I got bit by my dog so I decided not to feed it to my Ball Pythons.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Some ball pythons just won't accept live. Some won't even eat if you're watching. What's best and safest isn't always possible if you want to keep your ball python alive and healthy.

If you can switch them to FT, then FT is obviously safer. If you can't...well, then, you have to feed PK or live. No sense in fretting over it, nor any sense in misleading newbies to believe that ALL snakes will take FT, and they just need to be patient. I've seen excessive 'patience' kill snakes through starvation before.

[TimmyG]

I suppose I should have swapped the NEVER for a GOOD reason to not feed live. I think in my origional post I said there are soem reasons where you have to do live (I know how heated this debate can be and I questioned if I should even post this). Although I havent considered the mass breeder situation, I still know of breeders with tonnes of snakes that still do frozen. And yes while in a human hand the bite is superficial think about how much smaller parts of the snake are. If the same bite was done to the snakes head it could very well go deep enough to do serious damage.

[JLC]

I suppose I should have swapped the NEVER for a GOOD reason to not feed live. I think in my origional post I said there are soem reasons where you have to do live (I know how heated this debate can be and I questioned if I should even post this). Although I havent considered the mass breeder situation, I still know of breeders with tonnes of snakes that still do frozen. And yes while in a human hand the bite is superficial think about how much smaller parts of the snake are. If the same bite was done to the snakes head it could very well go deep enough to do serious damage.

It could have...if the bite had happened on the eye or something. Keep in mind that human skin is very fragile compared to that of most animals, including scaled snakes. Their scales protect them from a LOT...way more than our own skin does. Does this mean a rat can't bite through? Of course not...but does it mean every time a rat's mouth gets on the snake's body that a huge chunk is going to be ripped out or internal organs damaged? Ummm, no. Especially when we're talking about an appropriately sized prey item. Obviously a grown rat will be much more dangerous to a baby snake than it would be to a 4000g breeder.

There's nothing wrong with making the post....just be really, really careful when choosing such absolute words as "NEVER" or "ALWAYS". It's a good experience to share and I'm sure someone can learn from it and possibly use it to make their own choices about feeding live or f/t.

Of course there is SOME risk involved in feeding live....just as there is SOME risk in feeding f/t. Life IS risk...just by being alive, we risk injury and death. This isn't to say as keepers that we shouldn't take steps to mitigate those risks as best we can...but we can't claim ANY sort of absolute that will negate ALL risks in life. Risk factors and benefits have to be weighed carefully in every decision we make as keepers. The benefits of carefully feeding live, for many, clearly outweigh the slight risk of a rodent bite. The benefit of the convenience of leaving a live rat overnight with your picky snake does NOT outweigh the much higher risk of the rat making a snack out of an indifferent snake. ....That's my take on the whole debate.

[anatess]

Great picture...

I would use it for a thread/blog titled:

"This is why snakes are better pets than rodents!"

I guess I'll have to post a picture of a snake bite too. I have to say, my kids have been bit by the rats/hamsters plenty of times but only got bit by the snake once (it was their fault too - they put the snake on the couch and then jumped on the couch like it was a trampoline - snake, of course, thought it was the end of the world and went wham!).