Live or Pre-killed?

[Tim Personguy]

Hi everyone
I wanted your suggestions wether to feed my ball live or pre killed. What are the advantages and disadvantages between live and pre-killed and which do you prefer?
Thanks in advance
-Tim

[Shadows Valkyrie]

I tried the pre-killed way and it was a no go for my Sorcha. She refused to eat them no matter what I did.

I think either way as long as your snake is a healthy and a good eater that it doesn't mater overly much.

[Vypyrz]

Hi everyone
I wanted your suggestions wether to feed my ball live or pre killed. What are the advantages and disadvantages between live and pre-killed and which do you prefer?
Thanks in advance
-Tim

I feed frozen/thawed. Is that what you are referring to? Pre-killed is when you take a live prey and dispatch it before feeding it to the snake...

The biggest advantage to feeding Frozen/Thawed is that you can buy them in bulk and save money. Another advantage to feeding dead prey over live is that you don't have to worry about your snake getting bitten. Not to mention if the snake doesn't eat, now you have a live rat to take care of....

[Shadows Valkyrie]

I tried the pre-killed way and it was a no go for my Sorcha. She refused to eat them no matter what I did.

I think either way as long as your snake is a healthy and a good eater that it doesn't mater overly much.

... let me edit my previous statement... I tried f/t. Not pre-killed.
and on a side note, I breed my own feeders.

[mainbutter]

Unless you breed your own, feeding live is a pain. Constant trips to wherever you buy yours from gets expensive from gas alone, much less the inflated costs of buying live feeders regularly. I have one snake that only eats live. It's a pain.

There are safety issues as well. Rabbits, rats, and even just a little adult mouse are quite capable of causing significant damage to would-be predators trying to eat them. More than one snake has been killed by the feeder that was left in its cage unsupervised. If you breed your own feeders, this is really the only reason to feed pre-killed. Despite being the only reason, I do think it's a good one. If your snakes take pre-killed, help them out and dispatch of their prey for them

If you need help on how to pre-kill your rodents, there are a number of threads on a number of techniques. I personally prefer cervical dislocation, I find it's the easiest, fastest, most painless, most humane, and simplest method of pre-killing a rat or mouse. The basic technique is to pin the feeder behind the head with a pen or similar object, grab the base of the tail where it meets the body, and with a strong pull you separate the spine. Be careful not to "squish" the feeder as you pin it, the idea is for it to be as quick, painless, and stress-free as you're able to make it.

I feed frozen/thawed to the rest of my snakes. I'm able to buy them in bulk, keep them in my freezer, and have a constant supply of food. Another plus is that my freezer doesn't close on holidays the way a shop that sells feeder might.

Feeding f/t is super convenient and affordable if your snakes will take them (and from my experience, most will easily, and almost all will with a little effort).

[Kage]

I use pre-killed.
- I buy them live and thump them and then feed it to my snake. I've yet to have my snake not eat so if I ever come to that day then I will dispose of the mice properly.

[shorty54]

I have done both and know the dangers of feeding live. But, as long as supervised and you don't just leave the live animal in there your snake should not get attacked. I also breed my food for the snakes.

[bpandrew]

I've only been a snake owner for about a year now but fresh killed works good for me. There's no way in hell my wife would let me keep a bag of dead rats in the freezer.

[rabernet]

Feed what's most convenient for you and your snake.

I feed live - it works for me, and I've fed over 15K live prey with zero incidence.

[PitOnTheProwl]

F/T in our freezer
I have a small pet store that gives a better deal for bulk orders, that could be why she is out a lot of the time LOL