feeding live rats

[King's Royal Pythons]

I raise my own feeders as well, this lets ME control the quality of my snake food. I returned a few rats to the local pet store because they just didn't look healthy.
As stated earlier, ALWAYS supervise when feeding live rodents to snakes; I purchased a used recliner for my reptile room just so I could watch them comfortably.

[Rhasputin]

The only thing that happens if you re-freeze it is it gets a little more squishy. Nothing bad happens other than that though. But don't do it more than once or you might start getting a load of bacteria in the rat/mouse/whatever's gut cooking up.

[Bellabob]

My advice is to feed the live rat, and monitor the entire process--meaning watch the whole thing. Sometimes the snake might not get a good hold on the prey item, and its head could be sticking out and trying to bite your snake. In this case, make sure you have something on hand for the rat to bite (instead of your snake). They will usually go for the head so the rodent can't inflict any harm. They usually suceed at this, but sometimes don't.

Hope this helps.

[wolfy-hound]

The only thing that happens if you re-freeze it is it gets a little more squishy. Nothing bad happens other than that though. But don't do it more than once or you might start getting a load of bacteria in the rat/mouse/whatever's gut cooking up.

That "squishy" is the guts deteriorating due to the deomposition process beginning.

[ogdentrece]

If you do have worries about not being able to react on time to a misstrike or not up to take any chances with your snake, kill the rat first feed it prekilled. So much easier, honestly, besides the horrible feeling every time you do it yourself. I get a little squirmish about the idea of breaking their necks and smashing their heads against something but I have to so.. I do. But whenever I can I try to use CO2. Better for me and the rat.

[deathadder1069]

just make sure that youre watching them as theres been plenty of times when a live rat is left unattended with your snake and depending on the size they can get vicious. Ive never seen a weaner rat harm a snake but for the large ones well they can be bad news, either way just keep an eye on it so it doesnt come to any bad news later.

[Maixx]

This debate over ft/pk vs. live has been beat to death on probably all reptile, snake forums.
I lost a red tail to a rat bite, supervised. In the time it took to flip the lights off and get the lid unlatched and off was enough for a fatal bite. Make sure you can get to them quick, I made it too hard to get to her in time, and she died for it.
Last f/t I got was from Petco, my guess is it had thawed and refrozen, when my bp hit it and squeezed it popped like a nasty little gut balloon, it was gross to clean up, in the viv. and off my bp.

[deathadder1069]

Was the rat that you fed a large rat...smaller rats tend not to be so vicious compared to adults but still i wouldnt leave them there for too long in case the bp is not in the mood. I have seen bps kill them and leave them there so its a waste but i have never had a problem with bites with smaller rats. Adult rats on the other hand i wouldnt trust so id probably or most likely beat them on the head to daze them and then feed them off but if you can do f/t or p/k then thatd be your best bet but itll take alot longer for them to feed then if you fed live.

[brock lesser]

Think about the investment you have in your snake, hundreds of dollars maybe more. Add the love and care that you give to your snake.
Then put that snake in with a live rat, sooner or later you will not be quick enough and the snake will pay the price.
We have all heard the horror stories of what can happen and it's sad every time.
I have never heard of that happening with f/t.
I would rather throw out a hundred rats than one snake.
Just my .02 cents

[Amon Ra Reptiles]

With 60+ animals that's exactly what we would be doing. Throwing out 100 rats. Most likely every month. We feed upwards of 120-150 rats a month. Feeding f/t just plain isn't realistic. It's easy to feed f/t when you have a few animals and would be throwing out a few rats but when you are throwing out 100s of dollars a month it becomes a different story.