Live vs. F/T

[crepers86]

my only problem with feeding live is that I don't breed feeders, I buy my feeders on feeding day. However my snakes will take to both live and F/T so normally what I do if they refuse is pre kill then freeze. I kinda like feeding my big girl abbus pre killed because she wont strike it she'll just take it and swallow it.

[Raptor]

Both live and f/t have their dangers. Live is that the prey item can injure your snake. With f/t, you could feed an improperly warmed prey item and make your animal sick/regurge. Quite honestly, the safest thing to feed is pre-killed. Me? I feed what the snake will eat. In my case, I'm lucky to have a snake that will eat anything. Live, prekilled, ft.

[mainbutter]

I know this has probably come up too many times to count, but I cant find the threads, so I apologize. My BP will be here next Wednesday and they guy I bought him from feeds live rats. Is live feeding really detrimental to their health? I know this is the way they would feed in the wild but I'm afraid of a rat hurting my BP.

Feeding live Pros and Cons:

Pros -
1) Can get tricky eaters to feed
2) Easily accessible if you breed your own feeders

Cons -
1) Can be dangerous. Feeders have killed their potential predators before.
2) Expensive if you have to purchase retail feeders, and not always readily availabe

I feed frozen/thawed and have a freezer full of feeders. I order in bulk from Rodentpro.com, it's the most affordable way I've found to feed my animals outside of breeding my own animals (and add in a minimum wage time cost, and rodent pro still wins out).

[AK907]

You have people that have always feed live and never had a problem but then you always hear the horror stories or see the pics of snakes all messed up from being feed live.

The majority of those badly injured snakes are from idiots who leave feeders in unsupervised for extended periods of time. We've actually got a female with bad scars from her previous owner who left feeders in with her.

We feed live with the exception of our younger corns, who we feed f/t because its convenient. All live feedings are supervised and we have yet to have a problem. Its all about being responsible.

[cmack91]

mine only eats live, but i did get him to eat a stunned rat last feed, ive had him for 5 years and he unfortunatly has been bit twice, nothing serious but ever since the first bite he wont take males or all white rats, he became picky. and ive offered him f/t at least 20+ times in his life, and he absolutly will not take. ever since the first bite i sit there with a pair of pliers in case i have to break the rats neck if he has my snake (thankfully i dont have to do it often)

[benwallage9]

The majority of those badly injured snakes are from idiots who leave feeders in unsupervised for extended periods of time. We've actually got a female with bad scars from her previous owner who left feeders in with her.

We feed live with the exception of our younger corns, who we feed f/t because its convenient. All live feedings are supervised and we have yet to have a problem. Its all about being responsible.

I agree 1000% but like in my case i was watching the snake the whole time she just got a bad strike and now has a couple small scars from it. However, if I hadn't reacted the way I did when I did what other damage might have happened to her? My thing is what happens when someone sees this happen and doesn't know how to respond to the situation, or panics? Thats why I am suggestion this person feeds f/t, this is there first snake and until they get some experience under their belt i think f/t is the way to go.

[Ogre]

I just got my BP about a week ago and fed her last night. I had no idea what shes eaten before because the store haddnt been able to feed her. I got her home and like I said about a week later she ate f/t with no fuss. my concern is she didnt coil it she just struck and down the hatch. Is that normal?

[loonunit]

All my animals eat f/t. My husband won't allow me to breed my own rodents (and I'm not thrilled about the extra work involved, anyway) so for me ordering vast quantities of f/t online has turned out to be far cheaper than buying individual f/t or live locally.

Sometimes it's work switching the animals. I've had animals that didn't eat for months after arriving, and then stopped eating randomly a few months later and had to go back on live. At some level, I just want to see these guys eat SOMETHING, anything. I had to leave my het lavender male on live for most of a year, and he regressed back from f/t several times before it finally stuck. And THEN he would only eat f/t MICE, and it's taken me another year to get him on rats...

But IF your animal arrives with an appetite, then this is a great time of year to switch. Most of my animals are eating voraciously right now, building up weight for the winter breeding season. I'm using that appetite to switch my mousers over to rats, and it's a good time for switching live eaters over f/t.

If your animal arrives and it won't eat? The main thing is finding something it actually does want to eat. If you have a picky eater, you might have to feed live all winter and wait until the appetite returns again before you can change the diet.

[benwallage9]

I just got my BP about a week ago and fed her last night. I had no idea what shes eaten before because the store haddnt been able to feed her. I got her home and like I said about a week later she ate f/t with no fuss. my concern is she didnt coil it she just struck and down the hatch. Is that normal?

Ya it happens she had just lost the instinct to coil. My corn does it sometimes along with my pin. It like they know its already dead so why bother coiling lol. Just don't try live with her, it could turn out nasty

[arkansaspythons]

like rperry03 said if F/T wont work supervised feeding is the only other option.