Identity crisis!

[rabernet]

The problem is that I can't deal with live feeding.

I've had pet rats and mice [and still have rats] and simply cannot do it.

I went to Repticon today and brought back a male Fire.

Supposedly he was being switched over to frozen and for whatever reason, has not been fed for 2 weeks due to the breeder's show schedule.

He doesn't want the mouse I gave him even after I plopped it in his house and left him be, as per the guy's instructions.

[hopefully it's all the stress and confusion of the show, the people and going from living in Tupperware for a year to a 40 gallon breeder tank which he has not stopped exploring and gawping at since we got home]

Wish me luck because if he won't eat frozen, he's got to go back.

I grew up raising and slaughtering our own meat.
It's not an issue of being 'girly' or naive.
I just got done a round of rabies shots last week after getting in between [and later calmly capping] the 3 rabid coons who were after my dogs.

I don't think life is a Disney movie.

I live in the mountains and see nature red in tooth and claw all the time.

A critter in the wild has a chance to escape the predator...a mouse tossed into a cage with a snake doesn't.
Nature doesn't work that way.
Prey and predator perform a gruesome pas de deux that one or the other wins only because it was bigger, quicker or smarter....not because the prey was hopelessly trapped in a box.

I'm sorry but I can't do that.

I won't do that.

Ironically, the guy is switching to frozen because his wife feels the same way I do.

Honestly? You're going to have to get over your aversion to feeding live, because I can pretty much guarantee that there's going to come a day that you may have to feed live.

What if a year from now both of your snakes go off feed, refuse to eat f/t and begin to lose weight? Are you going to allow them to lose significant amounts before you offer them live? Or will you just re-home them?

Accepting responsibility for the care of these critters also means that you accept that there are going to be some things you have to do, that you have an aversion to.

I am an animal lover. I love my rats, and I don't enjoy feeding day at all. But I knew what I was getting into when I purchased my first ball python.

Why do you care if a mouse or rat has a chance to escape or not? The f/t cousins didn't get a chance to escape being gassed, or having their heads crashed against a hard surface either. What difference does it make if human killed it or your snake kills it? Maybe I'm not understanding the argument.

Let me be clear - I'm not trying to talk you INTO feeding live, as I advocate people feeding what works for them. But I also advocate being OPEN to feeding live if it's the only thing your snake will eat.