Live food...why? Honestly & with facts!

[Missy King]

Some of my snakes absolutely will not eat if I have the bin open. What is ideal isn't always practical. I have some snakes that will eat anything you hand to them--FT off tongs, off the cage floor, live, whatever--as soon as it hits the bin, they grab it. Other snakes need privacy, and a bit longer to make up their mind.

Little brats *lol* and understood. Case by case is of course realistic.

It's absolutely not safe to leave live rodents in with snakes for long periods of time, but short periods of time aren't too terribly likely to result in anything drastic happening, other than an eaten rodent.

Indeed! I just hope people realize that. I just got the impression that people just throw one in, and that's it. Until next feeding. They're too busy to worry about it, kind of thing. I really hope that's not the case for anyone.

Even FT is not 100% safe, you know. Rodents have long, sharp teeth, and there have been rare incidents...but far more than just one...where snakes have died after eating because those teeth perforated their esophagus. We can't protect them from everything.

That is a fact! I must admit, not too long ago I heard of this happening to a snake. I got all paranoid. Unless i sit there pulling rat teeth though, what am I going to do about it? I can clip toenails...or at least in our case we soak our meals until they thaw, and then warm, so i'm sure the keratin in then nails soften...so i don't usually cut them down. But teeth...if they're going to get hurt sometimes, they just are. I try to mother and protect them as much as i can, though *lol*

Ideally, they eat FT...but it's better for them to eat something, than to be offered FT and refuse more often than not. Some snakes just don't accept it well.

Yup. But, that doesn't mean i'm not going to keep trying, or not bop it in the head, or freeze it if it dies, and try to refeed anyway *lol* I guess i just want to hear that it's worth the time, for people to take that little extra step. I know i'm not going to change anyone's mind, but maybe they'll just think about things a little differently sometimes. Hey, prevention is the first cure.

I've had more snakes find creative ways to minorly injure themselves on water bowls than I have seen injured by rodents.

LOL That is true. I do realize i'm putting extreme cases out there. My problem is not even really live food...it's the attitude, and lack of enthusiasim i see sometimes.

Anyway...One last question I forgot about! If you feed live...what do you do about fleas?? I'm going to be treating a snake next week (after the good'ol paycheck) for tapeworms. I've read that they get these, from the fleas ingested along with live food.

Thoughts?