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

[Skiploder]

I see people starting to beat the old "fresh is more nutritious than frozen" drum. Well, like most internet regurge material, it's part true, part false.

It depends on many, many variables, including the span of time between death and freezing and more importantly, which nutrients are being discussed.

Some nutrients are affected, some are minimally affected and some are not affected at all. In fruits and vegetables, the nutrients losses of vitamin C begin immediately after picking the produce item and actually are further lessened by the freezing process.

Now I know some people confuse their apples and oranges, but this is an easy one. Meat is not an apple nor an orange. It is meat, and meat does not lose nutrients through proper quick freezing like produce does and whole prey items lose even less than butchered cuts of meat that have longer processing times and lose juices containing nutrients during butchering.

In fact, meat, fish and poultry barely lose any nutrients at all, as proteins and Vitamins A and D are unaffected by the freezing process. There are losses - that much is true - but they are trivial and not worthy of any concern on the part of the keeper.

The losses incurred in frozen meat mainly take place when the meat is thawed, and juices are exuded containing the soluble proteins, vitamins and minerals. Again, whole items lose a lot less of these soluble proteins as they are leaked mainly into the body cavity. The amount of nutrient loss is dependent on the length of time of aging (time between death and freezing), whether frozen as a carcass or meat cuts, conditions of freezing and speed of thawing; it varies between 1% and 10% of the weight of the meat and is usually about 5% - and that is measured on butchered cuts of meat with longer processing times and inherently greater risk of soluble protein loss.

Bottom line - the loss that occurs during thawing is less than 5% of the nutrient content. Not a cogent reason alone to pick live over f/t.

I feed both. I don't breed rodents any more. 95% of my animals are on f/t but I have some that will only eat live.

Only a dimwit of the highest order would sit in judgment of someone who feeds live prey responsibly.