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

[Gavin]

which rarely take any injury from their prey

Yet hundreds of pet snakes are killed every year by rodents. If not from infections from bites, especially bites to the eyes, then diseases from mites that could have been easily prevented by freezing and thawing a pre-killed rodent. And why almost every single care sheet and private breeding organization that sells snakes tells owners it's far safer for the animal to feed pre-killed. Feeding live is also illegal in many countries, and the snake pet trade is just fine. Just for fun, here's a picture of a juvenile ball python that was killed and then partially eaten by a mouse. Not even a rat, a mouse.

Even watching it won't change a quick bite to the eye. Human reaction time just isn't fast enough, nor will you be able to predict it. Picky eaters or no, even a large corporate chain like PetCo has all of their snakes on frozen/thawed from pinkes through fuzzies and hoppers and adults.

Feeding live mice, rats, rabbits, etc. on up to captive predatory animals is unnecessary. Whatever vague 'enrichment' you give the animal should be tempered by the needless suffering of the prey item. There's also practical reasons not to do it. Captive bred animals are not wild and prey can fight back. And I have seen snakes, even big snakes, killed by careless owners who drop a rat in and walk away. Rodents and birds used as prey items can carry ticks and other parasites which freezing gets rid of.

Here is a major snake forum detailing what a live animal can do to a snake. If you really think there is minimal risk to the snake, then you are severely misinformed and are just trying to find excuses. This is why I think that live feeding, if the snake can be fed f/t is highly irresponsible and arguably unnecessarily cruel. Now, I've read some previous posts on this site, and I have found that many people here see feeder animals as "objects" rather than living things. That is quite concerning, and further illustrates the point that if people see feeders as inanimate objects, then they should not even be owning such animals or pets dependant on them. Your snakes might be priority #1 here, but even feeder animals deserve respect. After all, they've giving up their lives for your pet's benefit. And yet I see people here treat them like rubbish and like objects. If that is their "opinion" on such animals, then I say "stuff these brutes, they can shove it".