Why feed live prey?

[satomi325]

If you are careful, will your f/t always be thawed out ? Yes. Period. If it isnt thawed out then that is a matter of the owner being careless NOT because it is f/t. I honestly dont even see how you argued that in the first place but w/e.

I don't think you understand.
You're saying, if you're careful, the f/t will be safe.
But if you're careful with live, it can also be safe.

It is the owner's responsibility to feed the rats, so if a live rat bits, it is the owner's own carelessness as well and NOT because the rat is alive.

Last point. You can have your snake bitten REGARDLESS of whether or not you are careful.

WRONG!
If you feed live responsibly, your snake will NOT get bitten.
Feed smaller and more frequently than larger and less often.
There is no bite risk with a crawler or small rat. They're too young and helpless to bite. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it is the adults that are potentially dangerous. I would never feed a fully conscious adult to my snakes.


Like your UTH and thermostat example. Without the thermostat, there is a risk of burning your snake. With a thermostat, the risk is gone, or at least minimized. Same thing w/ feeding live. Feed smaller and more frequent and the risk is gone/minimized greatly.

If f/t works for you, that's great. But no need to say that it's risk free and that live feeding is always dangerous.


There are risks and benefits to feeding both live and f/t. To say feeding f/t is safer is inaccurate.
As long as you're feeding responsibly, there shouldn't be a problem with either methods.

[Kyle7676]

I don't think you understand.
You're saying, if you're careful, the f/t will be safe.
But if you're careful with live, it can also be safe.

It is the owner's responsibility to feed the rats, so if a live rat bits, it is the owner's own carelessness as well and NOT because the rat is alive.






WRONG!
If you feed live responsibly, your snake will NOT get bitten.
Feed smaller and more frequently than larger and less often.
There is no bite risk with a crawler or small rat. They're too young and helpless to bite. Like I mentioned in my previous post, it is the adults that are potentially dangerous. I would never feed a fully conscious adult to my snakes.


Like your UTH and thermostat example. Without the thermostat, there is a risk of burning your snake. With a thermostat, the risk is gone, or at least minimized. Same thing w/ feeding live. Feed smaller and more frequent and the risk is gone/minimized greatly.

If f/t works for you, that's great. But no need to say that it's risk free and that live feeding is always dangerous.


There are risks and benefits to feeding both live and f/t. To say feeding f/t is safer is inaccurate.
As long as you're feeding responsibly, there shouldn't be a problem with either methods.

If you noticed, my first point I addressed the issue of feeding rat pups to snakes. You mean to tell me that you are ok with feeding a 3000g snake rat pups ? Really ?

I stand by what I have said. If the owner is careful, there is no risk from feding f/t. By all means, prove me wrong. Show me the risk of feeding f/t where the owner is responsible.

I also stand by my point, along with many others on here, that there IS a risk to feeding live. If you have more than a couple of large snakes, I honestly dont see feeding a full size BPs 30g rat pups working. Now of course if you are ONLY talking about small / med size snakes and only a couple then fine, I guess that could work in THAT situation.

[satomi325]

If you noticed, my first point I addressed the issue of feeding rat pups to snakes. You mean to tell me that you are ok with feeding a 3000g snake rat pups ? Really ?

You can feed a 3000g snake small rats multiple times a week rather than one jumbo rat every 2 weeks.

I stand by what I have said. If the owner is careful, there is no risk from feding f/t. By all means, prove me wrong. Show me the risk of feeding f/t where the owner is responsible.

And I'll still respond with, if the owner feeds responsibly, there is no risk from feeding live. Most if not all of the times you hear about a rat bite or attack is due to feeding an adult rat and/or leaving the rat alone with the snake for an inappropriate amount of time. A rat left for a few hours or more is a hungry rat. The only other thing in the enclosure is the snake. So put two and two together and you get an injured or dead snake.

You can put an adult rat with rat pups without food and the adult will kill the babies to eat.

The point is, the owner has to be vigilant and responsible.

I also stand by my point, along with many others on here, that there IS a risk to feeding live.

Just like there is a risk to feeding f/t.......

Like I said previously, there are risks to both methods. There is no right or wrong.

[RobNJ]

There is no bite risk with a crawler or small rat.

I don't know what your definition of a small rat is, but my small rats can have a pretty painful bite.

[Skittles1101]

I am very responsible with my live eaters, and like I said I've had two snakes get minor bites from mice. Not even rats! Mice.

My female albino ball has two nice mouse bites on her right now from a supervised live feeding. They are minor, but to say if your snake gets bites you aren't feeding responsibly is offensive. I sit there and watch, tongs in hand, from the time I put the MOUSE in to the time it's down the hatch, and I've still gotten bite wounds.

[Kyle7676]

You can feed a 3000g snake small rats multiple times a week rather than one jumbo rat every 2 weeks.

Again, you are failing to address the whole issue. So you mean to tell me if you have 10+ adult size BPs, it is practical to feed them all several times weekly ? Really ?

And I'll still respond with, if the owner feeds responsibly, there is no risk from feeding live. Most if not all of the times you hear about a rat bite or attack is due to feeding an adult rat and/or leaving the rat alone with the snake for an inappropriate amount of time. A rat left for a few hours or more is a hungry rat. The only other thing in the enclosure is the snake. So put two and two together and you get an injured or dead snake.

I think so many people on here would disagree with ya there. There is a risk. Even with rat pups, they do have teeth. They can bite. Would they d damage like a large rat ? No, but they can still bite. Even if you stand over EVERY snake you own and vigilantly watch them, they can still wrap so you cant see the rats mouth. They can get bit this way.

The point is, the owner has to be vigilant and responsible.

Well I guess we can agree on something.

Just like there is a risk to feeding f/t.......

Like I said previously, there are risks to both methods. There is no right or wrong.

LOL yet you still fail to provide an example of how f/t is risky when the owner is careful. There is no risk.

[Rob]

If a snake will only eat live, why not just flick it? It still will move around as if alive but is basically brain dead. Opinions??

[Kyle7676]

If a snake will only eat live, why not just flick it? It still will move around as if alive but is basically brain dead. Opinions??

Im not going to lie. When I first owned BPs, I had one snake get bitten while eating. She wrapped wrong and after she was done eating, I found the bite. After that I just smacked the rat against a metal frame I had and fed it that way.

Now I know people on here are going to argue that is so inhumane and horrible and there are ways you should do it. My response to that is this : If you cant smack a rat hard enough against a metal frame to kill it in one hit, obvious you shouldnt go that route. I never had a rat " linger " around in pain. I have seen many rats get bitten and squeezed for a very long time before they actually died. Personally, I dont see how feeding a live rat to a snake to be suffocated and then eaten is any worse than just a quick smack, even if it doesnt immediately kill the rat.

[satomi325]

I don't know what your definition of a small rat is, but my small rats can have a pretty painful bite.

Whatever is after the weaned stage under 100g.
I've never been bitten, so I wouldn't know. My rats live in my bedroom and I play with them often, so they're well socialized.

I'd also like to add to the live debate, socialized rats are less prone to bite than unsocialized ones. They tend to be less frightened when introduced to new situations (including being put into a snake enclosure). Frightened animals will attack and fight back...

I am very responsible with my live eaters, and like I said I've had two snakes get minor bites from mice. Not even rats! Mice.

My female albino ball has two nice mouse bites on her right now from a supervised live feeding. They are minor, but to say if your snake gets bites you aren't feeding responsibly is offensive. I sit there and watch, tongs in hand, from the time I put the MOUSE in to the time it's down the hatch, and I've still gotten bite wounds.

I apologize that I offended you.
However, mice are known to be bite aggressive ... Are you feeding adult mice? I wouldn't put it past some mice to bite anything that comes near it, humans included.
Behavioral studies have even shown that mice are more aggressive than rats.

[Amon Ra Reptiles]

100% live 100% of the time 70+- snakes zero issues.