Live prey

[JTrott]

Sorry i was in between classes at school and didnt really read the whole thread. As long as you stand there and watch the whole time its fine. But ive never had a snake not pound the rat within the first 5 minutes if its gunna eat. Living it in there for longer than that seems uneeded imo. But ya as far as smell the f/t really dont smell any worse than a live one.

Nevermind......I read a caresheet once too........you will figure out over time that a caresheet cannot be right all the time.....

Jason

[Slim]

You can still get mites from f/t. Adult mites will die in the freezing process, but not their eggs. The eggs can lie dormant until more ideal hatching conditions arise.

I'm in no way doubting your statement because I can see where that could happen, but so far, it hasn't happened to me...*knocking on wood*

[Mike41793]

You don't even need to stand over it the entire time. I never do.

Theyre your snakes and you have alot of experience with them. Im not trying to tell you how to keep your snakes. But, thats not the best message to be conveying to people who are newer to keeping snakes and reading this. Just my opinion, no hard feelings

[satomi325]

Ok?.......so they live on rats, but don't feed on them....so mites are self sustaining(sp?) now?.....that doesn't make sense.....I understand if you offer to one snake that has mites, and move to another snake that doesn't, the mites can pass to that snake, but reptile mites will not just 'show up' on a rodent.....they have to origionate from somewhere.......if you got reptile mites from a feeder, it is because the person you got that feeder from has offered it to a snake that has mites......

If reptile mites do not feed on rodents, then how do they survive?......I guess that is my problem with your statement.....

Jason

Mite nymps can go airborne and hitch hike on a feeder, so it could be possible to spread snake mites from a feeder. Not to mention eggs like Slim stated.

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[Mike41793]

Nevermind......I read a caresheet once too........you will figure out over time that a caresheet cannot be right all the time.....

Jason

I fed live for 5 years and just converted to f/t recently so i can stock up in bulk. I only have 3 snakes though so i had time to watch the entire feeding process. I dont agree with your methods but it works for you and your snakes so i really dont care. Its your choice. As far as the snake taking half an hour to decide to eat. I never had that happen to me. Mine always hit it within 5 minutes like i said. But im only basing that off of my 3 snakes. Idk how many snakes you have. Maybe hundreds lol. That gives you alot more experience to base your responses off of than me. And btw thats awesome that you know how to read a caresheet, thanks for sharing lol

[JTrott]

I raise my own feeders so mites come from dirty petstores don't apply to me.......and by the way, not all petstores are nasty.....I have been to LOTS of petstores that I would not mind buying from or selling to....they just don't carry things that I want/need.

I have raised probably thousands of snakes over the past 10 years, and maintain a collection of just over 150, and have never had a snake get attacked/chewed up by a rat.......maybe that is because I take care of my rats the same, if not better than my snakes......I have the understanding that you only get out what you are putting in......just because I don't have almost 2000 posts in 4 months doesn't mean that I don't know what I am talking about.

We can argue/debate all day who is right, and who is wrong, and whos opinion is better, but in the end of the day it is all just opinions. No matter how you feed your snakes, it is up to you to do it in a responsible way......

Good day to everyone,
Jason

[Slim]

I raise my own feeders so mites come from dirty petstores don't apply to me.......

I never said it did appy to you, but thanks for implying that I buy feeders at nasty pet stores. That was awesome

[serpent fan]

I dont think he was implying you directly, slim, it was just a general statement about pet stores, which usually tend to be pooly staffed by under educated people, which can lead to mites and all sorts of other parasites/bugs ect.
Heck, have you guys ever really looked at the fish in most pet stores.
See how many ich spots you can find on a single fish, not to mention fin rot and mis housing them, and thats fish, nobody cares about fish (i do, im a fishkeeper for 2 years now, 6 tanks lol)
The snakes, mice, gerbils are no exception. Its really money to blame..

[Slim]

I dont think he was implying you directly, slim, it was just a general statement about pet stores,

I hope we can respectfully agree to disagree. It seems to be that kind of day around the ole' BP.net

[RobNJ]

You can still get mites from f/t. Adult mites will die in the freezing process, but not their eggs. The eggs can lie dormant until more ideal hatching conditions arise.

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That's an entirely conditional statement...if frozen at low enough temperatures the eggs will die almost immediately. If frozen for long enough, even not at sub-zero temps, they will die...and it's only a matter of days, not extended periods of time. It's not like frozen mite eggs have a never ending shelf life.