Live or F/T?

[satomi325]

I only have my one girl, and in the situation I'm in living-wise, I don't see myself getting many more, so f/t works for me right now- it's less then two dollars for the two small mice I get every week and they don't take a ton of freezer space.

I personally don't like feeding live because constriction is a terrible way to go and not very humane, and with a bigger prey animal, there is a risk (even slight) of something going wrong and MY animal getting hurt... which is a silly vet bill to get IMO. If that's the only way the snake eats, it's the way the snake eats and I'll do it, but if I have the choice I'd probably go for an animal that's already on f/t. It may not be 'natural' but... my snake lives in 10L with an Iron Man background, a dragon head hide and plastic plants with me controlling her heat and humidity. There's nothing about her situation that is 'natural'.

Actually in a constriction, the rat releases endorphins which does dull its senses. So its not as bad as you think. Nature has ways to be as efficient as possible. And some f/t rats die horrible deaths from improper use of CO2(some awful people even put their live rats straight into the freezer without euthanizing them first. Pretty agonizing). If the gas was rapidly distributed, it does not put the animal to sleep first. The animal panics and suffocates immediately. Plus CO2 is not painless. Yes, it is the most humane out of all the euthanasia methods, but not painless. It stings the eyes, nose, and sinuses. Similar to having soda go up your nose, but the sensation not stopping.

And rule of thumb with live, feed the appropriate sized prey. Aka no large rats. Many people here won't feed larger than a small to an adult ball python. Medium at the very very most. Smaller rats are younger, thus more naive to danger and will not attack or fight. Its the adults that pack a punch, but is a prey that should not be fed to ball pythons.

If fed responsibly, live can be just as safe as f/t. And f/t isn't risk free either. There are plenty of snakes who have died from f/t feeders.

I think people should feed what works for them whether its live or f/t. But just be aware of what's going on and the risks with both methods and how to do both safely and responsibly.

Just some insight and my $.02.

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