wow!!?? (graphic?)

[MonkeyShuttle]

Angllady2 i see your point but the majority of snakes natural diet is rodents and lizards and birds as you now so other then kingsnakes its just unnatural to see and this is almost identical to posting pics of a big human killing a smaller human and people standing by because like us these big snakes and balls dont have that many natural predators. seriously no offense but it is different.

[satomi325]

Anything "natural" gets lost in captivity.
Snakes aren't fed f/t naturally. And they certainly don't eat domesticated Norway Rats naturally. That's as natural as a dog's natural diet being dry kibble.

Ball pythons have been seen to cannibalize other ball pythons. I'm sure its not unheard of other python species. Corns are well known for cannibalism.
And some non-kingsnake species do have an all snake diet.


I'm not trying to start an argument MonekyShuttle. I just think your point is rather irrelevant in regards to what is 'natural' and 'unnatural'.

[cassidyy327]

my intention in posting this thread was not to start any arguments or debates.. those pictures were just shocking to me! I realize that animals eat other animals but it's still kinda sad.. I feel like someone did that for enjoyment instead of feeding the snake..


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[MonkeyShuttle]

ah ha! alright Satomi325! Gloves are coming off! you did it now. you see that thread post was to get your attention and lure you out into the open where i say this "your absolutely 100% correct, you win i forfeit and you have a great smile". i know better then to go there. i was just taking a shot at the question, is it any different? which IMO it really is. if i loved antelope and i saw a video of cheetah killing and eating an antelope, well this is eventually going to happen in the wild its inevitable, its nature. but if i loved pandas and i saw a video of a panda being eaten by a hippo just seems very unnatural to me and there fore more sympathy for the panda. cause no harm should ever come to a panda! there too damn cute.

[sorraia]

I agree with satomi, the natural vs unnatural argument pretty much disintegrates when it comes to captivity. But for the sake of argument, many predators, including snakes, are opportunistic in the wild. So a species might normally eat rodents and birds, but who is to say it wouldn't eat another snake or an alligator if it came across one and was hungry? Coyotes don't naturally eat each other, but out here I have watched them attack and eat dogs (which ate closely related enough to interbreed and produce fertile offspring), along with cats and their more natural prey of rabbits, squirrels, and other rodents.

I don't like the pictures, but I also don't care for feeding pictures in general. So for me to be shocked, disgusted, or whatever, it's at least consistent.

[Seemingly_Harmless]

I understand there's a conversation going on at the moment, but I just wanted to say real picture or not, that this looks {messed} and whoever took this picture, photoshopped it, or whatever needs a good {scolding}.... In my opinion.

I'll shut up now.

[MarkS]

my intention in posting this thread was not to start any arguments or debates.. those pictures were just shocking to me! I realize that animals eat other animals but it's still kinda sad.. I feel like someone did that for enjoyment instead of feeding the snake..


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Baloney, I don't believe you. The only reason for taking the time to post pictures like that on a forum like this is to cause a reaction. Which you accomplished.

[patientz3ro]

I don't think its Photoshopped. But like I said before, I'm pretty sure its already dead. I've seen dead BPs with that expression, but never live ones.

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I still say the second is Photoshopped, but that BP is alive. I'm not so sure about the burm, though. The first pic looks like a BAD taxidermy job.

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[Skymall007]

As far as natural versus unnatural, that is why I feed f/t. In the wild the mouse/rat has a chance to get away and so I see it as a fair fight. Of course they were killed in an unnatural way to begin with, but I like to think that was quick and hopefully painless. I have other reasons as well but that is a different topic. I know my snake needs to eat, this is how I see the process as fair.

That being said, the reasons someone would feed a ball python to another snake are wrong. As someone mentioned earlier, they did it for enjoyment, not because their snake needed to eat one. I have a problem with that. I also believe that rodents we feed in captivity are at least close to what snakes eat in the wild, maybe different species, but rodents nonetheless. (Obviously there are exceptions, but if a snake can remain healthy in captivity on rodents then I would never feed anything else). I guess that what I am saying is that a ball python is not the natural prey of a Burm, nore close. This is not nature so why should we let animals suffer when we can feed an animal that died quickly? And I think the most important argument of all, this wasn't done for the right reasons.

[angllady2]

I fail to see how this is like posting a picture of one human killing another. That is absurd. But if you want to go there, cannibalism was practiced for centuries and probably still is in places. Just because it shocks and offends you doesn't mean the cannibal sees it that way. A famous explorer who spent time with a cannibal tribe wrote in his journal about the practice: When I spoke with the chief about this horrible habit, he told me, "You eat cow and goat and pig, we eat men, what is the difference?" The cannibal doesn't see it as wrong or immoral, people are meat just like any other animal when you get down to it.

Now, as to why the person did it, who knows? Maybe they did do it for the shock factor. Maybe they did it just to see if the burm could be coaxed into eating another snake. Maybe they are brain damaged and think it's cool, who can say unless you are the person who did it. But, I promise you that ball python was dead. No way on earth would a live snake of any kind just sit still and get swallowed. That makes about as much sense as saying a pig or cow would just stand calmly while you skin it and cut off steaks. So regardless of whether you think this was cruel or wrong or not, don't make it a debate about the ball being eaten alive, because it wasn't.

Also remember that snakes, like most every other meat eating animal are opportunistic feeders, they eat whatever comes along including each other if they get hungry enough. Certainly some items would not be recognized as prey, such as insects, but by and large if the snake is hungry and can catch the animal, chances are it will get eaten. I'm sure we've all seen the photograph of the burm who died trying to eat an alligator. I'm quite sure alligators are not normal food for a burmese, but again if the snake is hungry enough and the food is there, it will eat if it can.

Most any meat eating animal is capable of cannibalism. A starving dog has no problem killing and eating another dog, nor do hungry cats hesitate to kill and eat each other. Birds do it, lizards do, frogs will, fish do, squid also do, mice and rats do it, even spiders eat each other, pigs will in fact eat anything they can, including people. So it isn't really as uncommon as you seem to think. Certainly being in captivity does change things, but really, it doesn't make that big of a difference. We've all heard about people who hoard cats or dogs dying and being eaten by their pets. This isn't really all that different. The burm was hungry, the ball python was there, so it ate.

Gale