Honest opinions on feeding.

[200xth]

My question is, how terrible is it for me to feed him live?

Ball pythons have been eating live food for 70 to 90 million years. They're pretty good at it.

[Porthos the BP]

well my teacher (who owns a bp) hangs the live rats by their tail over the tank and then the rat can't hurt the bp and you can see if the snake is not hungry without letting go. (and theirs nothing in humane about feeding live rats to a bp) (but there is about stunning a rat) I'm going to get one hear pretty quick and I think that I'll feed him or her live rats.

[Marrissa]

Uh dangling a rat by the tail over the side for the snake to strike isn't what I'd consider humane for the rat either. If you have well cared for feeders of the right size, they don't understand the danger and roam the enclosure/groom themselves until the snake strikes. Even when my snakes grab the side if the rat inside as of the head, they're really good at coiling the rat enough so that they don't get bit.

I breed my own feeders now and really enjoy it. I'd never want to go back to F/T. Such a pain to do the zombie dance for the snakes. The snakes eat more consistently on live than they did on F/T too.

[JMBall's]

well my teacher (who owns a bp) hangs the live rats by their tail over the tank and then the rat can't hurt the bp and you can see if the snake is not hungry without letting go. (and theirs nothing in humane about feeding live rats to a bp) (but there is about stunning a rat) I'm going to get one hear pretty quick and I think that I'll feed him or her live rats.

Being knocked out in one blow is much less pain full to a rat/mouse then being bitten, constricted, rib bones cracked, organs punctured and then asphyxiated.

[Eric Alan]

well my teacher (who owns a bp) hangs the live rats by their tail over the tank and then the rat can't hurt the bp and you can see if the snake is not hungry without letting go.

Your teacher needs to be schooled on the proper way to feed live prey. The safest live rats to feed are calm live rats. Dangling a live rat by the tail like a marionette is a pretty quick way to piss it off and is just asking for a feeding "accident".

[Zincubus]

Feeding live isn't a terrible thing at all. The risk of injury is very low if you do it responsibly. Never leave prey alone with your snake for an extended period of time; that's when most of the injuries you hear about occur. I personally stand and watch until the prey is completely dead, waiting with a pair of tongs to put in its mouth if it's in a position where it can bite my BP. I'd personally prefer f/t, but my snake won't have any of that.

And you think you can get to the rat with a pair of tongs BEFORE the rat can sink his teeth into your BP's eye or whatever part it lunges for ??

I'm find myself bemused when I read the comments directed at anyone who dare suggest giving a snake who's had a bad shed a short soak because you may be putting it through unnecessary stress BUT it seems everyone's quite happy to drop a fine tuned proven killing machine intent on fighting for it's life with razor sharp claws and teeth into a sealed area with nowhere to hide with our precious Royals . These beautiful Royals / BPs aren't exactly kitted out for warfare are they ??

You only have to google and google images to see thousands of snakes bitten by rats ...terrible injuries occur .
It's not as though these occurrences are rare , injuries are quite common.

[Eric Alan]

Being knocked out in one blow is much less pain full to a rat/mouse then being bitten, constricted, rib bones cracked, organs punctured and then asphyxiated.

Slow down just a bit there. It's likely that prey actually tends to die more often, and more quickly than expected, from circulatory failure than by asphyxiation. It's been shown that some snakes actually have the ability to sense their prey's heart beat and adjust constriction pressure and duration accordingly. Because constriction is energetically costly to snakes, rarely will they exert enough energy on a prey item to break bones. They're very efficient rodent killers to say the least.

[DVirginiana]

And you think you can get to the rat with a pair of tongs BEFORE the rat can sink his teeth into your BP's eye or whatever part it lunges for ??

Yes, I have done and will continue to do so. Have you actually seen rodents trying to bite the muscle of a constricting BP? It's difficult to pierce the skin when the muscle is tensed.

I'm find myself bemused when I read the comments directed at anyone who dare suggest giving a snake who's had a bad shed a short soak because you may be putting it through unnecessary stress BUT it seems everyone's quite happy to drop a fine tuned proven killing machine intent on fighting for it's life with razor sharp claws and teeth into a sealed area with nowhere to hide with our precious Royals . These beautiful Royals / BPs aren't exactly kitted out for warfare are they ??

First of all, NO ONE in that shed thread had a bad shed! That is why people were trying to tell you that soaking was unnecessary!

To answer your question; yes they are actually kitted out for warfare. They are basically a long tube of muscle much larger than their prey, with astonishing strength, an hide that is difficult to bite through (why do you think they make shoes out of it?) when the muscles are tensed, and well over a hundred teeth.
So yes, they are more than capable of doing what they have evolved to do over millions and millions of years.

You only have to google and google images to see thousands of snakes bitten by rats ...terrible injuries occur .
It's not as though these occurrences are rare ,

You trust google images more than the advice of people who have much more experience with BPs than you? (Not referring to myself here, but the many mods and others that also seem to have no issue with responsible live feeding).

If terrible injuries from a responsible live-feed are so common, I'd actually like to see an example of one from at least a semi-reliable source as I've never come across these hoards of horribly maimed snakes you are referring to.

[Daigga]

And you think you can get to the rat with a pair of tongs BEFORE the rat can sink his teeth into your BP's eye or whatever part it lunges for ??

Yes. Yes I can. I can and I do quite frequently.

I'm find myself bemused when I read the comments directed at anyone who dare suggest giving a snake who's had a bad shed a short soak because you may be putting it through unnecessary stress BUT it seems everyone's quite happy to drop a fine tuned proven killing machine intent on fighting for it's life with razor sharp claws and teeth into a sealed area with nowhere to hide with our precious Royals . These beautiful Royals / BPs aren't exactly kitted out for warfare are they ??

This is very dramatic. Rats as proven killing machines? Forgive me if I scoff, but rodents and lagomorphs are pure prey species. They have evolved to run away and not be found, not to kill anything that dares catch them (which btw is practically every carnivorous/omnivorous species on the planet), and their claws and teeth are certainly not razor sharp. That being said, snakes are the worlds truest carnivores, and they have been that way for as long as they have existed. They ARE kitted out to kill their prey, much more so than a rat is kitted out to fight it. A proper prey item also has no idea it's in any danger when you drop it in with a snake. Heck, my own feeders always wander right up to sniff my snakes and have no idea what it is up until it's too late. It isn't some crazy deathmatch, it's a simple and controlled process.

Also I will point of that the majority of owners don't see a problem with soaking after a bad shed. Some do, but to each their own I guess.

You only have to google and google images to see thousands of snakes bitten by rats ...terrible injuries occur .
It's not as though these occurrences are rare , they're pretty coTalking about 'thinking' movies . .. I gave up pretty early on Lincoln even though DDL is one of my fave actors . . my brain was hurting after about 15 minutes but maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind or maybe just too tired ..
I'm going to give it another try one day as I feel as though I'm missing out ...

I've seen the pictures and heard the stories and I can tell you with certainty that most of those owners do not practice safe feeding techniques. If you drop in a rat, shut the tub or tank up and walk off, you are asking for trouble. If you drop a rat that is known to be aggressive you're asking for trouble. Like I said before, it is a simple and controlled process that should not cause any harm to your snake, nor excessive pain to the rat.

[JMBall's]

Slow down just a bit there. It's likely that prey actually tends to die more often, and more quickly than expected, from circulatory failure than by asphyxiation. It's been shown that some snakes actually have the ability to sense their prey's heart beat and adjust constriction pressure and duration accordingly. Because constriction is energetically costly to snakes, rarely will they exert enough energy on a prey item to break bones. They're very efficient rodent killers to say the least.

I wasn't bad mouthing live feeding, I prefer it but you have to watch carefully as the prey can do serious damage. I had a mouse give my banana a good bite over the summer. I was just saying that a good single blow to the dome is quick and about as painless as you can make it. Personally that's the way I'd prefer to go if I was a rodent.