Do you ever feel bad feeding live?

[Running Elk]

Rats and mice were my first love. Well...my second. Toads came first.

I loved snakes as a child, but I never would get one because of the whole mouse and rat thing. I only considered the few worm eating snakes, none of which were available in pet stores near me. My first BP was a rescue that I either had to take or she would have died. I felt bad feeding her mice, but I did what I had to do.

My snake collection grew and I got older, and I grew a pair and got over it. I used to breed BEW rats and now tricolor mice, and I have not even a second thought about culling he ones that aren't useful for my breeding project or have health problems and need to be euthanized and feeding my snakes with them. I've become so efficient at quickly killing them presumably with minimal/no pain. I feel bad for rats and mice that die from the "thump" method but don't actually die, and end up slowly perishing. I dislocate/break the necks of mine, the probably more "humane" way. Probably. Who knows how much the rodents actually feel after such head trauma. The biggest issue is that thumping can not work as well as intended, should you do it not quite hard enough. I'm weak, I personally don't like those odds.

[Albert Clark]

Actually, and for the most part, no. I do feel every living thing has a right to live. When you think about all the destruction and disease mice and rats have historically brought about its a simple easy thing to get calloused. Crop and agricultural destruction, infestations, rats biting little babies in their cribs while they sleep. Diseases like the bubonic plague all make it easier to feed live. I have a spiritual side that is always in opposition with that thinking. Anyway I have just one more of my bps that have to be converted to f/t but she is going to prove the most difficult. Peace.

[MontyAndMelissa]

Yes and no, I'm an animal lover, and I hate seeing any animal suffer, on the other hand, if the rat doesn't suffer, the snake will... And I just love snakes a wee bit more than rats.

[amozo]

I've never fed live, luckily I haven't had to. I just don't think I could do it. I would have to find my snake a new home if he ever started to refuse f/t for a long period of time. I would try braining, scenting, rubbing the mouse in ivory dish soap, anything, but live. It just breaks my heart.

I am a lot more okay with feeding mice/rats that are f/t. It really seems no different than buying a frozen steak for myself. The feeder was created and born in order to be fed. I also buy from f/t suppliers that kill the mice/rats by gassing CO2 slowly. So they just fall asleep to never wake up.

Being suffocated to death, having their eyes bulge out and their little bellies get full with dribbles of urine from their bottoms is truly saddening. I cannot for the life of me understand how people enjoy to watch an innocent animal be tortured and killed like that. Yes, it is the circle of life, but we are also defying the natural way of the ecosystem by producing captive bred/hatched snakes, so you can't exactly say it is the same as if the snake was in the wild eating a rodent.

Frozen/thawed for the win. If your snake is about to starve to death and you have tried everything under the sun, supervised live feeding might be the only way to go.

[Zincubus]

I don't feel bad as far as my snake having to eat, but as stated by others I do feel bad with the rat pups because my snake is such a lazy eater that it takes him 30 minutes to actually kill it. I have to keep my dog away and I usually have to leave the room too because it sounds like a little baby crying. That being said he gets fed rat pups every other feeding and pre-killed mice the other times.

Why don't you try killing it yourself to save all that poor suffering !! I've read that fresh killed are readily accepted by many .

[SoSo]

My ball python has always been fed f/t. It's safer and I dont feel guilty at all. Unless your snake refuses to eat f/t, I think it's better to stay away from feeding live prey.

[SoSo]

How do you know they used the gas?

[Daigga]

How do you know they used the gas?

There's not really another practical way to kill many rodents at once other than poison, which makes the animals unsafe for snake consumption. For small numbers sometimes cervical dislocation is used, but gas is just easier.

I have some that eat f/t, some that eat only live, and some that don't really care. It would be silly for me as someone who wants to maybe make a career out of this to have a breakdown or refuse to keep snakes that didn't eat f/t, so I'm not bothered by it. This from someone that raises their own feeders, by the by.

[Joe balls]

Dont worry about "defrosting incorrectly". Really, there is nothing easier.

Dunk the rodent in warm water. Let it sit until defrosted thoroughly. If it's a large rodent, dump out and refill the water once chilled.

Some people defrost in bags. There really is no need to prevent water from touching your rodent. I mean really, it's water.

I never feel guilty about feeding live, but for me it isn't necessary. I've never had a snake that refused F/T.

Keeping them out of the water if more to preserve the smell on the rodent. When I first started I'd run a little guy under the fosset till he was warm enoug to feel live but this also de-sented them and somtimes made it hard to feed and then I switched to a hair dryer on low. (Takes forever and burns fingers) but works great.

[se7en]

i hate rats, so it's not an issue.