The Live vs F/T debate

[John1982]

One of the infamous rodent destroys snake in cage match pictures. I can pretty well guarantee that the damage did not occur when a hungry snake struck an appropriately sized prey item. Let's use our powers of observation for a bit:

1) Snake is underweight,
2) Snake is small, anywhere from hatchling to 200g I'd guess.
3) Prey was large enough to cause significant, deliberate damage

That's what we get from the picture. Now, for a rodent to cause that kind of damage they need to be at least around the "hopper" size for mice or the "weaner" size for rats. Anything smaller than that is really only capable of defensive bites once coiled which would occur in a more localized area. Depending on the actual size of the snake we are looking at a prey offering anywhere from acceptable to grossly oversized. The snake being in rather subpar physical condition only compounds an oversized prey problem, if there was one.

Next, let's think about the feeding habits of mice and rats. Mice are more herbivorous but if they're hungry enough they will eat just about anything they can sink their teeth into. Rats tend to eat more protein naturally and don't require an empty stomach to taste test some meat. So, while rats are more likely to start gnawing on a snake, even mice will do it if hungry enough.

Knowing this, what's going to happen when you drop a hungry rodent in an enclosed space with a disinterested snake? Eventually that rodent is going to take a test nibble. If you've kept rodents you'll know they are relentless and rather ruthless when it comes to food. If the snake does not respond with an aggressive intent to kill it stands little chance in this scenario. Any kind of defensive response is likely to end with a tuckered out snake being eaten alive by a triumphant rodent.

Observing the underweight, small snake in the picture we can deduce that he is not feeding well. This could be the result of any number of things from a poor setup, not offering the appropriate food choices, to simply not offering food often enough. The state of the snake didn't likely cause the outcome but it still gives one ideas on how the scenario might have unfolded. I'm personally picturing an inexperienced keeper growing frustrated with a non feeder and simply leaving a live food item in overnight. Whatever the actual circumstances, this damage likely occurred over the course of many hours.

While we're discussing the pros and cons of live vs deceased. I have to ask folks that feed exclusively dead prey, what is your waste ratio? I imagine smaller collections lose more as they have less options when a prey item is refused. I currently feed about an even split of live to f/t and can count the number of uneaten, discarded rodents in the last 10 years on one hand. To be fair, even those rodents were eaten - just not by the intended snakes - but by the chickens or tegus. I have my snakes that will eat anything no matter what, they get f/t and do fine. Then I have the more volatile eaters, when they decide it's not time to eat the rodent simply goes back into the tub to live another day. I honestly can't help but shudder at the number of rodents, animals who gave up their lives for the sake of sustaining other creatures, that must be discarded because live feeding is so steadfastly shunned by some. I also wonder how many snakes had to be force fed unnecessarily, or even died, as a result?