Is live feeding really that bad?

[wolfy-hound]

As far as the rodents being relaxed, I watch all my snakes for feeding(unless it's a pinkie/crawler) and none of the rodents I fed to my 20 snakes(not counting the pinkie eaters) acted at all distressed until they were constricted. They wandered about, sniffing even at the snakes and bedding and acted curious. A few even stopped and washed their face.

This is unusual in my experience only because my snakes usually hit the rodents immediately but several of them are in heavy shed, so I'm assuming they were a bit slower to strike this time.

I had one snake who missed that I dropped the rodent in and when the rat climbed over one of her coils, she pushed him against the water bin, squishing his neck and pinning him there. Even THEN, he sort of waited and then wriggled his way out, then climbed back over to wander the bin. He did wander back to in front of her face and was struck and constricted.

By tapping near the eye, I can test to see when a rat is conscious. If a rodent is constricted properly(75% of the time), the rat does not respond at all within 3-4 seconds of constriction. A small percentage of time, the rat takes up to 15-20 seconds to stop responding. After this point, a rat may still show twitching, either of tails or legs paddling, which does not mean the brain is conscious(this effect occurs even if you behead the rat). That doesn't mean the rat is conscious and in pain.

This is just my own personal observations. I did think when I watched the rat getting squished and remaining calm that I really wished I had a camera because he just looked vaguely annoyed and patient, instead of paniced or angry.