F/t or live?

[cchardwick]

What is the maximum time you leave a live rodent in with your ball python? Is 20 minutes too long before checking on them?

I was against feeding live until three of my female breeders stopped eating for six months at a time using fresh killed rats and mice. They all started immediately after I started feeding live. It's actually easier for me to feed live since I breed my own rodents, it's quick, just move a rat from the rat breeding rack right into the snake tub. They are in the same room, super easy. And now all my females are eating.

That's only for my ball pythons though, I feed my King snakes and retics fresh killed, no problem getting them to eat every time. I also have some small Arizona Mountain King snakes, I feed them live mouse pinkies.

By the way, I raise rats in mice in an ARS rodent breeding rack, super easy to feed and clean in a rack system, takes me about an hour a week to clean them and it feeds 26+ snakes. And I usually have an excess of rats and freeze them and trade them for snakes and such with local breeders.

I would think that on a large scale feeding live to ball pythons would be the easiest.

It's about being educated and feeding whatever works and is convenient.

I feed live mainly, because it works and when you have a larger collection and your collection collection double or triple during hatchling season, it just make sense.

My colubrids however all feed on F/T, it's a much smaller collection very easy to switch, do not care about what they eat and take live a little to literally.