Quote Originally Posted by Indy View Post
I've never understood the relationship between loving all animals enough to not hurt a rat, and being 100% ok feeding live. I can't imagine that being alive, terrified, bitten and slowly squeezed to death is better than quickly and painlessly being put down.

I feed frozen,I've fed live. It just depends on what I need done. I always feel a little bad when the food is alive and kicking.
I agree...feeding live is a last resort & sometimes needed, but it's always better (kinder for rodents & safer for snakes) to change over as soon as possible.

I've had wonderful pet rats long before I ever got into snakes. All the snakes I keep now only need mice to eat...even my large rat snakes can just eat a couple, instead
of a rat. It's not that I hate mice btw...I raise my own rodents & always have, & there's a big intelligence difference between rats & mice. Rats are normally good parents,
but mice, when they don't feel like raising their litter (even with plenty of food & not over-crowded) will chew up their babies something awful, often they leave them alive
& suffering...so for that reason, I don't mind them being snake food.