first live mouse

[Salmonella]

first time ive fed him since i got him.jsut gave my juve Salmonella a live small mouse, and i must say it has to be THE COOLSET THING EVER to watch a snake strike a live mouse. SO COOL!!!! hes swollowing it now.... so cool. at first i thought the mosue was a little to big for him, but not even 15 min and its all teh way in. soo cool......

[Chad T.]

Cool I might have pics by next weekend i will feed her next thurs day (i just got her shes still seting in)

[olaf]

isn't it cool? i fed my snake on saturday and I didn't think that he'd be able to swallow the mouse! after that, he crawled into a small hiding place with the mouse in his belly, and he's been there ever since.

[Simplest_Mistake]

You shouldn't be feeding live mice Very bad for your snake.

[Adam_Wysocki]

You shouldn't be feeding live mice Very bad for your snake.

You shouldn't give out bad information. Live feeding can be perfectly safe if done responsibly.

-adam

[doobysnack]

i just wanna ask was the food item bigger then the largest part of the snakes body?and live feeding can be safe if you knock out the mouse a lil but it isnt all that safe. i have seen soem crazy pictures of snakes beign killed or chunks biten out of them from live feeding when it coems to my snake nothing is alive after they go to regular white mice i leave hopper mice alive but after that nope i feel it is just safer to kill them.but if any body takes the risk hey its there snake i feel the herp owner buys its snakes food so let them feed the snake what they want but it always lingers that it isnt as safe as pre killed or f/t

[Adam_Wysocki]

and live feeding can be safe if you knock out the mouse a lil but it isnt all that safe.

How to you "knock out the mouse a lil"?

i have seen soem crazy pictures of snakes beign killed or chunks biten out of them from live feeding

Those pictures are not from "live feedings" .... those pictures represent what happens when you leave a rodent in a cage with a snake unsupervided for days or weeks at a time. The rodent has to eat something. It's not live feeding that does that to those snakes, it's IDIOTIC owners.

but it always lingers that it isnt as safe as pre killed or f/t

If that's what you want to believe, than that's cool. Personally, I've been feeding my ball python colony a couple hundred rodents each week for the last 10 years and have never had a single scratch, bite, or mauling. I consider responsible supervised live feeding as safe as any other method.

-adam

[daniel1983]

i just wanna ask was the food item bigger then the largest part of the snakes body?and live feeding can be safe if you knock out the mouse a lil but it isnt all that safe. i have seen soem crazy pictures of snakes beign killed or chunks biten out of them from live feeding when it coems to my snake nothing is alive after they go to regular white mice i leave hopper mice alive but after that nope i feel it is just safer to kill them.but if any body takes the risk hey its there snake i feel the herp owner buys its snakes food so let them feed the snake what they want but it always lingers that it isnt as safe as pre killed or f/t

Show me the pic and tell me the TRUE story of what happened and I can tell you EXACTLY what the person's error was that got their snake injured. Feed properly and there will be no problems.

EDIT: oh ya....knocking out(that is horrible for the rodent BTW)....when any animal is 'knocked out', it eventually wakes up. So you leave an unsupervised animal in with the snake that you think poses no threat, it wakes up really P.O.ed because it got knocked in the head and takes a chunk out of the snake.....that is was is called IMPROPER feeding.

[frankykeno]

Not wanting to get into the live vs pre-killed vs frozen/thawed debate here all I will say is this.....responsible care is responsible care....you should monitor your snake's feeding regardless of what it's eating. Leaving a live prey in a snake's enclosure for unsupervised, extended lengths of time isn't wise. Tossing in a dead prey and not removing it if it remains uneaten isn't wise.

When it comes down to it I think it's about what works for you as far as availability, cost and convenience and for the snake as far as what it will take readily and thrive on.

Last thought here, I'd rely more on the advice of those with experience or what I've seen with my own eyes or even my own common sense more than anything else.


~~Jo~~

[doobysnack]

well i have owned snakes since i can remember startign with a black snake and very true you do need to supervise your snakes witch i do with every feeding and right i think i even said there are responsible ways to feed live prey i (PERSONALLY) prefer to feed(MY) snakes prey killed .and did you happen to see this lol hey its there snake i feel the herp owner buys its snakes food so let them feed the snake what they want.

lol i have no problem feedign live i just liek prey killed better. no effense to any one ment in that previous thread.lol

Thanks,
Wendell