Trying live food.......

[sirhissball]

My BP has never missed a meal feeding pre-thawed mice. Has anyone here ever considered feeding a live meal to a snake established on pre-thawed just to watch them hunt? If anyone has, have you noticed problems getting them back onto the frozen? I would like to watch my guy hunt a mouse, but don't know if it is a good idea. When I bought him, they said that he was fed live and pre-thawed food, so he has seen both, but not for several months. Thanks for the ideas.

[Jeanne]

The only thing I have noticed with my own snakes, those that feed on p/k or f/t do not seem to be as aggressive strikers. IMO that could be a problem with live prey. This is my own experience with my snakes and just my opinion.

[frankykeno]

Just my own limited experience here. When we tried live prey with one of our snakes she refused to ever touch f/t or p/k again (she had been raised to that point exclusively on f/t). Since we have now moved all our snakes to all live prey this isn't a problem but you might want to consider that this can happen. We do find the live feeding seems to promote a stronger feeding response than the f/t did but that may be just our snakes. I would encourage you to make sure though that you know the proper, safe methods to feed live and that you make sure the prey size is small and manageable for the snake.


~~Jo~~

[Adam_Wysocki]

If your snake is eating F/T, and it's convenient for you, it's not worth offering it live food "just to see it hunt" ... trust me, it's nothing spectacular, and your snake may never take F/T food again.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

-adam

[frankykeno]

As well, quite honestly it's not much of a "hunt"....rat goes in tub...snake snatches rat....constricts rat...eats rat....that's about all there is to it really. It's not much to watch or very different from an f/t prey other than the snatching it bit. At least with ours it's over so fast you barely see the whole "transaction" LOL.


~~Jo~~

[jglass38]

If your snake is eating F/T, and it's convenient for you, it's not worth offering it live food "just to see it hunt" ... trust me, it's nothing spectacular, and your snake may never take F/T food again.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

-adam

I go with the suggestion of the master! If it aint broke...