Parental Advice

[SarahMB]

Today is feeding day for my little Elphaba, and I'm facing a dilemma.
My son is only 6, and surely inherited my animal loving genes. The only errand he loves going on with me is to the pet store, of course, and he could stay there for hours if I let him! haha

Anyway, he has been *begging* me to let him watch Elphie eat. He's so soft hearted, though, I'm afraid it will traumatize him or something! I know, over-reacting, right?

I'll be feeding her a live hopper tonight, should I let him watch? He's going to be mad as a hornet if I don't, but I can deal with that. But I'm also figuring in that he should get used to it, since we have snakes. I'm going back and forth all day, can you tell?

[JimiSnakes]

How old is he? My daughter is going to be five in August and she LOVES feeding day. I wouldn't see a problem with it. She even goes with me to get her snake's little mousey. She was a little uncertain with it at first, but she is ok with it now. I just had to tell her that this is nature...we eat burgers and other meats and that it is the same thing. She did look at her chicken nuggets funny the other day though. Hmmm, but she ate them.

[tigerlily]

I feed f/t and both my kids have seen me feed. My son loves it, but my daughter could care less. I won't allow either to see me feed live, because I know my daughter would be heartbroken for the little mousie. (and then I'd have tons of pet mice) You will probably have to judge you child's readiness a bit first. Heck I hide any live mice that come into the house, because of it. Well I guess I'm not too much help. I think you'll just have to gauge how ready your son is.

[frankykeno]

Sarah you might want to start by showing him pictures on BPNet or elsewhere on the web of snakes feeding. See how he reacts to that as a first step to seeing a live feed.

We have a 5 year old that has never seen the snakes feed. One of the reasons is because I breed our own rats here and he helps me feed and water them. For him the rats are more like pets so we don't want to let him see a feeding quite yet.

I would also suggest talking about the mechanics of feeding, how the snake constricts and how the rat actually dies (stressing it is a natural process for both creatures to fulfill their roles as predator and prey). Kids tend to fear what they do not understand so giving them information appropriate to their age always seems to work best. Stress that the snake is not being "mean", nor is the rat "suffering" unduly. Nature does not make her creatures like that (well except us humans unfortunately). He may wonder if the snake would do that to him (bite and constrict) so be prepared for those kinds of questions.

You're his mom, you'll know when the time is right for him to observe a live feed.

[JimiSnakes]

(and then I'd have tons of pet mice)

Yeah, i learned that one the hard way! Brought home two weaned rats live for the Dumerils and when Niah saw them...they became friggin pets...*cough* they got sick *cough* and they went to the vet *cough* J/K...

[cassandra]

*cough* they got sick *cough* and they went to the vet *cough* J/K...

That's just EBIL! Buwhhahhahaha...poor Niah!

[jglass38]

All I know is there is not much cuter than a weaned rat...stumbling all over the place..all awkward!

[gncz73]

well i too breed my own rats and my 5 almost 6 year oldson not only watches me feed but helps me out sometimes he has even feed them once or twice and he love animals. in fact over the weekend just befor bed he started crying for no reason and when we got it out of him why he was crying he said that he was thinking of his old hamster teddy and he was sad. but he knows what snakes eat and he seems fine with it even to the point of jumping around when he get to help.

[SarahMB]

Jimi: He's 6, but extremely advanced for his age.

Jamie: You are so right about that. I'm seriously hoping I can have Elphie switched over to f/t by the time we need to move up to rat babies, because of how freakishly cute they are.

Everyone: Thank you all so much! I am going to take every word of this under consideration, and discuss it with my husband before making the big decision.

[cassandra]

I think it's awesome you are so carefully considering it. Personally, I think it will be great, when the time is appropriate for your son, to see the snake eat and begin to understand more about life and biology.

I think about a couple of guys I work with; one has been so secluded his entire life, even at 30 years old, so many things he's never heard of or even thought about. He goes through life not questioning anything because I don't think he was challenged growing up.

Another guy I work with just seems to deny that meat comes from animals and doesn't like looking at pictures of carnivores eating nor even thinking about it...but he himself is an omnivore. Dude, time to think outside the box, k?

Even Rick doesn't like handling the live prey before we feed the girls...he says because he doesn't like. I think it's because he's afraid he'll get attached and can't "do it".