live feeding

[frankykeno]

I am not experienced at all...but what about putting the mouse in a pillowcase first and swinging it around. I have heard of some people doing that. Then, the mouse/rat is off balance, uncoordinated, and the snake can grab it. The rodent would just be like "what the?"

Not humane for the rodent, that would be first. Secondly, for me anyways, if my snakes can't handle a live rodent without me somehow disabling it for them....they wouldn't get offered live.

[Entropy]

I agree with most everyone else here. I feed predominantly live and hundreds of rodents a month pass through here. I have had two biting incidents that still didn't make any difference to the girls involved and healed quite nicely.

[J.Vandegrift]

If there was no blood or even any pulled back scales I would not even consider that a bite. If it does not break skin it is not really a bit IMO.

[Kizerk]

if my snakes are in their hide, i dangle the mouse right outside, they "wake up" and start wandering, and then i drop the mouse farthest away from the snake.

but accidents still do happen, one of my females, i didnt see the mouse, even though i monitor them, bite her, but a few days later i was handling her, and i noticed a little cut and immediately put neosporin on it

[jotay]

I agree w/ everyone on the fact of pre-scenting.
Rather then remove the hides I just place a pc of cardboard in front on the one Ozzy is not in. Then I will open his cage door and set the rodent box in there for a min. or two and if Ozzy is ready to eat he will stick his head out of the hide and be in the strike position, at which time I will let the rat loose on the far end of the cage and by the time the rat scampers over his way he strikes and coils so fast the rat doesn't know what hit him let alone get the chance to bite. I know that the pre-scent is what gets Ozzy so hyped up and ready to go.
It works!

[kplunk]

I didn't realize so many people fed there snakes live.

I always thought F/T was safer for the snake?

Any reason behind feeding live snakes vs. F/T?

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

I didn't realize so many people fed there snakes live.

I always thought F/T was safer for the snake?

Any reason behind feeding live snakes vs. F/T?

I personally don't feed live but its a decision as a snake owner they can make. Live is more dangerous but if done responsibly, it is ALMOST as safe as f/t. There is always the risk the mouse or rat will bite back in the split second it takes to react.
Also, some balls are just too picky and refuse to eat dead prey. For some its just easier to feed 1000+ mice a week VS. thawing them out then feeding.
Lets not let this get out of hand, keep it civilized

[Adam_Wysocki]

Completely civily speaking ...

Live is more dangerous

How so? Do you have first hand experience feeding large numbers of snakes live prey and stating fact based on first hand knowledge? Or are you merely expressing an opinion based on what you believe to be true?

There is always the risk the mouse or rat will bite back in the split second it takes to react.

I literally feed out tens of thousands of live rodents a year and carefully study the behavior of the rodents and the animals ... I've been doing so for a long time ... When feeding live is done correctly, there is no "split second" in which a mouse or rat can bite back and do any type of damage. I feel confident stating that as fact based on my first hand experience.

For some its just easier to feed 1000+ mice a week VS. thawing them out then feeding.

For me, it has nothing to do with what is "easy" ... I have an extremely expensive collection of high end animals and I would never take a "risk" in order to make things easier ... I do what is best for my animals ... I feed live because I know that it can be done just as safely as any other method of feeding.

Thank you for letting me share the large amounts of experience I have with this subject ... hopefully it helps someone.



-adam

[West Coast Jungle]

I feed most of my snakes live but what i do to insure their safety is feed them rat pups and rat weanlings. They are much larger and more nutritious than mice and are not able to do harm to my snakes. Some of my snakes will eat perkilled most of the time but most of them prefer live and like any parent I like to give my babies what they want. For instance last night I fed some of my larger snakes 2 and 3 rat pups. I breed my own rats, which are much easier to breed than mice(mice need specific temps to breed) and even the pinkies are perfect for baby BP's. I had a guy call me last night asking about a pastel I'm selling and he told me a rat chewed his pastel's face anf killed him!!!!!! Go for the rat pups

[Thunder Kat]

I just got done feeding I went with a rat pup. It was the same size as the mice I feed her. As soon as I got home she came out of her hide after prescenting I dropped the pup in and that was all she wrote. Thanks again guys!!!!