Quote Originally Posted by Lokua View Post
as for F/t vs live, i really cannot think of any pros to live except it may stimulate a better feeding response if you have a very finicky eater and if that is the case one should really work on getting them onto f/t (that and i guess those whom only have a snake to watch them eat a living creature)
You will find that here on bp.net, we advocate that it's up to each individual keeper to decide which method is most convenient for them. We have many members, including myself, who have fed off thousands of live prey without any injury to our animals. When done responsibly, and with appropriately sized prey, feeding live has a very low risk of causing injury to your snake. I've fed over 3000 live prey off and never had one injure any of my 17 snakes. Even if I had just one injury (which I haven't) the risk would be 1 in 3000 or .000333% chance of injury. Less than a percent, much less than a 1% chance for injury.

cons of live however are that its alive and has a pretty good survival instinct, a mouse(or rat or whatever you are feeding) does not wish to be eaten, thus they will fight and can potentialy harm your snake. they have sharp claws and sharp teeth and dont just roll over to be devoured.
Actually, they are too busy trying to breath to do much more.

there really is no...proper way to kill a mouse
Yes there is, CO2 chamber. We have stickies in the Feeder forum for making your own.

my personal suggestion is electrocution or to shove a large needle or dart (like that for dart boards) into the back of the neck, it will sever the spine and IMO the most painless way for the mouse. i suggest steralizing the dart beforehand with alcohol or fire (let it cool before using) just hold them and shove it in into the spine, you could puncture the head but pushing through the skull is much harder but if you do that do temple to temple or through the ear
How do you know that your method is painless to the mice? Have you had a dart or needle shoved into your head?

sry, hope none of that sounds gorey. its just the most painless way in my opinion, alot of people suggest chrushing their heads with a hammer or slamming them onto something. which is fine but you end up with a mess and a chrushed feeder, my way is more eye-pleasing and with chrushing you sometimes mess up and have to do it again which is not a very appealing thing to do.
Again, the only humane way to euthanize feeders is with a CO2 chamber.

wholesalers use co2 to kill theres, basicly they suffocate them. works fine even though i dont personaly like that method as unsure what this can do to the snake once they eat food that has been pumped full of co2.
CO2 is what you exhale every time you breath, it's not going to harm your snake.

i do suggest being humane to all animals. but if all this is too squimish for you then you can just place the creature into a tupperware container and freeze them. its cruel in my opinion but gets the job done
Then please start using a CO2 chamber rather than the way you currently are pre-killing your prey.