Feeding live mice and rats is dangerous... Wives tale?

[MontyNSpike]

WORD!! I would never feed a DEAD rodent to my snakes. They are not Voltures you know??

Yeah, I think everyone knows that, they're not VULTURES either.

I feed mine f/t because it is more convenient for me. All my snakes have strong feeding responses as well and always constrict their prey. I have seen first hand pics of snakes that have been bitten by rats and don't want to subject my snakes to that, it's just not worth it.

[Mikkla]

I dont feel that my english is that good so I can sit and debate about the subject. But here is is video of my Fire male eating a mouse. I'm not saying that this is the right way, but this is the way I do it. I dont think that the snake is in any danger and theres not much to supervise
But whatever works for you!

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/d...t=DSC00055.flv

[TanyaL]

Well, so far 62 people have voted. 8 of these votes claimed scaring as a result of correctly feeding live. HOWEVER most of the people that voted this way broke the golden rule and talked about what has happened to other people... things they heard of.

While it may not have been what OP wanted to hear, I think it was great information and I for one am happy that the 'golden rule' was broken!

Mistakes are going to happen to me, to you and to everybody else on this board. Why must I make the same mistake that somebody else has already made if they are willing to share what not to do?

[Adam_Wysocki]

blanket claims around the safety of live feeding.

I've never made any such "blanket" claim.

I don't feed my snakes "un-awares" and so I still can't see what I'd be doing different from you.

Apparently a lot. Unfortunately, teaching someone to feed live the way that I do isn't something that can be done via messages on an internet forum. All I can say is that feeding live can be done safely ... I know this, because I do it ... week in and week out.

But, there is good news ... I'm in the process of filming a video called "8 Ball Pythons - Feeding Day" that will show me feeding tons and tons of ball pythons and my 'method' for getting it done. Keep an eye out on my YouTube page for it ... shouldn't be long now ...

8 Ball on YouTube

-adam

[Brimstone111888]

I feed live. Much easier than f/t. My snakes also have much better feeding responses now. When feeding live I believe the health and condition of the feeder is important as well as the keepers experience.

Ball pythons are coddled WAY too much. Do you people not recieve cuts and scratches in your everyday life? Do you not have a dog or cat? I mean most of you act as if the snake gets bite and its over. Put some ointment on, and move on. If fed responsibily that shouldn't happen though.

Do any of you will snakes getting bitten try to intervene? I just stick my feeding tongs in the feeders mouth if they get a bad strike. Only had to do it once so far.

100+ rodents fed, 0 cuts or bleedings, 1 intervention.

[littleindiangirl]

It's true, I think that if a snake does get scratched, it's not the end of the world. My WC girl has scars and marks all over her... but she is healthy as a horse.

[Skiploder]

Well, I don't have pictures but I will share my experience..........

I don't feed live anymore because I had two bad experiences. Neither one had anything to do with leaving rats in with the snakes.

Incident No. 1 - I was feeding a 5' female woma a live medium rat using tongs. She struck the rat immediately but instead on constricting it, she pinned it against the side of the enclosure with a coil. This is fairly normal behavior for a woma. As I reached in to grab the rat and re-offer it to her in an effort to get her to constrict it the rat bit her hard - drawing blood and putting a good size divot in her.

Again, the rat was not dropped in there and the second I saw she was pinning it, I stepped in to remove it. It happened lightning fast.

Incident No. 2 - Feeding a small rat to a 3' yellow tailed cribo. Again, using tongs and offering head first. Cribo strikes but rat bites the inside of the snake's mouth as the snake is drawing it back into the enclosure. The cribo begins to slam the rat against the sides of the enclosure finally killing the rat but in the process, gets three bad bites to the tissue inside his mouth.

Point is, these things happen. I have no doubt that some people have done this thousands of times without incident. I've been keeping snakes for 22 years and have not only experienced it but have seen other knowledgeable and responsible owners have the occassional issue.

Another point here - many people here keep snakes other than ball pythons. Aspidites and Drymarchon species are perfect examples of snakes that may be more prone to injuries from rodents because they don't necessarily constrict their prey.

If people feed live and prefer it - well, it obviously works for them and that's fine and dandy. However, to answer the OP's questions - it's not an old wives tale. Serious injuries can and do happen to snakes during live feedings even when their keepers do everything by the book.

[Furinax]

My GF had a BP, and she says that it died because it refused to eat, due to she fed it live once, the rodent bit it, and I guess it turned it away from eating. I feed mine live, ive seen small spots where he was bitten, but nothing major, and he still eats. So I dont know.

[Wolves-N-Dogs]

I've been feeding live for five years now without problems.

[NateDogg13]

Both of my balls when I first got them (i got them both less around 3-4 months old) did bite the wrong end of a mouse at one point and got bit back. The skin broke on one but did not bleed and the other didnt even break the skin. Since then neither have been bit.

On the other hand my old roommate (who thought he was an expert with reptiles) fed his 4 ft ball one large rat a month. On more than one occasion he went 2 months without feeding it and thought it was super hungry so he gave him 2 large rats at the same time. He NEVER once at the 2nd rat but I think he did this at least 4 times. One time he left the extra rat in overnight and when he checked on the snake 2 very large portions of its back had been eaten. I didnt know him at the time, Ive only seen the massive ugly scars. He didnt try to treat it or take it to the vet, just left it alone to heal. Im suprised this only happened once. Anyways the snake has now passed do to improper care (no heat, he thought fluorescent light was enough, no humidity, he figured since it was from africa why should it need humidity). I dont talk to him anymore but I hope he doesnt get one again.