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

[bearhart]

Can't speak for anyone else, but out of all the WC snakes (ballpark of around 1000) I've come across over the past 14 yrs, only a handful had any kind of skin blemish or scarring. And thats not to say that of all the scarred ones, each injury had come from a prey item. Coulda been something else.

Just putting that out there...

That also doesn't account for the ones that you never saw because they died from the initial injuries or secondary infections. I took all my snakes into the vet for wellness checks a couple of weeks ago and he asked me about the scars on my carpet. I told him I fed him live prey and he mentioned F/T and then went on to tell me that they has gotten some boas in with nasty infections from bites.

But, your experience is interesting nonetheless. Its funny because when somebody tells about how their snake was bitten the usual response is "How big was the rodent?" - of course implying that it may have been the keeper's mistake of feeding an overly large prey item. But somehow I don't think that snakes are that picky in the wild. They are certainly known to take very large prey for their size.

Perhaps it has to do with the actual prey items. Mice are one thing but I wonder how often the larger snakes actually eat big rats. Perhaps there are other prey available that aren't as effective in retaliating.

Perhaps it has to do with the artificial boundaries of the cage affecting the snake's movement.

I wonder if anybody has ever done a study on snake mortality in the wild. It would be an interesting read - perhaps I'll search for that today if I have time.

Cheers!


I would say that balls would tend to have fewer

[AzureN1ght]

When I bought my BP, I had a month before I picked him up, so I asked for the breeder to switch him from live to F/T for me. Auryn had been feeding live. When I picked him out (I had many options!), I went in person and I noticed he had two scars on his back from what must have been bites from old feedings. I know that he was being fed mice. After a year with me and several sheds, his scars are much less noticeable. The breeder I bought him from are people I respect and who are respected in the industry. They certainly know how to feed their animals--but, an injury obviously happened.

I'm not sure if it happening to my snake at the breeder's before I bought him counts as second-hand. But whatever. I chose to switch him to F/T because:
A> He will eat F/T without a problem
B> It's more convenient and cost effective for a college student with only one snake to keep F/T on hand instead of breeding/buying mice.

Over the summer when I ran out of F/T (and refuse to feed the PetCo F/T), I fed him live twice without a problem. I don't have anything against the people who do feed live. I also don't think that we should tell them that they're incompetent if an accident happened in the split second it took for their snake to grab prey wrong.

The day I picked Auryn out, we snapped some pictures. His scales are shiny, so the scars are a little harder to see. There was one very obvious one, and another smaller one a little farther up. Up close, they look like little puckers in his skin. But, as I said, they're better now. These photos were from a year ago





The scars are to the right of the big blushing spot (I call it his "vampire bite )--the less noticeable one is first, and then in the next little spot on his back is the more noticeable one.

[West Coast Jungle]

In my opinion mice are more dangerous than rats. I say this because a harmless rat pup is the size of an adult mouse. Yet an adult mouse is much more aggressive and protective.

I prefer live, and when done correctly is generally safe. Correctly means correct size, nothing bigger than a small rat for an adult. Anything close to medium(for big, big girls) I usually pre kill using CO2

To me the biggest advantage for prekilled is no escapees AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It happens

[rabernet]

To me the biggest advantage for prekilled is no escapees AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It happens

Karl: Hey babe, what's up?

Me: (frustrated tone) I've just had an accident!!!!

Karl: Are you ok?

Me: Not that kind of accident, I tipped over the rat enclosures and 3 week old babies when everywhere!!! I think I got them all through

Karl:...........dead silence..............what do you mean you THINK you got them all???? Don't you know how many there were????

That was a fun day!

[ChAMOUFLAGED]

Karl: Hey babe, what's up?

Me: (frustrated tone) I've just had an accident!!!!

Karl: Are you ok?

Me: Not that kind of accident, I tipped over the rat enclosures and 3 week old babies when everywhere!!! I think I got them all through

Karl:...........dead silence..............what do you mean you THINK you got them all???? Don't you know how many there were????

That was a fun day!

LOL, that's great!! Sounds alot like the conversation I had with my husband when I tipped over a huge bin of hissing cockroaches!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Karl: Hey babe, what's up?

Me: (frustrated tone) I've just had an accident!!!!

Karl: Are you ok?

Me: Not that kind of accident, I tipped over the rat enclosures and 3 week old babies when everywhere!!! I think I got them all through

Karl:...........dead silence..............what do you mean you THINK you got them all???? Don't you know how many there were????

That was a fun day!

if there was a possablility of a mouse on the loose, i would be shot dead. no questions asked!

[frankykeno]

LOL, that's great!! Sounds alot like the conversation I had with my husband when I tipped over a huge bin of hissing cockroaches!

Lordy if there were hissing cockroaches loose in my house, I'd be heading for the nearest motel. I will happily wrange snakes all day long but I'm a total wuss about big bugs.

[JASBALLS]

Lordy if there were hissing cockroaches loose in my house, I'd be heading for the nearest motel. I will happily wrange snakes all day long but I'm a total wuss about big bugs.

And you would head for a Motel?? OMG!! lol..

[rabernet]

And you would head for a Motel?? OMG!! lol..

Just humor her John and nod your head, then back very slowly out of the room. Bless her heart, she doesn't know any better.

[frankykeno]

Omg HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I never realized how that would be. Shows what happens when I post tired (or that I stay at the nicer places )