Quote Originally Posted by b8byjenny View Post
After many unsuccessful weeks of offering F/T to our baby BP my boyfriend has decided to try live next. I am VERY sad about this being as I'm normally the girl buying up all of the "feeder mice" at the pet stores to "save them."

So I'm needing lots of comments about how it really isn't cruel, and they really don't suffer, and its nature taking its course, and our little one really needs to eat, and and and....

I just feel so bad for the poor little mouse
Jenny, what Becky told you is backed up by scientific studies (which I do have links for if you want them). Constrictors like your snake do not kill by slow strangulation of their prey. That would put the snake at a much higher risk of injury from it's prey and Mother Nature isn't that dumb. Death is quick and clean. Likely one of the cleanest and quickest kills of any predator on earth. I feed multiple snakes each week, from the smallest BP up to mature female ones. I raise my own rats and by some standards, totally spoil my breeder rats by naming and retiring my adults rats.

If it were an inhumane, drawn out kill where the prey suffered unduly, I would not do it dear.

The simple fact of life is rodents are born, designed perfectly by nature to be the live food for these snakes. Humans may want to feed f/t for various reasons and many snakes will adjust to that, but it's not guaranteed. Sadly pet stores don't bother to mention that to folks like you. You are faced with a decision now to try live feeding in order to get this snake a meal or to be so upset by live feeding that your snake goes hungry. It's not a fun decision for you but one that may well be necessary if this snake continues to refuse to eat in the manner you wish it to.

Before you try a live feed, please read threads here about the proper way to do this. It is not just a matter of tossing in any rodent to any snake. Like all things, it's a process and if done correctly minimizes risk to the snake and promotes a fast, efficient and humane end for the rodent.

Lastly dear, "saving" feeder rodents is never going to work. They are bred to be fed off, they aren't bred for pets any more than a beef cow is going to be a pet dog. More are just produced and quite honestly don't often live in a particularily nice manner at big rodent breeders or overcrowded pet store feeder bins.

Don't be sad, sorry or embarrassed that you do care about the rodents. I think that respect for the prey that sustains our snakes is just another way of being a responsible keeper who makes the right decisions by thinking about how it all works out for the snake and for it's prey animal.