Poll: How do you feed? Live, F/T, Stunned

[Reptile Man]

I give mine live because he only will eat live

[munding]

i wonder who stuns them before feeding? cruel.. lol..

[iluvboas17]

i feed F/T. its so much easier and cheaper. since mine are babies, i paid $20 for enough mice to feed them for 5mo, thats not bad if you ask me i throw their mice on top of the baby brooder to thaw out, it makes them nice and warm my boas have always been fed F/T though, not sure how they would react to a live mouse being thrown in there. me being a worry-wart, i dont think i could do live, too scared of those mean little rodents hurting my snakes, its just not worth it to me. who knows, a live rat might never hurt my snakes, or it might happen more than once to any one snake, you never know.....

another thing....i HATE how the rodents smell, yuck!! they constantly pee and poop, i do NOT wanna smell that all the time i know all pee and poop smells, but these guys seem like the potty times never end....LOL

[azak323]

i feed live only; never tried anything else. one of my snakes has been bitten once before, but it wasn't serious. Later that day i couldn't even tell where the bite was. i figure that, in the wild, BPs must have to deal with live prey and possibly getting bitten their whole lives. I'm not saying that I don't mind my snake getting bit, because I do. What i AM saying is that these guys were built to deal with live prey and getting bitten. Just my opinion.

[NightLad]

There was no "pre-killed" option.

I do not advocate stunning because I feel that it carries unnecessary dangers to the snake, not to mention the higher possibility of causing prolonged suffering to the prey.

Stunned prey is not always guaranteed to be unconscious. Some ‘stunned’ prey will come-to when the snake approaches or takes it. While a calm and unsuspecting morsel may have been taken by surprise, allowing the snake to strike and manage an optimal hold, a previously stunned animal comes-to on the defensive, if not complete offensive. This presents the snake with a challenge it was not built for. Snakes are predators that were made for fast and stealthy surprise attacks; they were not created for rough-and-tumble brawls.

When I fed live (since Salzedo refused F/T) I always made sure to keep the prey as calm as possible. I fed it, gave it water, and kept it in a secure container prior to introducing it to the feeding tub. The first (and last, I vow) time Salzedo was injured by a live mouse it was due to the element of surprise being stripped and the animal going on the offensive. I introduced the mouse to the feeding tub, but Salzedo was so excited the he struck while it was still being lowered. It fell and he struck again, but it jumped out of the way. When he finally got it, it was fighting like a son of a gun and in an awkward position. When the dust settled, he had sustained a bite to the eye. $320 in vet bills later, I have no problem pre-killing his food. He takes it from tongues without issue! (I will be going F/T but he is being stubborn. I consider the pre-killing a transitory step.)

That is my personal experience and reasoning. I understand that there are many people who continue to successfully feed live, and there are breeders who’ve fed thousands of live prey items to snakes without problems. That is well and good, yet I would hasten to mention that it just takes once.

I hope this helps provide another viewpoint for you to consider.

[dragondavy]

When I first started I fed frozen thawed, but it started to be a pain and if the snake didn't want it then it was in the trash.

Now I only feed live and IMO, the snakes get a work out.

[jeff91]

this may sound kind of exagerated but I find that a snake desurves a moment of power, some of you may not agree with me or see it the same way as I do but hey! If I was a snake, I would feel great to be able to show that im the boss, anyways I prefer live ... besides, my snakes ignore frozen

[the_Ryno]

I fed F/T for two weeks but my snakes feeding response wasnt taht great, so i switched to live and it is alot better now.

[RobbinRN]

I feed F/T using the thawing and prescenting methods I learned on this forum. Alice has never refused a meal. He actually has an awesome feeding response. I don't even have to do the zombie dance anymore. He literally comes halfway out of his feeding tub, strikes and coils all in one smooth motion (just like in 8 Ball's Feeding Lessons). He has no idea his prey isn't alive.

I was driving to various pet stores in town to find the brand I like best until I discovered I only live 20 minutes from Big Cheese!

Anyway, this works for me and I really don't think Alice is missing anything.

BTW, off topic, but how do I get my "pet count" at the bottom of my post like y'all?

And....are there any other posters out there in the DFW/Arlington area? I don't know anyone who likes/keeps snakes.

Robbin

[dr del]

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BTW, off topic, but how do I get my "pet count" at the bottom of my post like y'all?

Hi Robbin,

If you look at the top of the page you will see a button marked "UserCP" if you click that it takes you to your user control panel and the topmost box on the left has "edit signature" - clicking on that will let you enter your pet list or even a picutre.

We do have a few rules about them though;

5. Signatures must be limited in scope. No more than the equivalent of 10 lines of standard text in a 1024x768 resolution. (A size 1 font will allow for more lines of text.) Banner graphics must be limited to a maximum of 450 pixels wide by 100 pixels high and 150 kilobytes in size. Members sporting extraordinarily flashy graphics in their signatures may be asked to remove/change them. Signatures including both graphics and text must still not exceed the equivalent of 10 lines of text.

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dr del