Well, I have spoken a number of times to the guy who owns the pet shop where I buy my snake stuff, I like to talk to him about various snake stuff and this is one we talk about a lot. He is a big snake enthusiast.Originally Posted by stangs13
I have a couple reasons why I am against dead feeding:
I feel like it lets them flex their natural predator instincts when they can hunt it down (I don't feel like dangling a dead one gives them the same rush)
A dead rat will just lay there when it is caught, but a live one will fight back. It will squirm and wiggle, kick and make noise; this makes the snake fight back harder, squeeze and bite harder to kill the rat. This way it ends up being stronger and happier because it is killing something instead of not having to put any real effort into eating.
Also when you have a dead rat in the freezer the rat loses its natural vitamins and minerals that it has while it's living (I guess one could argue that you can put the vitamin powder on the rat to substitute)
Also I have seen snakes become less active and even depressed when they have been fed dead rats for their entire life.
Also (a point to be argued) it makes the snake less aggressive overall towards non-food organisms. My snake has NEVER struck at me once in the 2 to 3 years I have owned him. It's kinda like cats who don't destroy the furniture in their home because they are outdoor cats and they get to get all their aggression and scratching out of them outside the house.
There's a couple of my reasons, lol.
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