Quote Originally Posted by bimmer View Post
not trying to be rude... but freezing DOES make them lose some nutritional value, not much but it does. for one, it gets rid of at least one or two vitimins that are important to a snake (i forget which ones). i mean its not a BIG difference but i would personaly rather feed live. they do it in the wild and i think they should do it in captivity. after all it's pretty much the one natural that they have left when they're trapped in a cage all day.

not saying it cant be bad for the snake (getting bit and stuff) but i sit and wait till they grab it before i leave the room. although alot of you guys have way to many snakes to be able to do that, so i understand, lol.
There haven't been any studies done on the nutritional requirements of ball pythons, so even if freezing causes loss of some nutritional value, who knows if it's nutritional value that the snake requires.

All that said, I feed live, I've never fed f/t or pre-killed. I don't stun the prey, and I've fed off over 4000 live prey items without incidence or injury to any of my animals. I have over 40 ball pythons, all who feed live from hatchlings to adults.

I still stand by my opinion that feeding live purely for the entertainment value is the wrong reason to feed live.