Like I have said before, I am still new to the world of snakes, and am learning more every day.

That said, when we first got our ball she refused to eat F/T, and would not touch a stunned prey. If there were tongues anywhere near the prey she would completely ignore it. So we tried live, and she had a very very lively feeding response. So I kind of came to a conclusion (and please do not take this as a slight against anyone who does F/T or stunned prey).

As I understand it, snakes kind of have a weak immune system. So a wounded or dead animal in the wild would be more likely to carry disease. Yeah I know that we are all feeding clean prey, but the snakes do not know that, so evolution has taught them that alive is good, wounded is ok because it expends less energy to get its meal, and dead could be bad.

I don’t know much about how well snakes smell, but we are still learning a lot about exactly what other kinds of animals can tell by their sense of smell. As decomposition starts the moment an animal dies, it would not be unreasonable to theorize that a snake can tell the difference between a live rodent, and one that is dead.

I don’t know if I am correct, but it makes sense to me.