Is it safe to raise one's own feeders?

I've got a young man on my forum getting rather snippy with another member regarding the practice of raising his own feeders. The snippy guy says it is "unequivocally" unsafe practice to raise feeders (these are to feed to his florida gar, by the way) due to the introduction of parasites to the fish.

Aren't there people here who use live feeders that they raise themselves? If so, do you use precautionary treatments on them periodically to eradicate possible parasites? I know for safety reasons that it might not be the best practice to give live feeders to snakes due to injury, but it's still done, correct?

Any insight would really be appreciated. I don't want to lay the smack down on him until I hear some other opinions. Although I want to just for his snarky attitude. :nope: Thanks!

LBoz said:

I've got a young man on my forum getting rather snippy with another member regarding the practice of raising his own feeders. The snippy guy says it is "unequivocally" unsafe practice to raise feeders (these are to feed to his florida gar, by the way) due to the introduction of parasites to the fish.

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Raising feeders yourself actually lessens the risk of parasites, especially when it comes to fish. Feeder fish sold in stores are raised in atrocious conditions and are subject to weak immune systems, disease and parasites. If live feeders must be fed, then raising your own is the safest way to do it.

That's EXACTLY what I thought, and thank you. I've been doing some searches here but can't find anything that mentions dangers of parasites from home grown feeders. I don't even know what type of parasites a self-raised feeder would have other than mites? And obviously mites would die when the feeder was placed into a tank. He's basing his "expertise" on "one article I read this one time when I was thinkin' about raising mice for my beardie said it wasn't safe." Um...ok.

Whoa, okay. If he's flipping out based on the authority of a single article he read 'some time' then it's pretty much okay to dismiss his opinion as unsubstantiated. Without identifying the article itself, it could have been parody for all we know.