Live or F/T?

[merkurio24]

I've had my snake for less than one week and have fed her once. I fed her a live pinky because I was afraid she wouldn't eat if I changed to frozen. I was told she fed on live at the pet store. I noticed she ate the pinky without constrincting it. Is this normal for a baby snake?

[airenlow]

Totally normal. It is much safer to feed frozen mice...they can't fight back like live can. It's normally not too hard to switch a live feeder over to frozen in no time at all.

[merkurio24]

I'll try switching her to frozen next time.

[ShenziSixaxis]

F/t, no excuse.

[Carinata]

F/K for me. I usually go the F/T way but I work at a place where I have access to rodents and I was not able to order my usual F/T for a couple weeks so I was just getting live from work and killing them at home and I actually prefer it. I have a rack with my cricket aquariums for my geckos already so I also now have 2 more glass tanks, one for rats and one for mice. I like it because the snakes usually show interest in food if they are hungry and if not they usually shy away, so instead of thawing rodents and wasting them, they can live with me for a while until the next feed. It just seems more economical for me now that I only have 7 snakes. I used to have over 30 and F/T was the way to go.

[Nanci]

After you kill the mice, David, how do you reanimate them, when the snake shows no interest?

[Outcast]

I am going to be trying to switch Charlie the Cali King, and Freckles the Desert Glossy, over to F/T on their next feeding... Freckles didn't eat last week because she was about to shed, but she has been "hunting" ever since...

F/T or F/K are the way to go in my opinion. There is less possibility for problems.
In fact, one of my snakes has a very long scar down her neck from when her previous owners used to feed her live, the scar is roughly the length of her head. She is lucky that she survived.

[Carinata]

When you have Asian Ratsnakes you know when they're hungry. The cornsnake always eats anyway, the kingsnake always eats and if not Jasmine will gladly eat his hopper. I do however still reanimate with the tongs.

[merkurio24]

I see. I was thinking of doing the same, I could buy live and knock them down so that my snake doesn't get hurt. I think by doing this she will get more nutrients than feeding her F/T.

[Carinata]

Well, a very small amount of nutrients are lost during the freezing process. And it may be beneficial to feed them f/k. But you really never know, I mean it is a little gruesome to kill them. I just take them by the tail and whack them into the side of the rack. They really never know what hit them. Still a little gruesome.

[merkurio24]

I'm going to my local pet store in a few minutes. Oh, I have a question... What size mice should I be feeding her? She is about 17" long.