who feeds what?

Just a quick poll to ask who feeds what to there hatchlings

I try feeding f/t first to my hatchlings and if they don't eat it in their first few times, I try live or brained f/t depending what I have in hand...
but I'd say f/t is the best to start out with....gets them ready to eat f/t for their live.

Hi,
I would agree with Simon. I start my new hatched on f/t pinkies.
Jimmy C.

Yeah, I agree that f/t mice are best to feed hatclings because it gets them ready to accept them for the rest of their lives- this is especially useful if you are going to re-home them because it makes it easier for the new owner. I only use live prey for problem feeders because it seems to get their instinct going.
Neil

live....always. They seem to feed earlier and better....plus my kids seem to grow more on live than f/t. There's a lot of people out there who don't feed f/t, but given how my kids grab at food once they're a couple of months old those that do would have no problems switching them over.

.............

i feed bothe mice snakes live prey ........ live pinkys to my baby amel and live mice to my norm adult ....... i prefer that cause thats what theyed probally do in the wild of course and my mom would freak out if she sees a bag of frozen mice in the freezer ..... whoa ide bet u guys would hear the screams but anyway ... i think live is better i would have the heart to freeze an animal to death .. .. .
ooo and have u guys ever seen ur corn constrict a mouse .........
................................................................ na i didnt think so .........
its pretty cool to watch but cruel in a way but hey if they dont eat the mice in my house theyle be killing mor lizards and maybe mice out in the wild sooo .....................

Live vs. dead....again....

SnakesRus, I know it looks "cool" to see a snake kill a live mouse and it is what they usually do in the wild, but a live adult mouse driven by fear and panic can do some serious damage to your snake. (Sharp teeth and claws)
You don't have the heart to freeze the mouse but it's all right to let it be struck at and then constricted?
There are plenty of easy ways to quickly kill mice. Put it in a paper bag and slam it on the counter. Painful and cruel, you think? Not as much as being slowly squeezed to death.
Other alternatives have been mentioned several times all over this forum.

well .............

well i dont feed them live mice just because i think it looks cool i feed em live so they can keep their instincts in how to kill their prey if for any unwanted reason my snakes get out and get the chance to get otside it would be able to live by itself and IM NOT physically killen them thats what i cant do i get a little guilty feeling when i feed the snake but they gotta eat too ....... and if i put a mice in a bag and WHACK it !!! what if it doesnt die insatntly ?? or i dont wack hard enough ?? then i would think its gonna suffer too ........ or freezin them ! thats just wrong if you asked me i mean com'on thats wrong ....... i just think that feeding my snake as naturally as possible is good for them and me saves me alot of trouble and guilt and it prepares my snakes for the unexpected (getin out the house) .. .. .. ... . . . . .... .. . . .

Believe me, I don't think snakes "lose" thier instincts by being fed frozen. I came back from getting my feeders one day, and gave my okeetee a live rat pinkie (harmless)...BAM! - constriction and everything. This was from a snake that had the most laid-back feeding response - crawl up, sniff, open mouth, eat. I think the feeding response in snakes is a very basic part of them that they would never lose...ingrained deep in the brain. In rattlesnakes, the strike response is integral that even a cut off head can do it.

"Naturally"...is keeping a snake in a glass tank natural? Really, what other aspect of snake keeping do you feel the need to have it "natural"???

"and if i put a mice in a bag and WHACK it !!! what if it doesnt die insatntly"...death by constriction is by no means instant...it takes time.

I'm sorry snakerus, you have the lamest excuses for doing something which has the possibility of killing your snake. If you can't take responsibility and do what's best for your snake, you shouldn't have it.

Children! Children! Children! Now play nice or I am taking all your snakes away.............AND KEEPING THEM FOR MYSELF! MUHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

haha

I am not laughing at you...I am just laughing because everyone always says that. "so they keep instinct"

Feeding live has nothing to do with a snakes instinct to kill. Nothing at all. In fact I haven't heard one shread of evidence that says it makes any differance at all in corns.

Snakes fed live or dead BOTH retain the instinct to kill. Its in their GENES. Not what meal they eat. And as for them "knowing" how to eat live after a few years eating dead, it makes no differance. They will *always* know how to kill live animals, and always know how to catch them. Its what makes a snake a snake and feeding pre-killed cannot and will not change millions of years of instinct in a snake.

What can end up hurting a snake in the long run is a serious mouse bite that can happen in two seconds. Its your risk to take, but in reality there is NO reason the snake should be feed live if you reason is to keep its instinct in case it gets out. It will never lose something that is part of its gene make up for millions of years.

A better idea would be to not worry about escape, and make sure his enclosure is escape proof. and If you still want to take the risk many of us have tried and seen what can happen, then hey go for it. I can't afford to have any snakes injured here myself.

This is just MHO and not meant to be rude.

bmm

also

I agree.

If you claim you cannot take putting a mouse down so you fed live, then you are not being rational as many others have said, the death the snake gives it when you fed live is far worse than instant death done humainly by us.

bmm

crap ALSO

Yes I have seen my corns constrict a mouse.

They constrict live or dead prey. Some corns constrict always, some never, some half the time. Being alive or dead has NOTHING to do with it!

bmm

P.S. Cornsnake Manual By Kathy Love is a good choice for learning more about keeping corns.

By getting a corn snake for a pet, you're taking a lot of the wild out of the corn. Is keeping a snake in a glass tank with an artificial heat source "natural?" Is it "natural" for it to always have good, fresh food of the right size and clean water always available to it? Is it "natural" for it to be taken out of the tank and held by a person?

You feed live mice so that your snakes will know what to do if they get outside? They can get outside that easily? Maybe you need a more secure place for your corn. Snakes don't lose their instincts just because they don't have a live mouse to battle. Sounds to me like a weak excuse to see something "cool" every once in a while.

Physically killing them and freezing them is wrong? Well, then, letting a mouse be slowly killed in a painful way is perfectly all right then, huh?
If you can't bring yourself to kill the mouse you could ask someone else to do it. If only you'd read through some of the older threads here, you'd find alternatives to bopping your mice.

You think feeding your snakes as they would in nature is good for them? What happens when the mice chomps down on your snake and leaves a wide open, bleeding gash? Or bites an eye off? Oh yes, it must be all fine and dandy because they kill live mice in nature, right?

I don't know how old you are but judging from the way you type and spell, I don't think you're very old. For all I know, you could be a little kid who doesn't know any better. Whatever. It doesn't matter. What I'm trying to say is, if you truly cared for your snakes you would be willing to overcome obstacles to help them. If you really had your snake's health and well-being in mind, you wouldn't purposely endanger it by doing something that you know is potentially dangerous to it.
And if you don't have that as your first priority, maybe you shouldn't have any snakes at all.


EDIT: What?? I took so long typing this that people posted 5 times before I did?!

well ........

you guys beleive what you do i beleive what i do ............ not that im ignorant and i dont want to learn but .... thats just my way of feeding my snakes i respect the way u guys handle your bussiness an all ... im eager to learn and i dont mind being corrected .........and i will continue to have snakes im not gonna get discouraged by anything anyone says .......... im goin to continue feeding my snakes live animals cause thats the way ive been doing it since day 1 plus im not sticking a bag of rats in my freezer thats just plane out NASTY !!!!!!!!! im done for now until i get a reply directed to me thank you ........... and i didnt say its perfectly natural -- i said i try to make it as natural as i can -- if yall had an idea of what im talkin about you would know that i keep my tanks by the two windows in my room i even grow freakin trees in the tanks ........ how happy do you thinks your snakes are living in storage containers i have over 15 animals in my room including 4 bettas and 5 fish in a reg tank ....... and all are healthy ..... so far ive had no casualties except for 2 bettas that died in the breeding process ........... and i feed my snakes MICE and i dont think they have steak knives in their mouth to chop up my corns ........ you guys are so dramatic yall just dont understand me .........

well

The way "you" do things by feeding live is frowned upon by almost every single large scale snake breeder I have heard of. So go ahead and continue to feed live. Hope one day this doesn't happen to your snake:


http://www.proexotics.com/graphics/ball_python_live_prey_1.jpg


Good luck.

bmm

In the end, that's basically what it is. You do whatever you want no matter what we say.
You could say, "Oh yes, I agree! I'll do that from now on!" and then go and do whatever you want and none of us would be the wiser. But you didn't and I respect you for that.
Fine.
If an incident ever occurs during one of your feeding sessions, don't come here and post a thread and expect anyone to care. You know the possible consequences and you choose to ignore them.

By the way, no one told you to "stick a bag of rats" in your freezer. There are other ways to kill mice and some of them are instant and painless.

BTW

This is from a *LIVE*mouse someone fed to this ball python thinking it was better to fed live. This is what mice can do. In a shorter amount of time, like say two seconds a mouse could inflict a very serious bite that could also cause infection.

A live MOUSE.

bmm

im upfront with people im not gonna lie to you guys and say i agree with what you say .... no im not like that i know the risks ....
and com'on a gang of RATS had to do that to that python its cut up everywhere or the owner just sat there and watched while the animal just got killed ......... i feed little mice to my snake their not evern sexually mature yet they are small bigger than fuzzies but smaller tthan adults ... maybe juveniles .......... you guys are helpful but i just dont feed my snakes the way u guys do .......

and that python is way to big to be feeding on mice like i feed ........ now if i ever get a snake big enoupg to feed it rats i will make sure their dead ill do it myself .......

actually

Before you start assuming things.....

A rat did not do this. I have seen the entire website this image, and another of this poor python on it. A MOUSE did this.

You seem really uneducated about not only snakes but mouse anatomy. First off, mice of two months old have teeth, big ones, that CAN do that to a PYTHON Ball pythons are small at points in their lives too. Do you keep pythons or boas? I do. I know a mouse can do that to a boa and a python, AND especially a corn.

I am not going to write on this thread anymore becaues A. you have NOT taken the proper educational procedurs before purchasing a snake, I can tell by what you say. B. You are not willing to listen to people who have more experience with snakes than you do now. C. I cannot possible help you if you think everything I say, even though I have experience with it is wrong. Everyone on this forum with experience on the subject told you it was not right to feed live but you don't care. So good luck to you and your snake and I hope you listen to people in the future in regards to your snakes health and stop making uneducated guesses.

bmm