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F/T versus Live???

BarbwireNRoses
03-23-2006, 04:00 PM
I have a corn who's about 4 months old, I just switched her to fuzzies. Her weight is good and she's really started growing. I've had her about 3 months. She's very healthy and active, absolutely textbook. Her feeding response is phenomenal. I just bumped her up to 1 fuzzy every 6-7 days instead of 2 pinkies. She has never refused a meal and now recognizes her feeding tub and immediately begins "hunting" the second I put her in.

So my question is, is there a benefit to live mice versus frozen? I've been feeding frozen because its less of a hassel for me, but if live mice are better for her I have no qualms about feeding live. I know ppl say to feed frozen for snakes who don't seem interested in food and could be injured by a live mouse. But Lucy strikes her feed before it hits the bottom of the tub. (I have to watch my fingers!!!) So I don't think that would be a problem for her. Anyhow, any thoughts?

Penman6668
03-23-2006, 04:50 PM
I would stick with frozen. There is always a chance that your corn could get scratched or bite.

Taceas
03-23-2006, 04:52 PM
I think the whole issue is mainly personal preference. If you're happy with f/t, there's no real reason to switch. Most people will tell you there's no real qualitative difference between f/t and live. Which for the most part, there really isn't.

Freezing does kill intestinal parasites that some rodents may be carrying, and it does partially break down the tissues for easier digestion I'm sure. Plus you can buy it in bulk online for a cheaper amount than most petstores charge for frozen rodents and get better quality.

I raise my own mice and rats and feed live pinks through fuzzies because its just more convenient for me. Its easier for me to pick them out of the mouse bin and feed them off, rather than fuss with thawing. Plus, if someone decides not to eat that day, I throw it back in the mouse bin to grow up some more for some other snake's meal.

My larger snakes are being fed frozen thawed right now because I've still got so many younger snakes that are eating me out of younger mice before I can grow them up for my larger snakes.

However, I would never advocate feeding live mice which are aware of their surroundings and are capable of defending themselves. I personally don't feed anything above crawler stage alive. Anything that has eyes open and teeth capable of biting is dispatched before it ever meets my snakes.

While I've fed live adult mice on occasion before and never had an accident, that's not to say its not going to happen some day.