Quote:
Originally Posted by Baba-Lou
It'll take roughly 5 days till they get to fuzzies. NO never offer them live to the snakes.
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Just a quick question- why would you suggest never feeding the fuzzies live? I find no reason to say that at all. In general we can say a rodent that is the proper size for digestion can be safely handled by a corn, with some noteable exceptions being those gnarly young adult rats and the like.
Live rodents are at the perfect temperature for starting good digestion, the snake actually gets exercise during the contriction phase [and if you said don't feed live because of potential emotional disturbance at the squealing death of the rodent I would question why keep snakes in the first place? With a hearty "you can leave the room while the snake eats" following second just as an option] and it's pretty interesting to see the natural reaction of your new friends to live prey items.
In fact a lot of the excitement of owning a snake comes from the realization that in spite of the fact that they're captive-bred feeding on an alternate food source they retain
so much instinct and drive from their heredity.
And finally if you're afraid of getting struck or mistakenly bitten by the snake you can use tongs, tweezers or hemos to dangle-feed the snake until you're more comfortable with their eating habits. This is crucial if you're using undersized food such as fuzzies or hoppers to an older snake that's used to larger items.