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Can I feed him live?

toofDocta

toofDocta

New member
I heard frozen rodents lack essential vitamins and amino acids that snakes need... What I'm wondering is: if my snake is used to eat frozen, and I feed it a live mouse, will it stop accepting the frozen and demand live ones?

If I can mix up its diet between frozen and live, is it a good idea to alternate? or like a live one every months or 6 wks?

Thanks for the advice.
 
Frozen rodents are fine for snakes for their entire lives, plus can't take out an eye before you can stop it.

While there is debate on whether or not frozen is as nutricious as live, captive snakes on average eat much more often than their wild counterparts on mice that eat much better than THEIR wild counterparts...

My oldest is 13, has never seen a live mouse as far as I know, and is doing GREAT!!

I mean, sure, you CAN feed him live. He's your snake. If you do, he may not go back to frozen, he may get bitten by the mouse, he may get seriously injured by the mouse, plus its an unneccessarily nasty death for another living thing. So, sure, you can feed live. Would I reccomend it? HELL NO!!
:)
 
Many snakes will accept both f/t and live.
However, there are those snakes that, once offered live, may no longer accept f/t.
As far as live vs. f/t ... If there is a nutritional difference, I feel that it is negligible. Snakes can live their whole lives, on f/t, while remaining healthy ... and, with f/t, do not run the risk of a nasty wound that a feisty (&/or poorly struck), live, mouse/rat could have the potential of inflicting. Plus, with frozen, there is less chance for internal parasites to be transmitted to the snake.
You can feed live, if you wish, but it is not a necessity.
 
I have snakes that feed on only live, I have some that prefer f/t, and I have some that prefer fresh killed. With the live rodents, the worst issue I'VE had is a bite on a ventral scale. It was something that I monitored very closely over the next few days. It fortunately did not become infected. However, a friend of mine had a snake that took a very bad chewing on the face from a mouse. She has permanent scars on the right side of her face.
 
I think there's something to f/t and lack of nutrients when it comes to breeding, but I have nothing even scientific to back it up. If it's just a pet, f/t is no problemo.

I also think there's something to the integrity of the digestive system by feeding exclusively f/t. It's much easier to digest frozen food because many of the cells are already broken down due to the freezing process. If you don't use it you lose it, so it wouldn't be too far of a reach that the digestive system lacks integrity by feeding solely on f/t. :shrugs:

IF you're concerned about nutrients etc. and potential benefits of feeding live, AND your snake readily accepts frozen/thawed, then it's merely a function of feeding prekilled live to avoid the most argued drawback of feeding live (mice fighting back).

D80

PS. My personal favorite method for prekilling live mice is to use a sharp, quick pulling motion on the base of the tail while holding the head down firmly on a table edge with some other object. Not your hand . . . you'll likely get bit. Quick snap of the neck. Easy cheesey.
 
Drizzt80 said:
PS. My personal favorite method for prekilling live mice is to use a sharp, quick pulling motion on the base of the tail while holding the head down firmly on a table edge with some other object. Not your hand . . . you'll likely get bit. Quick snap of the neck. Easy cheesey.
Click to expand...

One of the best methods I've seen used, and is employed at quite a few pet stores, is grabbing them by the tail, and whacking their head against the side of a table. It snaps the neck (and possibly crushes the skull), and is very quick for the mouse/rat.
 
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