• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Feeding live, for a treat

King21

King21

New member
I usually feed my corn a f/t fuzzy every 5 days. As I am going to a reptile show tomarrow i thought it would be cool to pick up a live fuzzy to feed him instead just this once. Would that be bad to do? I dont think a fuzzy could even injure a snake at that age...but im not sure.
 
A fuzzy shouldn't cause much harm if any, it just that you don't want the snake to get use to eatting live only because of feeding larger mice that might bit and scratch.
 
Lennycorn said:
A fuzzy shouldn't cause much harm if any, it just that you don't want the snake to get use to eatting live only because of feeding larger mice that might bit and scratch.
Click to expand...
It would just be this one time.
 
The risk you are running is not only that your snake might get bitten, but that your snake won't accept f/t anymore. If your snake is feeding fine on f/t, then it's better to just keep him on it.
 
There is another risk that really isnt being addressed here ... If your snake is accustomed to eating F/T it will begin to associate all food with needing no constricting. In other words they may swallow the prey alive (this happened to one of my dwarf boas). The pinky struggled and squirmed all the way down unil it suffocated.

If this had been a fuzzy (that may be growing nails) the risk would have been much greater and if it had nails it probably would have killed him.

Bryan
 
Ratsicles said:
There is another risk that really isnt being addressed here ... If your snake is accustomed to eating F/T it will begin to associate all food with needing no constricting. In other words they may swallow the prey alive (this happened to one of my dwarf boas). The pinky struggled and squirmed all the way down unil it suffocated.

If this had been a fuzzy (that may be growing nails) the risk would have been much greater and if it had nails it probably would have killed him.

Bryan
Click to expand...

This is absurd. I have never witnessed any snake constrict a live pinky. Why? Because they can cause no harm. Once things start growing fur, the snake's instincts kick in and they constrict.

There is no problem between switching back and forth between live and f/t, in my opinion. I have done it plenty of times, and will continue to do it, and I sincerely doubt there will ever be a problem. I've said all along and will continue to say it, I believe feeding live is better for the snake (healthier, helps keep muscle tone, etc). I believe there's beneficial bacteria that the snake can pick up. No matter what anyone says, I have a very hard time believing that a frozen mouse has a better nutritional value than a live one.
 
I was thinking the same. Anything frozen contains less nutritional value than live/fresh material. I will be feeding my corn with live prey now and again once it gets a bit older / confident. It is how they would eat in the wild -- so I will grant them that experience.

I have heard roumors that if the snake is not hungry it may not eat the mouse - then the mouse may attack etc..

I think I will just leave an extra few days ontop of the feeding schedule to make sure she really IS hungry before feeding a live meal.
 
Ratsicles does have a valid point.
My Amel male NEVER constricts his food and he eats every 3 days like clockwork. One day I tried giving him a live fuzzy because all my frozen ones got freezer burned. He ate it no problem, but didn't kill it first. I saw it moving in his throat after he began to swallow.
He began refusing food after that and did not eat for 10 days so I took him to the vet because it was very unusual for him to refuse food. The vet said that as the fuzzy was swallowed it strugled the whole way down and probably scratched and irritated the soft tissue of the throat. He said he would need to heal for up to 2 months before able to swallow large fuzzies again. I have been giving him tiny pinkies ever since to make sure he has plenty of time to heal. He even now 4 weeks later, is tentative about swallowing tiny pinkies and takes about 15 minutes to do so.
 
I think we all need to remember that corn snakes do in fact live in the wild. They don't get trays of f/t food items brought to them so they can eat. Corns are not endangered, so it sure seems that they do just fine. IMO, they are babied WAY too much in captivity. People are terrified about a little bacteria from a live prey item, or a live prey item in general. I think it's very similar to humans.

Ever notice that your friends with the most allergies were the ones that were never allowed to play in the dirt, were super clean, and sat inside? I've got a few friends like that, and they're allergic to almost everything under the sun. Myself, I was always outside playing in the woods, picking up lizards, snakes, etc, and I'm allergic to nothing.

I think sometimes it would be wise to remember that whether or not snakes are hatched in captivity, they're wild. They're equipped to eat live prey, and a live fuzzy is not going to kill a cornsnake.
 
Constriction isnt learned, it is preset into them, so feeding live wont 'teach' the snake to constrict, and many snakes will eat unweaned prey without killing them because there is just no need to; they wont hurt the snake and they arnt going to run away, so why waste the energy. It is the same exact reason why many snakes wont constrict thawed prey, because they know they dont need to waste their energy on it. Now on a good feeder, give it a thawed mouse and if it doesnt constrict move it a little bit as a stuggling mouse would move, the snake will grip onto it tighter and start to constrict to restrain it.

Snakes arnt stupid, if its fighting back they will constrict or let it go. The only time I have ever heard of a snake eating an older mouse alive is when the prey was first stunned, but woken up as its being swallowed.
 
Its kind of like an adult eating baby food for months, then switching back to normal food thinking they dont need to chew; it may be a little akward at first but they will figure it out quickly.
 
DaemoNox said:
Constriction isnt learned, it is preset into them, so feeding live wont 'teach' the snake to constrict, and many snakes will eat unweaned prey without killing them because there is just no need to; they wont hurt the snake and they arnt going to run away, so why waste the energy. It is the same exact reason why many snakes wont constrict thawed prey, because they know they dont need to waste their energy on it. Now on a good feeder, give it a thawed mouse and if it doesnt constrict move it a little bit as a stuggling mouse would move, the snake will grip onto it tighter and start to constrict to restrain it.

Snakes arnt stupid, if its fighting back they will constrict or let it go. The only time I have ever heard of a snake eating an older mouse alive is when the prey was first stunned, but woken up as its being swallowed.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Someone needs to tell my snakes that because I know when I tease feed them f/t, they surely do constrict. Constricting to corns is an instinct---they won't lose the instinct to contrist their prey.

As was said, next time you're feeding f/t.....wiggle it once the snake has taken it from you and watch how quickly the mouse gets wrapped up.
 
My 2 cents on this. Both my snakes constrict. But thats because I tease them with their food and always have. I've noticed when I just throw the food in. They don't constrict as much. As for feeding live. I've tried, my snake never wanted anything to do with it. The next time I wish to try it'll be stunned, and I'll tease him with it like I do for both of my snakes. Then He'll constrict it IF he's hungry and wants it.
 
in the wild though the mouse can run away, the only reason it would attack is becuase you put it and the snake in a small area, this will make the mouse more afraid becuase it has no chance of escape, so it wil lattack. i odnt feed live but if i was to id make sure my snake constricts thier food. i know mine do but im not going to risk it becuase i feed them in the bath which doesnt give freedom t the mouse
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top