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FT vs. live mice
- Thread starter beardie
- Start date
CornCrazy
What's one more???
On this forum you will get mixed opinions about this. Some breeders feed live and some F/T. You simply have to realize that a larger mouse (that's equipped with a nice set of teeth) can bite your snake. This can lead to infections, abscesses, etc. If you choose to continue feeding live mice, then you must NEVER leave the mouse in the cage unattended. The mouse can cause serious damage or even death to your snake.
In my opinion, it is easier and safer to just feed F/T. It's not worth risking the snake's health just for "the thrill of the hunt."
In my opinion, it is easier and safer to just feed F/T. It's not worth risking the snake's health just for "the thrill of the hunt."
bmm
New member
The only thrill to be had is by humans. Hunting is by no means a thrill for snakes, its about survival, period. They will not miss the "hunt" or the kill at all. In fact they cannot even grasp the concept of it.
Pre killed food is by far the most safe way of feeding captive snakes.
bmm
Pre killed food is by far the most safe way of feeding captive snakes.
bmm
palmerdoom
New member
If your snake is wild caught and a yearling or more, than live food is perfectly ok. Their instinct to kill to survive is proven. While a captive born cornsnake has the instinct to subdue and eat live food, it does not have the fine tuned hunting skills that only survival of the fittest in the wild can produce. Most captive bred cornsnakes do not have a problem taking down rats and mice, but I would not risk it. If your snake eats f/t, stick with it. Remember, 98% of cornsnakes do not survive in the wild. 95% survive in captive bred hatches. Your cornsnake is a snake, but it is most likely not the killer you would think.
BDPocke_BPCaa
New member
Ok what about this
I have a Ballpython and hes about 2 years old i have had him about 6 months and im wanting to change him over the thawed rats he is eating live mouse right now. But he will not change over for me. What should i do because it's like 4.00 a piece for food for him, also is corns easy to switch over to thawed?
I have a Ballpython and hes about 2 years old i have had him about 6 months and im wanting to change him over the thawed rats he is eating live mouse right now. But he will not change over for me. What should i do because it's like 4.00 a piece for food for him, also is corns easy to switch over to thawed?
Rachel
Vet nurse in training!
For some snakes it's easy (I'm only going by what I've been told here as I have never fed live) and others it's a long process. If he isn't acceptinf ft straight away try stimulating a feeding response by wriggling the ft about. There are heaps of little tricks you can try (most of which would be ones you'd try with a non feeder I would guess). Like braining, placing in a cup of boiling water for about 5 secs before offering...the list goes on. These are methods I've heard people talk about but each snake is different so it would be a case of trial and error.
Ice9
New member
Being an animal lover , I dont like any creature to suffer more than it has to , including the food for my snakes , so I would have to say feeding humanely killed FT is better where possible.
Live feeding is illegal in the UK anyway so we dont have much choice unless we want to break the law.
Live feeding is illegal in the UK anyway so we dont have much choice unless we want to break the law.
Rachel
Vet nurse in training!
It's not actually illegal as such in the UK. It's a very grey area. It is illegal for a pet shop to sell vertebrates for the intent of it being fed live. It is legal, apparantly, to live feed if under the supervision of a vet or in the privacy of your own home (ie not a demo or anything!). I guess it's such a grey area as they can hardly have an inspector at your house 24/7 to make sure you don't live feed. I've been trying to search for a black and white answer to the illegal/legal debate but so far have come up with alot of loopholes and vague laws.
Rachel
Vet nurse in training!
Oh me too! I'd rather feed ft. The thing is, is it is kinda illegal (well frowned upon anyway) but there aren't any real laws stating what you can and can't do. Silly, imo. If people are going to take such a moral stance on it the laws should not be so misleading :-/
Darin Chappell
Very Senior Hillbilly
Your budget and your animal will likely be healthier if you get your animals feeding f/t meals. I have never had a good reason NOT to do so (other than a hard-headed snake!), but several reasons why live feeding can be a problem. No brainer for me!
CowBoyWay
Cocked & Unlocked member
One of the main benefits of feeding frozen...
[Outside of the physical danger of feeding ones snake a freaked out, adrenaline rushed critter with teeth and claws whose got nothing to lose by going for a full frontal assault on ones pet snake (not a problem with pinks) ]
One of the main benefits is the actual control of parasite loads in ones feeder prey and can come into play as an important animal husbandry factor.
Feeding Frozen, Thawed mice, it's a good thing...
The act of FREEZING MICE, to kill the various inherent onboard parasites... (such as bacterias, amoeba's..internal and external blood sucking parasitical "bugs")
...is probably the easiest way there is to control many unseen disease transmission vectors.imho.
Freezing fish at minus 4 degrees farenheit = minus 20 degree celcius, for 7 days will kill parasites and prevent illness, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to a large commercial sushi supplier site, they claim that in commercial freezing, a temperature of -40 °F / -40°C will kill any fish hosted parasites in 15 hours and that in a home freezer, at 0° to 10°F, it can take up to five days to kill all the parasites, The raw fish people are probably correct about this.
Although freezing is a very effective method of parasite control, the actual act of "freezing" cannot be relied upon to destroy all parasites such Cryptosporidium (Crypto) oocysts...
a small proportion of oocysts survived 750 hours at -22°C after slow freezing.
http://www.dfst.csiro.au/fshbull/fshbull14.htm
"Members of the genus Cryptosporidium are parasites of the intestinal tracts of fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
A number of researchers believe that to date 23 species of cryptosporidium have been named based on host occurrence.It seems however, that members of this genus do not display a high degree of host specificity, so the number of species in this genus remains a matter of some discussion.
http://www.avianbiotech.com/Diseases/Cryptosporidium.htm
Temperature and duration are the key critical elements in the whole "purification" by freezing process.
There is no problem with commercial freezers getting cold enough to be effective... Unfortunately, household refrigerator freezers generally cycle between 5 and 10 degree farenheit, so you've got to crank your home freezer down low to kill parasites, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.
So the freezing of the prey item for a day or two is apparently not sufficient to kill those teeny,tiny little buggers, I myself would go for a week,minimum, in that home freezer to (hopefully) be an effective vector control technique. imho
[Outside of the physical danger of feeding ones snake a freaked out, adrenaline rushed critter with teeth and claws whose got nothing to lose by going for a full frontal assault on ones pet snake (not a problem with pinks) ]
One of the main benefits is the actual control of parasite loads in ones feeder prey and can come into play as an important animal husbandry factor.
Feeding Frozen, Thawed mice, it's a good thing...
The act of FREEZING MICE, to kill the various inherent onboard parasites... (such as bacterias, amoeba's..internal and external blood sucking parasitical "bugs")
...is probably the easiest way there is to control many unseen disease transmission vectors.imho.
Freezing fish at minus 4 degrees farenheit = minus 20 degree celcius, for 7 days will kill parasites and prevent illness, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to a large commercial sushi supplier site, they claim that in commercial freezing, a temperature of -40 °F / -40°C will kill any fish hosted parasites in 15 hours and that in a home freezer, at 0° to 10°F, it can take up to five days to kill all the parasites, The raw fish people are probably correct about this.
Although freezing is a very effective method of parasite control, the actual act of "freezing" cannot be relied upon to destroy all parasites such Cryptosporidium (Crypto) oocysts...
a small proportion of oocysts survived 750 hours at -22°C after slow freezing.
http://www.dfst.csiro.au/fshbull/fshbull14.htm
"Members of the genus Cryptosporidium are parasites of the intestinal tracts of fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
A number of researchers believe that to date 23 species of cryptosporidium have been named based on host occurrence.It seems however, that members of this genus do not display a high degree of host specificity, so the number of species in this genus remains a matter of some discussion.
http://www.avianbiotech.com/Diseases/Cryptosporidium.htm
Temperature and duration are the key critical elements in the whole "purification" by freezing process.
There is no problem with commercial freezers getting cold enough to be effective... Unfortunately, household refrigerator freezers generally cycle between 5 and 10 degree farenheit, so you've got to crank your home freezer down low to kill parasites, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.
So the freezing of the prey item for a day or two is apparently not sufficient to kill those teeny,tiny little buggers, I myself would go for a week,minimum, in that home freezer to (hopefully) be an effective vector control technique. imho
CowBoyWay
Cocked & Unlocked member
Wackin' Da Mice (humanely)
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6032&highlight=dispatching+mice
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4481&highlight=killing+mice
If any of this (mice wackin') business is illegal where you live, I suggest no witness' s
[I learnt dat on da Sopranos...
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6032&highlight=dispatching+mice
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4481&highlight=killing+mice
If any of this (mice wackin') business is illegal where you live, I suggest no witness' s
[I learnt dat on da Sopranos...
Rachel
Vet nurse in training!
No you would need a gas chamber, if you just sprayed them it wouldn't do much as there would still be available oxygen.
You can feed live in UK btw, as I already said, it's just a very shady area so I wouldn't go about telling people you do it or post things in forums like 'they are just mice'. They are still living things and you should respect them as such and make sure when you cull them it is as humane as possible.
You can feed live in UK btw, as I already said, it's just a very shady area so I wouldn't go about telling people you do it or post things in forums like 'they are just mice'. They are still living things and you should respect them as such and make sure when you cull them it is as humane as possible.