• 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.

Live vs. Frozen/Thawed

CrousesCorns

CrousesCorns

New member
Which one is better? I prefer live since I have the colonies to do it. The snakes I have seem to respond faster and there is less involvement from me with tweezers moving the f/t around. One negative about live is that it is harder to put repti-cal one them. What does everyone else prefer?
 
F/T!! I have fed live and I don't like it. Especially when I watched a mouse bite the crap out of my amel, when she had it wrapped up. Our good friends snake lost an eye to a biter.

F/T is so much safer and as long as the snake eats them, that's all I will feed!!
 
I know several breeders of high end BPs that only feed live. I personally like fresh killed myself. Ft is safer for the snake, considerably less expensive, especially for those of us with many mouths to feed and for people who rent or just don't want to deal with a rodent colony, more convienient.
The downside is I find it to be a P.I.T.A to have to thaw and warm them up to a suitable temp for the animals to take them.
Live is dangerous to the snake and unless it absolutly wouldn't eat dead I would try to avoid it at all costs.
Fresh killed is my favorate because they are already warm and even stuborn converts will usually take it if you dance it around on tongs for them.
Its just my opinion but after seeing one of my snakes get bit (many years ago) I will only feed live as a last resort.
 
I have 21 cornsnakes and they all eat F/T except 1 picky little girl. It is sooo much easier to have the food at home. I can feed 20 of my kids whenever I want. I hate running to the pet store every week. :(

I understand you have a colony of mice. I'm just always scared of my snakes being attacked by live mice or rats. I actually convinced my bf to switch his ball pythons to F/T too. :)

Good luck with whatever you decide.
 
medusacoils said:
F/T!! I have fed live and I don't like it. Especially when I watched a mouse bite the crap out of my amel, when she had it wrapped up. Our good friends snake lost an eye to a biter.

F/T is so much safer and as long as the snake eats them, that's all I will feed!!
Click to expand...

Agreed To risky
 
Well a lot of people with colonies freshly kill their mice, meaning you kill them fairly quickly before feeding the snake. This way if you like having the colonies and getting your own mice then you can still do that, and the snake doesn't get hurt in the process of feeding. Feeding live is really not good and shouldn't be done unless its absolutely essential. I've heard many tales of surface wound scars, lost scales, and eyes being bitten out by live mice struggling. What's the point in risking it...? Please consider f/t or freshly killed as an alternative, because I hate to see a "I shouldn't have fed live" thread.
 
I prefer f/t myself I just get so worried once they kill the mouse that it might bite them, I have one bp hatchling that just wont touch anything apart from live but I watch him like a hawk until it is nicely killed. All the rest are on f/t.
 
I like F/T myself all the snakes we have well the three oldest we rescued eat them. I got all of them to convert! I have them trained so wenn i dont really even have to dance them around. I do sometimes though BC i want them to still have some thrill.

One of my oldest has a scar from where a previous owners fed her a live and it bit her, so I am alittle nervous!

Just my opinion hope it helps!!
 
I have my own rodent colonies as well, but still feed frozen thawed. I have a co2 set up and gas them, vac pac them and off to the freezer they go.
I have four out of 100+ that will not eat ft. I simply have not worked hard to switch them since they are few in number and mainly older snakes that are approaching retirement age.
I learned it the hard way that it is so much safer for the snakes to feed F/T and start them on F/T and leave them on F/T.
Peace
Scott
 
F/T.
Although back in the 1970's I had mouse colonies. After a simple snap of the neck or blow to the head, little mooses can't hurt little snakeys atall.
 
I feed live for a few reasons

1. If my snake refuses a prekilled rodent, I'm out that rodent.
2. Snakes were made to kill and they do it quite effectively.
3. I very closely moniter my snakes when they feed and make sure the rodent's mouth is not in a position to bite. I'd never leave a live rodent alone with a snake.
4. Freezing breaks down some nutrients.
5. My Balls won't touch anything already dead.
6. My corn seems to enjoy the hunt. Why would I deny him what he was created for?
 
hookpits said:
1. If my snake refuses a prekilled rodent, I'm out that rodent.
2. Snakes were made to kill and they do it quite effectively.
3. I very closely moniter my snakes when they feed and make sure the rodent's mouth is not in a position to bite. I'd never leave a live rodent alone with a snake.
4. Freezing breaks down some nutrients.
5. My Balls won't touch anything already dead.
6. My corn seems to enjoy the hunt. Why would I deny him what he was created for?
Click to expand...

By looking at your list, I get the distinct impression that feeding your snakes live, is more for your benefit, than your snakes!

It's your choice and good luck with that!

Wayne
 
Obviously you didn't read my entire list. The only thing for my benefit is not losing rodents. The nutritional aspect is a big thing for me. Most pre-killers use CO2 to kill the rodents. Nobody knows the long term effects of this on the snakes themselves(all that CO2 in the rodents blood) Also it is known that freezing breaks down nutrients. Snakes in the wild don't use freezers, so why would I? Also look at number 3.

3. I very closely moniter my snakes when they feed and make sure the rodent's mouth is not in a position to bite. I'd never leave a live rodent alone with a snake.

Only once have I ever had an instance where a rodent was in a position to bite and it was my own fault. I dangled the rat from its tail and my snake got a leg strike and didn't coil it properly. Because I was there, I was able to fix the situation and not have my snake bitten. Other than that, I have never had anything happen, and I won't let anything happen.

I know a lot of people see the pictures of snakes who were chewed on. My question is
Where were the stupid owners when this was happening???
 
Snakes in the wild don't use freezers.
Snakes in the wild also fall prey to hawks, get hit by cars, die of starvation before reaching their first year.
Most educated keepers use frozen/thawed.
It's safer for the snake, and more humane for the prey.
All my snakes have been on thawed food their entire lives.
As far as the possible harmful affects of CO2, snakes in captivity tend to live much longer lives than snakes in the wild.
As far as freezing breaking down nutrients, NONE of my snakes appear to be lacking in any nutrients.

There are many people who have a problem with live feeding, and for those who don't actually know a reptile keeper personally, they sometimes tend to see us as cruel sadistic jerks. And I even admit to being in that camp at one time. I personally have a problem with feeding live to a snake that will accept f/t. I love ALL animals and have a problem with UNECCESSARY cruelty.

We don't expect our pet dogs and cats to kill their own food.

Maybe that's why many people don't view snakes as "pets".
 
A picture is worth a thousand words so here are a few pictures of a snake that was fed live food.

DSC00104.jpg


DSC00103.jpg


DSC00112.jpg


DSC00119.jpg
 
Careful monitoring won't save a snake either. My sister-in-law used to work at a pet store, and the BPs there ate live food. In went the rat with a young snake, and the rat got in a chomp because the ball missed and bit off a portion of the snake's skull. Unsurprisingly, it had to be euthanised. Oddly enough, she was RIGHT THERE. She hated feeding live to the animals for that reason, but the store owner wouldn't listen until he finally lost a snake.

A large mouse could easily do the same to an adult corn snake. If your snake won't take a prekilled, either try it on other snakes or freeze it and try again later.

Also, the CO2 used to humanely kill rodents is NOT in the blood of the rodents. Our lungs are not designed to absorb CO2. Instead, it mostly sits there and takes up space that oxygen could be using, resulting in a normal build up of CO2 in the animal from cellular respiration due to a lack of incoming oxygen. This results very quickly in unconsciousness and death, particularly in small animals.

That said, the stomach nor the intestines are designed to absorb carbon dioxide so elevated levels in the blood of the prey item would not matter at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top