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Opinions on Nutritional Value of F/T vs Live

lnwolf88

lnwolf88

Cornoholic
Have heard several opinions about using F/T (safety, convenience,cost, etc.) but is there a decrease in the nutritional value of mice/rats after being frozen and thawed.

A friend of mine swares that his snakes didn't grow or produce clutches as well while F/T

I would like the opinion of others

 
Freezing ALWAYS decreases nutritional value. Whetever it be vegetables, fruit, meat or mice. Plain fact. If the slows down snake growth or producing of clutches i can't tell, but i think the better the nutrition the better the health of the snake.
So i prefer to give them live food. There on pinkies now. I haven't figured out what to do if the mice are big enough to have teeth, but i probably stun them or kill them seconds before i feed them.
 
i fresh kill but that's only b/c the store i get my mice from only sell live adults. Once my snakes all catch up to a similar sized food item i will switch them all over to frozen just so i can buy in bulk
 
i fresh kill but that's only b/c the store i get my mice from only sell live adults. Once my snakes all catch up to a similar sized food item i will switch them all over to frozen just so i can buy in bulk
 
Opinions are like noses, everyone has one. And here's mine. =P

I believe that live/pre-killed is better for me. I had my very first snakes on f/t for nearly a year of their lives, and they never really grew. Even now, my 2002 snakes are about the same size as my 2003's...and the difference is diet.

Starting in 2003 I started my own breeder colony of mice. I was just hoping to suppliment my f/t menu when it would run low or if I was feeling lazy. And then I saw the difference in growth of the snakes raised on a primarily live/p-k diet versus those on a f/t diet.

Now I exclusively feed live pinks through crawlers and pre-killed crawlers through adults and I'm glad I made the switch. My snakes have really grown like weeds since switching over, even the 2002's are growing and bulking up. Now sure I still buy f/t (All hail BCRF), but I only use those as a backup if I don't have any of the particular size I need on feeding day.

I don't know if the mice I bought were inferior nutritionally, as I now know what goes into my own feeders, and it's high quality food. Or if the freezing process altered the nutrition enough that it would give the results I saw. F/t was more or less just sustaining them rather than promoting optimum health, it seemed like.

I'll deal with the mousey smell just so long as I know my snakes are getting the best quality feeders possible.
 
Let's make sure that we are getting factual information out there. It is so easy for someone who is new to herps to read message boards and accept opinions that they read as fact. Freezing does indeed break down the nutritional value of the food being frozen. I did a quick search and found a number of university studies stating this.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that it does not take enough nutrition to noticably retard the snakes growth. I say this because there are thousands of breeders and pet owners feeding nothing but F/T and producing healthy, growing, egg laying snakes. For someone to say that feeding frozen will keep your snake from growing or producing clutches is silly. There are good arguments for both feeding methods. But ultimately it comes down to personal opinion and what is important to you as the snakes owner.
 
this might sound stupid but how do you kill a live mouse. at what age would you start killing them
 
The questions posed in this thread are closely akin to the debates on human nutrition, IMO. High protein v. low fat, ect, ect, ect.

The question shouldn't really be "what is the difference" but "does it matter". As long as the snake is healthy, active and not obese, then chances are its' nutritional needs are being adequately addressed. In other words, there really are no right or wrong answers. :)
 
hiya Gizmo :wavey:

I would wait until you are well into your seventies by which time you probably wouldn't think it worth the effort LOL :laugh:

:duck:

thank you
 
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