live feeding?

[derek]

I was just wondering if any of you have had any problems with feeding your snakes live mice/rats.i have heard that the usualy cause damage to the reptile. also if i was feeding live would i be able to give my bp 2 live hopper size mice instead of one rat??? thanks for your help in advance.:(

[paul]

hi derek
i'm just a beginner my self but my python whouldn't eat so i tried live mice and she took them right away both of them i was also told that the mice or rats could hurt or kill your snake so if you do go live keep a good eye on them
good luck

[tai_pan1]

About 15 years ago, I had a burmese python and I always fed him live. He ate rats, ginuea pigs, and eventually rabbits. He never had a problem, and was never injured. I have heard stories of snakes being injured by live food, so I now tend to err on the side of precaution. I feed my four corns f/t, never live. If I ever have a problem with a snake not feeding, I would probably try feeding live first. I would keep a close eye on the situation if you feed live, until the food is eaten, or you remove it from the snakes cage.

[Tim_Cranwill]

If you DO feed live, be prepared to get in there pretty quickly if something happens. It's not like the rodent would warn you before he bit your snake. I had a buddy would fed live gerbils to his ball and it all goes down so fast....

Just a word of advice.:)

[Syst3m]

There are several risk that you take a chance on feeding live.

One is injury to your snake, you would be amazed how fast a rat can take an eye out.

Also there are some pictures on Pro Exotics of someone who left a rat in with a ball python over night and the rat ate the ball python, didn't kill it but it had to be put to sleep because of the extent of the damage.

Frozen thawed mice/rats also will not have as much of a risk of spreading parasites as live rats and mice will since freezing them does kill most if not all parasites.

Frozen Thawed is easier to keep.

Its still your choice knowing the dangers now. Never leave a live rat/mouse alone with your snake for any period of time thats a sure thing. And dont be upset if a rat scars your snake if your going to feed it live food or even take an eye out. It may never happen, or it could happen the next time you feed it.

I'm sure a good portion of the people here will agree that frozen/thawed is the safest practice for feeding your snake, but sometimes you might have to feed a snake live food to convince a stubborn eater.

I personally feed my snakes almost all frozen thawed food unless its not eating, I even raise my own food for the snakes too.

As far as feeding 2 mice or one rat, I don't have any problem with live or dead mice when it comes to feeding 2 or 3 even, I just put them in front of my snake right before the preys feet get past the mouth and my snake will usually nail the second frozen food item right after, Some people tie the tails together that will also force the snake to eat the second item too. But Usually after the first mouse they still will have a strong feeding responce and will readily gobble up another rat or mouse without any proding.

Hope this helps and good luck with your snakes.

[Iguanalady]

Have you tried live? Or freshly killed? Sometimes you can slowly get them used to eating dead by offering them a very freshly killed prey item first and wiggling it a bit to stimulate the snake. Maybe you could gradually move up to thawed. I have a little kingsnake who is at the eating freshly killed stage. I think the thawed just dont smell the same or something so I am contemplating thawing it and them shaking it in some dirty mouse substrate. Also if your snake is in good health and eats once a week why not let him get hungry and wait half a week or a week before offering the prekilled item. It wont hurt him and it may motivate him more. There is lot you can do.

The other guys are right...feeding live is a risk. Many people often think its more natural but there is nothing natural about a mouse trapped in a container with a snake. As for exercise? Have you ever seen a snake run after a mouse? No they are pretty quick with a strike and a squeeze and they often do that with dead prey too. They will get plenty of excercise roaming around looking for food if their cage is big enough. So really unless you just cannot get your snake to eat prekilled there is no reason to feed live.

[derek]

thank you all for your replies. the reason i asked was that i got a ball python that would not take f/t and only live. i am in the process of swicthing her over to f/t

[reverendsterlin]

I let the hots have live, they don't last long. All the constrictors get f/t

[Aaron_S]

Well in my experience I say whatever works for you go ahead and do it.I persoanlly use pre kill cause I just don't have the time to wait for rats to thaw out and I have left a defrosting rat in the kitchen sink overnight waaaaaaaay to many times.So I just whack em before I feed. It works well and no chance of the rat or mouse injurying your snake.Also if you do use live I would have a wooden spoon ready to place in the mouth if your snake grabbed it the wrong way. I also know of a lady who clips her rabbits nails before she places them in with her burms. All my ball pythons eat pre killed and my burm just eats live. She's got all that muscle for something.So I just put it to good use.

[Syst3m]

Hey derek,

A good way to switch them over it to offer them 2 prey items.
First offer them a live prey item, then offer them a second item that is either frozen thawed or fresh killed. do that a few times then try just the pre killed or the frozen thawed items. Sometimes it works right away sometimes it doesn't. I've had to tease my snakes with a live mouse and QUICKLY switch to a frozen thawed to get them to take them.

It might take a little work but its definatly possible to switch your snake to f/t.

[Lisa]

At this link you'll see an indepth artical on why you shouldn't feed live and how to switch to dead.

http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ_answers_Why_do_you_suggest_feeding_thawed.html

at this link you'll see why you should never leave a rodent alone in the cage with your snake. the pic is very graphic and the snake was still alive when taken. click on it if you have the guts but it's not pretty.

http://www.proexotics.com/graphics/ball_python_live_prey_1.jpg

Any rodent bite should be considered life threatening to your snake as they have bacteria in their mouths that could cause infections.

It's not always easy switching to dead but in my opinion it's worth it. there's not many things i'm a rabid extreamist about but feeding live is one of them.

[BILLP]

derek

I haven't been to the forums very much but I volenter at a zoo and a lady brought a snake that had a jumbo rat left in his cage. The snake had huge chunks out of his body in several places and lost his one eye the snake did recover but has huge scars and It took ten month before he would eat again with out being force fed. There are ton of trick to get them to switch to frozen food. With time I would say that all snake will swith.

[JKS]

I have two adult Ball Pythons that will not touch frozen/thawed or pre-killed. I've tried every trick in the book with no luck. They always take live first try, and they are supervised from start to finish. All of my Boas and other snakes take F/T no problem.

Snakes in the wild don't go around looking for dead animals to eat. It's a natural instinct for them to eat live prey. I don't have a problem feeding live rats/mice to snakes that won't eat otherwise. I know the dangers, but we don't live in a perfect world.

[Iguanalady]

I'm not sure that if a snake came across a freshly dead prey item in the wild that it would not eat it....I'd have to do a little research before making claims in that area........

BP's are notoriously difficult feeders. If you've tried everything then there is no problem feeding live in the manner you describe.