F/T vs live why do you feed

[Damion930]

Freezing kills bacteria and even with someone standing guard a snake can still be injured. Its also easyer and cheaper to store frozen. Also I like all critters and don't like to see them suffer

[reptile65]

Originally Posted by kellcore

Ok so i see alot of people feed frozen. And i want to know why. I think its more natural to feed live. Now on more scared snakes we will stunn the rat or mouse so the snake doesnt get hurt but they still move around. And i always was one to like my meat fresh other than frozen. But also the fact that when thawing a rat the inside could still be frozen, or rotting from the stomach acid. or as the inside is thawing the outside could be rotting.

So i guess my question is why do you feed what you do?

I also recomend live for beginner snake owners as they may not thaw right or feel comfortable making the mouse dance. Now for the larger snakes i do not recomend them to anyone but someone that has been dealing with snakes for a while. Our large snakes eat mediums to large rats now. We do stand watch and always have something to knock a rat away and have had to intervene with the bigger rats or break thier teeth but the small snakes we have never had to do anything but enjoy the show.

I dont want to start a debate or arguement i just like to hear other peoples opinions.

In my opinion, you can't make the argument that it's more natural to feed snakes live. Once you keep a snake in a small enclosure in captivity, you throw "natural" out the window. It's not natural for a mouse/rat to be confined to a small space where it can't escape. It is also not natural for the snake to not be able to get away if the rodent decides to take a chunk out of it.

IMO, it's more humane for both the rodent AND the snake to feed f/t. Not to mention it's way more convenient for me to buy frozen rodents in bulk.

Originally Posted by Damion930

Freezing kills bacteria and even with someone standing guard a snake can still be injured. Its also easyer and cheaper to store frozen. Also I like all critters and don't like to see them suffer

Freezing doesn't actually kill bacteria. All it does is slow the growth of bacteria, but when you warm it up again, the bacteria can still grow and reproduce.

[Kayla90]

Originally Posted by reptile65

Freezing doesn't actually kill bacteria. All it does is slow the growth of bacteria, but when you warm it up again, the bacteria can still grow and reproduce.

As a former chef student I can actually tell you that when you freeze it, it does in fact kill the bacteria; however, bacteria that cause food borne illness multiply quickest between 4°C and 60°C (40°F - 140°F). This is known as the temperature danger zone and at this temp. you have about 4 hours before it is then consider dangerous. So always make sure you thaw your mice/rat in the refrigerator a day before you plan on feeding your snakes, and make sure not to use something that has been thawing in the fridge for more then 2 days.