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A bit put off...still.

Dazzles

Dazzles

New member
I mentioned this in chat on Saturday night, but, I am still very put off with what happened to me today.

There is a girl I know, she has a python named Calypso. She always talks about it, and the pictures are cute. Listening to her talk about her snake definitely had a lot to do with why I was interested in/okay with getting one of my own.

She's a fun and cool chick, etc. I know her from online. Anywho, on Saturday I mention that I'd be feeding my snake for the first time that day. She asked me if I fed alive or frozen. I said frozen.

She spent a good 20 minutes berating and ridiculing me about not feeding the snake live mice.

I don't want to feed live. I know the reasons for NOT doing it, agree with and understand them, etc.

It was just a bit...demoralizing...to have the person who inspired me to get my own snake make fun of me in front of a bunch of other people.

Her words: "I dunno, I guess I just have a mice-killing fetish. It is perfectly safe if you get your mice from a reputable source and watch the feeding carefully. I'll snap a mouse's neck if I have to!"

Suddenly she's somehow "so cool" because of this, and I am "so lame".

I'll never change my opinion on the issue, it just sucked to be made fun of like that. Just a vent! Thanks for listening.
 
The ONLY way I feed live is if every other option has been exhausted
to get the snake to eat. Live vs Starve its Live, just for kicks??
HECK NO!!
 
Lots of people, assuming they even know the risks of feeding live, think it won't happen to their snake. Yet a mouse or rat can bite and take out an eye faster than you can react. It just isn't worth the risk. Like Janine always says- there isn't a problem till there's a problem.
 
Wow.


I saw a picture of a ball python, I think it was, who's owner was feeding it live and decided to give it a mouse and leave it in over night. I'd post the images here, but I think people know what I'm talking about.
Scales ripped off, brain exposed, muscle tissues exposed, all from a MOUSE. Imagine what a rat could do.
 
She won't me making fun of you when the rat goes after her snake. Like the others have said just ignore her, i would pick frozen over live any day.
 
Hmmm

I know a kid who spent all his birthday money on a Brazilian Rainbow Boa ,I think the snake alone was like 300 bucks not to mention the caging and everything else.He fed a live rat to it and the rat took out the boas eye ,that was a hard lesson he learned,not to mention the snake is alot less likely to get parasites from feeding frozen thawed.
 
You would be surprised at how many snake-owners vehemently tote the benefits of live versus pre-killed. I was traveling with snake once, looking for feeder mice at a local pet store. They had no mice, but the man working did have a lecture about the nutritional benefits of fresh over frozen. He harkened it to freezing vegetables, which lose a good bit of their nutritional value when stored in the freezer.

I have my own (many) reasons I buy pre-killed, but not frozen. It requires a trip to the pet store every week, but I like to feel it's worth it.
 
30 yrs ago I fed live all the time.... Then I started to worry, what if this goes wrong...
I started to pre kill at that point.... Now with F/T so available I use nothing else....
And with my new insight into triggering the feeding response... I figure I'll never have to feed live ever again.....
Send your 'friend' over to us for a chat..... The F/T feeders on here outweigh the live feeders, so she won't be so cool here.. ;)
 
Sorry to be harsh, but she is extremely irresponsible as well as cruel. And if she has a "mousekilling fetish" she has mental issues as well.....
 
Thanks for the responses guys :)

I think the "cool" factor of having a snake is watching it grow and live and thrive and be beautiful.

Not watching it kill another animal and risk getting hurt. It's nice to have "experts" in my corner <3
 
Just ignore this lame-o person. F/t or p/k are the way to go. I would only feed live if I had a snake that could survive no other way. I've seen the gruesome pictures and I am NOT taking that chance, and you, Dazzles, are a GOOD PERSON for not taking any chances on your snake's wellbeing.

So far I have no reason to think that f/t is not as good as p/k, but if I ever do, I will just run my own rodent colony so I can provide p/k., but windowswisher I am not putting you down in any way. You are making a safe decision for your snakes, and that's all I would ask.
 
Actually frozen veg only looses its nutritional value when its over cooked or not frozen within a few hours of being picked...

Was he trying to sell live prey by any chance? lol
 
Dazzles said:
Thanks for the responses guys :)

I think the "cool" factor of having a snake is watching it grow and live and thrive and be beautiful.

Not watching it kill another animal and risk getting hurt. It's nice to have "experts" in my corner <3
Click to expand...

I like you, and I like your posts more and more the more I read them. Killing mice isn't cool, it happens when it has to.
I think you've got it exactly right; the joy of owning or keeping any creature is giving it the best life, and as you so beautifully put it; watching it grow and live and thrive and be beautiful.
...It's up to you what you do, but I dont have time for people like that silly little twit you told us about. Let her cause the suffering she wants to for small creatures. There are bigger, meaner creatures than her out there, and they'll find her eventually. :eatsmiley
 
Dazzles I think if you look at it, in reality she embarrassed herself and not you by acting like a childish bully because you would not do what she wanted you to! She behaved in this pre-school manner in a public forum where everyone could see for themselves just how rude, immature, inconsiderate and ignorant she really is. What did you display, a kind, gentle, caring soul that has the best interest of all beings in mind, it will be obvious to everyone who _should_ be _mortified_ by their behavior!

Keep being yourself, keep shining, keep caring and your snake and all others around you(human and creature) will be better for it.
 
Personally I raise my own ASF rats and I pre-kill them for my snakes. I know there are still possible risks involved here, but raising my own does greatly diminish the risks of parasites since I haven't introduced any new blood in quite awhile. I even raise extra rats and try to supplement my cat's diet a couple days a week with pre-killed rats (holistic is 10x healthier for cats than kibble, and one day I hope to have enough of a constant surplus to have them be totally converted, then when we get a house we're planning on getting a ferret which will be fed holistically as well).

Now generally people put "Please don't flame me" in right about now, but that usually incites flames, so I'll just set my opinion carefully down here and offer up the promise that I will graciously accept any contradictions of my methods and even be nice in response :).

As for that lady having a "mouse-killing fetish" I still feel bad each and every single time I kill a rat. I know it's food for my snakes so I do it, and healthy for my cats, but I don't enjoy it. I've gotten more used to it, but I in no way enjoy it and a lot of the time I still get those stomach crinklies.

Now one of my reasons for feeding pre-killed is convenience, considering my rats are right outside the snake room, and the freezer is upstairs (plus thawing takes forever!). I don't pretend that I'm not just a teeny-tad bit lazy after working all day, however, my main reason is that I do buy into the theory that frozen/thawed isn't as healthy. In fact I find it down-right disgusting. Maybe I've just gotten bad frozen mice in the past, but (and I've used this scenario before) if I was lost in the woods and had to catch a rat to eat, I may very well do it.. but if someone showed up who thawed a frozen rat for me and said "Here, eat it", I'd rather starve. Those things are the most vile, disgusting things I've ever seen/smelled and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, let alone the snakes and cats that I love so much.
 
I've never heard of anyone feeding their cats rats before, though now i think about it i dont see how more people dont do it.

The mice i use don't smell...
 
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