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Feeling sorry for mice

yeah.. it does end up becoming part of owning snakes that you do get used too..
I used to always feel bad for the mice I bought to feed my snake at first, even when they were frozen already.. the pinkies were the worst for me (they just look so tiny and the fact that they had never even got to experience any part of thier lives yet made me really upset.. :(

but you DO end up getting over the remorse factor the long you do it I find, now after almost a year of owning my first snake who's now on his hoppers, I went out and got a TINY Mexican milk snake, SOO here I am back to buying pinkies.. lol now I can just look at them as food.. and without feeding my shake they would die... it just a part if owning these amazing creatures that us animal lovers have to deal with. lol

(and now I also love watching my snakes eat, I love how primal they become! I think that's one of the main things that admire about these animals.. their instinctual behavior.)
 
Just had to feed a LIVE 1-2 day chick to a stubborn red tail boa. Bit off-topic but same remorse/guilt. I sucked it up and hoped to never have to feed live again.

Perhaps it requires some blissful ignorance. Better yet, the us policy of don't ask, don't tell, just give the thawed mouse to the snake and move on. Although i do find myself apologizing to the mouse when im thawing it at times :(.
 
It all depends on how you look at it...

Feeding (or eating) animals that actually LOOK like animals will never be pleasant for most people. But I believe it can be important.

Although I have been doing this a LONG time, I still feel a little sorry for the creatures that have to die to feed us. And by us, I mean our herps, other pets, and US - unless you are vegan. I personally feel that it is important for us to at least occasionally take some responsibility to really know, from real, personal, experience, just how the food supply works.

In addition to raising rodents for herps, I have raised chickens and pigs for our own consumption, which we eventually killed, cleaned, and ate - although it has been quite a few years since doing that. I don't think that most of us will enjoy this, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't experience it instead of relegating it to some unseen place where we can convince ourselves that it doesn't exist.

I feel pretty strongly that our culture has suffered from the fact that most of us are now distanced from our food sources. Some have gardens, but few have a hand in raising their own meat. Our grandparents (and those who came before them) mostly either lived on farms, or had relatives who lived on farms. And most of that generation had a least a little experience in raising the meat they ate, even if they just spent a summer on a family farm. I feel that one reason the animal rights people are so successful now is that our culture has "sanitized" the meat eating experience so that the average city / suburban dweller can allow themselves to think that meat is somehow manufactured in plastic packages and was never a part of a living being. Of course everyone knows this isn't true. But if you never see the process, you can put it out of your mind so you don't have to think about it.

I believe that having to deal with the feeding of whole animals (even if they aren't actually alive when you get them) helps to reconnect that bridge of the "circle of life" and how it relates to your food supply. If I had my way, meat eaters would all spend at least 1 season of producing, or helping to produce, your own meat, at least for a short time. It COULD produce a few more vegans, lol! But most likely it would produce people more like our grandparents and great grandparents, who learned by experience that some animals are sacrificed, but that they should be kept humanely until that time. Maybe our society would not allow huge "factory farming" facilities if we had personal experience, instead of being able to push it all to the back of our minds. And of course, the animal rights people wouldn't be able to sell their idealist fantasies of Bambi frolicking in the woods happily ever after, in a world devoid of predators and natural catastrophe - if only nasty humans would stay out of their way.

So I think that humanely raising and feeding rodents to herps can be a valuable lesson to both kids and adults who have lost their connection to their own food supply. It just depends on perspective, and how the lesson is absorbed. IMHO, of course.
 
^^^^ wow, I actually LOVE what you just said, it speaks on many levels..
I never thought of it that way but its true, feeding my snakes has really reminded me about the circle of life and how food chains work.. aha something I learned in grade 5! but you do lose touch with things like that now that you point it out.
I completely agree.

thanks Kathy! :eek:
 
Wonderful post Kathy.
What I have trouble with nowadays is that we feed rodents to reptiles while rodents (mammals) are actually way more intelligent than snakes (reptiles). I've kept them to breed them (unsuccessfully unfortunately) so I could observe how fascinatingly smart mice were compared to their short lifespan and all that.
 
reptire said:
Wonderful post Kathy.
What I have trouble with nowadays is that we feed rodents to reptiles while rodents (mammals) are actually way more intelligent than snakes (reptiles). I've kept them to breed them (unsuccessfully unfortunately) so I could observe how fascinatingly smart mice were compared to their short lifespan and all that.
Click to expand...

this is also very true, it is amazing how much more intelligent rats and mice are when compared to snakes, but for people like me that are allergic to rodents Fecal matter.. smarts are redundant! aha, I love my snakes for their ease of care and that I'm not deadly allergic to them is a huge bonus.

no keeping rodents for this house.. :(
 
Kathy, I think you nailed it!

I grew up on a farm, I was in 4H and other junior associations for as many years as I could be. From before I was born and generations before I came from a farming family, absolutely every piece of meat and vegetables that ever went on my plate were grown at home. We raised our 4H calves to be pets, knowing fair well that at the end of the year that they would be slaughtered, we cried every time because they were our "pets" as well but we grew up knowing the value and the sacrifice. I can remember at one of our cattle shows, where we showed our heifers (for anyone who doesn't know, those are the females, they are kept for years to produce calves) I had a really great animal rights activist come up to me and tear into me about how awful it was to keep these animals tied up, being one of the older members she targeted me and I'm glad she did because the conversation went as follows:
After her initial fit, I asked her if she had children, which she did; I asked her if she took those children to McDonalds at any time to eat, to which she responded "why, of course I do", I so nicely informed her that I could tell her exactly everything that went into my cattle, that they are only ever fed the absolute top quality feed available to them and that I would never think to feed them something I wouldn't eat myself. I told her that my cattle always had access to fresh clean water and properly balanced vitamins and minerals, which was far superior to the diet she fed her own children. I then asked her if her children were always bathed with the most expensive products on the market and had their hair blown dry each day, to which she responded, "of course not, have you ever tried to blow dry a child's hair" I told her no, but that I did bath my show cattle and blow dry them each time to ensure they didn't get sick from being cold and wet....the argument went on for quite some time about this detail or that, until she was exhausted by getting answers that made her question her motives and her own parenting skills I'm sure.

I too think that these people should spend a week or 2 on a farm, one that takes pride in what they do and cares about their animals.
I feel much the same way about the rodents we breed to feed to our snakes, they are fed excellent diets, not only to make sure they are living a good life while they are but to also make sure my snakes are being fed healthy feeders, I never feed off a sickly mouse, it is euthanized and disposed of. If my rodents coats start to look slightly dull I change up their feed or give them a little extra to get them looking great again. They are kept very clean and always have clean water in bottles rather than dishes which get contaminated in a hurry.

Personally I have the biggest problem culling the fuzzy mice that don't quite have their eyes open yet and a so soft and chubby, but because of my background I think I have a good grasp on the circle of life. Yes there are adults sometimes that I get attached to that have particularly sweet personalities and it sucks when the time comes to let them go, I either throw them quickly into one of my live feeders bins and leave the room for a few minutes or I have my husband take care of them for me because he doesn't get attached. Being compassionate means you're human :)

And yes I find feeding off mice MUCH easier than feeding off baby snakes with deformities.
 
There is nothing like the voice of experience to illustrate my point. If most kids in this country were raised as you were, I think we would have a much more realistic and compassionate society.
 
I loved 4H when I was in it! My friend convinced me to join for a while, she even let me show one of the baby meat goats, but I was too old for her group so I ended up joining with my neighbor to show her pony.

I had a pet blind chicken once, I had named her Peep and she followed me everywhere. She was delicious soup when her time came, but so thin my mum had to add a whole stick of butter! I really loved raising chickens, because it was fun to play with them and also fun to try to tell which one was which when we got them back from the butchers.

I grew up raising meat animals, but that has never helped with my hemophobia. I'm lucky if all I do is throw up at the sight of blood, sometimes I pass out. I found out the hard way when I was helping my grandpa gut some fish, I passed out and almost cut my hand open when I fell.

I also had the unfortunate opportunity to see a rabbit tear another rabbit's stomach open, my parents had been given a pet bunny from someone who didn't want it anymore and we put the "livestock" rabbits in a dog crate so they wouldn't harass the new one. Even though a friend was coming within an hour to butcher them, I went out to check on the bunnies before he came and the biggest one had torn the littlest open. :awcrap: I think that was worse for me than having raised them for meat.

My parents tried to push me to be independent and able to kill my own meat, but it just wasn't possible with my phobia. I honestly don't think I'll ever get to the point of being able to either, but I wish I could. I always wanted to get fresh venison.
 
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