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Live mice or frozen mice??

U

Ursula

New member
Me and my mother are in this huge argument on what tame snakes eat.

I think they eat frozen (well, thawed.. but.. they are not alive)
mice unless they are wild? And then if they don't eat thawed they may want lizards or something or other. She says ADULT snakes ALL eat live mice.. is that true? I don't think it is.. but I'd like to be corrected. I think it's just whatever the snake likes.

I did look around on care sheets and stuff but never saw anything.. all I hear about is fuzzies. :D
 
Corn snakes in the wild do eat live mice and lizards as well as birds and eggs etc. In captivity, a majority of snake owners try to feed their corns frozen/thawed mice as their is less danger to the snake.

A live mouse, if the snake is not hungry, can do considerable harm to a snake, and even if the snake is hungry a retaliating mouse can scratch a snakes eyes etc. Of course their are those picky snakes out there, who have to at least be started with live pinkie (newborn) mice, but most people will eventually try to switch over to frozen/thawed.
 
So it pry depends on the snake. :)

I wonder what the % of tame snakes do eat live mice.. (and reversed)
 
I have 43 snakes. Out of those 43, I have one adult that refuses frozen/thawed, and I have one 2003 baby that I still have to feed live to (she will eat F/T hamsters, but not mice...weird snake!). I always offer F/T first hoping they will take them. When they don't eat that, then I give them live.

So only 5% of mine insist on having live prey and 95% will eat F/T.

It is safer for the snake to feed F/T.
 
As far as I know there are three main reasons stated by keepers for feeding frozen/thawed:

1) Removes risk of injury to the snake since rodent teeth can inflict painful and even fatal injuries.

2) The freeze/thaw cycle kills a number of parasites so should these parasites be in the mouse it removes the chance that they could be passed on to the snake. Of course, this isn't a problem if you are buying clean halthy mice from a reputable breeder.

3) Feeding live needs an agressive response from the snake to kill its food before it eats it. A number of keepers would rather not encourage aggression in a captive animal.

Of course, getting a mouse out of a bag in the freezer is a lot easier than buying or raising your own live mice too.

SKye
 
I am currently feeding live but I'm going to buy a pack of fifty pinks tomorrow. The biggest reason I would suggest getting f/t is the price. At Petland I'm paying 'bout $1.70 for a live pink. At the supplier I'm buying from, it's about 17 cents a mouse. That's like 10 times saving. If you want to feed live, I would stun the mouse first.
 
I feed f/t mostly because I don't want to risk the parasites, I even boil my snakes water to make sure nothing is in it. Might seem odd but I boil all the water in my fish tank too. These pets are my babys and I don't want to risk there health. ( I don't boil my son's water)
 
I feed f/t also. It's much easier, and my aztec is not an aggressive feeder at all and would probably be taken to the cleaners by a live mouse if it didn't scare the proverbial pants off her first. She's quite shy! I like the idea of having less chance of parasites, and of course, no bites.
 
I have a couple corns right now and generally feed them by hand. One of them though has just recently started to refuse to eat out of my hand and will only eat if I put him and the mouse/rat in a container and leave them alone. Is this normal?
 
A corn will eat anything it can get ahold of in the wild. Neonates normally east small anoles and other lizards, as there normally aren't pinkies falling from the skies. Tame corns are the same. Corns are pigs. If they're hungry, they'll eat it, although some exceptions do apply to picky eaters. In captivity corns should be fed frozen (thawed) mice as it seriously helps to avoid injury from an angry rat or mouse. Neonates don't really apply because I've never heard of a pinkie bite before.
 
I started with frozen but my snakes refused them after awhile so I desided to breed my own mice and found it cheaper in the long run. Then I had to get rid of them due to moving in with my girlfriend. My snakes only take live now go figure.
 
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