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Live vs. dead feeding

B

Billinms

New member
My snake is still young and being fed pinkies, so I feed them live. Is it really a bad idea to feed live when larger mice are needed? I've read that there is some risk of injury, which I obviuosly don't want, but it seems that live mice would be much more natural.
 
live mice would be much more natural, but do you think a cage is? and in nature what do you think the death rate of snakes is? i am not saying dont feed live, it is just that if you do you should watch him very closly, i just like Frozen thaw, it is easy, just warm um up and put it with them in a feeding container and walk away.
 
Mites and parasites are natural too...

You, as being a pet owner, have the responsibility to decide which "natural" factors you provide for your pet. Idealy, a long, healthy, happy life should be the goal a pet owner should strive for. Removing/limiting any unnecessary health hazards is the first step in that direction.

Now with that being said, im not saying feeding live is bad. Im just saying as a pet owner, the argument of "it happens in nature" and "its natural" can have devestating effects on a pet.

BTW... welcome to the forums. It is, hands down, the best place to find corn snake info.
 
Yes it natural, but the main concern is the safety of the snake and yes a pinky will do no harm but it better to switch them over to f/t as soon as possable. But frozen/thaw are convent for most here because you can feed whenever and you don't have a live mouse if the snake refuses to eat .

Good Luck :cheers:
 
Lennycorn said:
But frozen/thaw are convent for most here because you can feed whenever and you don't have a live mouse if the snake refuses to eat .

Good Luck :cheers:
Click to expand...

My neighbor has a Ball Python that eats several mice a week, so I'm sure an extra mouse won't be a problem.
 
Billinms said:
My neighbor has a Ball Python that eats several mice a week, so I'm sure an extra mouse won't be a problem.
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Ok cool, but is that why you will still feed live?
 
Lennycorn said:
Ok cool, but is that why you will still feed live?
Click to expand...

No, and I probably won't feed live once he graduates past pinkies. I was just seeking advice, seeing what most people do. I've also read that feeding live makes snakes more aggressive, which I definitely don't want.
 
i usually feed my snakes (live) but i keep a really close eye on them so that the risk of my snake being injured is reduced. I havent had any problems with this so far. Not saying i wont have problems, because anything can happen at any time. But ill cross that bridge IF i get there. hopefully i dont. But i would say feed your snake how ever you choose, and if you want to feed live (there are risks involved) just make sure that if the snake isnt interested in eating at the moment to remove the mouse/rat so that it does not try to fight or eat your snake. I have seen pictures of this and it is not pretty. i cant find the link to the picture for the life of me, so maybe some one else knows were to find a picture of this happening. On the aggressive thing, i believe this to be a myth. (MY OPINION). But i do believe you should put your snake in a box, tupperware(sp.?)container, or something like that when feeding, that way when you want to reach into the cage the snake wont associate your hand with food.

p.s. This is how i feed my snakes and is just my opinion, as i am not a snake expert, other snake owners may do it differently which is ok too. I hope i didnt bore you to death with my reply. And have a good day/night.
 
Cycal said:
Im just saying as a pet owner, the argument of "it happens in nature" and "its natural" can have devestating effects on a pet.
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I completely concur. I know someone on another forum who will not feed his snakes on a regular schedule because "that's not the way it happens in nature". He throws anywhere from one to five mice in with his snakes at completely regular intervals. Furthermore, he claims that regular feeding is actually detrimental to the snake's health.

Back on topic, I have never fed a live mouse to any one of my snakes. The risks involved in feeding live are just not worth it to me.
 
BeckyG said:
I completely concur. I know someone on another forum who will not feed his snakes on a regular schedule because "that's not the way it happens in nature". He throws anywhere from one to five mice in with his snakes at completely regular intervals. Furthermore, he claims that regular feeding is actually detrimental to the snake's health.

Back on topic, I have never fed a live mouse to any one of my snakes. The risks involved in feeding live are just not worth it to me.
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Hummmmmm.. I would think that out in the wild that, besides pinkys to fuzzy, that the mice would scatter after one was tag by a snake.
But that's just me.
 
I don't know if any of you have seen the episode on Animal planet on snakes where they were studying the strike patterns of venomous species, but one of the snakes was tagged pretty good by a rodent that wasn't struck at hard enough. It happened in less than a second and I guarantee, I don't care how closely you watch, you would not be fast enough to prevent a bad bite. I suspect that you couldn't even stop a fast strike even if you wanted to from your snake. Your reactions aren't that fast. There are some snakes out there that won't eat f/t, but most will and reducing the chance of bites or bacteria from contaminated live mice is reason enough for me to continue feeding f/t.
 
Lennycorn said:
Hummmmmm.. I would think that out in the wild that, besides pinkys to fuzzy, that the mice would scatter after one was tag by a snake.
But that's just me.
Click to expand...

This is true, but the issue I was bring up was that this guy feels scheduled feeding is wrong. He claims it has detrimental effects on bone structure. How many new snake owners now feel they've harmed their snakes by feeding every Saturday? Or whatever day?

I've also seen this same guy terrify the wits out of newbies by telling them their snakes will die if they don't brumate them.

Speaking if terrifying, I once saw picture of a ball python that was killed by a live rat that had been left in his tank. Scared me off of live feeding.
 
Sometimes a corn won't accept f/t, or even pre-stunned/killed. Even a snake that has regularly accepted f/t may go off them from time to time. I had one that wouldn't eat anything except a naturally-moving, live mouse (tried hemostats on pre-killed several times). Then one day she just started eating dry-thawed f/t. I have one now that demands moving, live mice after eating f/t for months. He shed, and that was it. Tried everything for three weeks, then I gave in. He took the live mouse in an instant. I'd prefer to use all f/t, but sometimes these guys don't cooperate. :shrugs:
 
BeckyG said:
This is true, but the issue I was bring up was that this guy feels scheduled feeding is wrong. He claims it has detrimental effects on bone structure. How many new snake owners now feel they've harmed their snakes by feeding every Saturday? Or whatever day?

I've also seen this same guy terrify the wits out of newbies by telling them their snakes will die if they don't brumate them.

Speaking if terrifying, I once saw picture of a ball python that was killed by a live rat that had been left in his tank. Scared me off of live feeding.
Click to expand...

Wow, I like to read on how he supports that claim.
With brunting, all you can do is state facts to your views that this is not true and ask him to do the same. He sounds a little "off " to me.
And I agree with Roy, once in a while you got to do what you got to do.
One member here has stated that, even if you feed live and watch like a hawk that the snake can still get bitten but what are you going to do????
 
ok i can answer this with bad past experience. i always fed my little girl live pinky's. she takes them down as a little lunch. so one day I got a fuzzy and fed it to her. she took that one down within about 30min or so. so then i got a box of them that had 6 of them. (frozen) they looked a little bigger than the other one. i put it in there wiggled it around til she bit it. I went to take a shower and eat etc. then when i went to bed i found a sloberd on fuzzy in the corner.

so all i got to say to you is make sure she really can take one on!
 
feeding live is ok, i do not recomend it.My corn will only eat live,i would try feeding frozen/thawed first,or stunning is also ok,i have seen some preaty ugly things in pixs from feeding live. You may want to try feeding him from the hand if your using live.
 
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