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The Live vs F/T feeder Poll!

what do you use, with what results and do you still use it?

  • F/T only since the day i got my corn-happy, healthy, never changeing

    Votes: 62 71.3%

  • F/T- intermediate trouble takeing food, but i manage

    Votes: 1 1.1%

  • F/T- for a little while, then refused, switched to live-liked it but makes me nervous

    Votes: 2 2.3%

  • live killed- loves it, do this the most

    Votes: 5 5.7%

  • Live, its natural and my corn responds better and is happier

    Votes: 7 8.0%

  • Live, tried it and scared my corn, went back to F/T

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Live, hurt my corn, never went back

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Live, killed my corn, will never do it again

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • special case, describe in post

    Votes: 10 11.5%
  • Total voters
    87
I actually lost a snake, due to a mouse "attack"!! The mouse bit my snake, and it blead to death, before i could treat the wound. Im a vet, and it was extremely hard on me... I know it's my fault, I had everything necessary to fix him, but i wasnt fast enough... I have most definitely learned from my tragic experience! I honestly hope you will too!
 
I voted special case. I raise my own rodents and I will do whatever is easiest at the moment. Sometimes I am short in the rodent house so I feed all F/T. Sometimes I am short in the freezer and they all get pre-killed. None of my corns get live though. The corns are always easy/eager feeders so there is no reason to do anything else. I have a couple of BP's that will get a "stunned" rodent if they havent eaten in a couple weeks. My burm gets F/T. Rainbow boa gets F/T or pre-killed.
 
People who feed live don't bother me but it is inconvenient as hell when I had to do it! I want to just reach in my freezer, thaw some rodents and serve. Not drive to the pet store every week just to get dirty looks from the snake-hating employees and pay $3.50 each time. That adds up too! It's not cheap...
 
When my collection went over 10 snakes I decided it might be a good idea to raise my own feeders. When I got to 20 snakes I had to move the rodents to a dedicated shed in the yard. Now I am at about 30 snakes. I am now in full out breeder status with the rodents. 10+ breeding colonies of mice and 6 breeding colonies of rats. Plus a mouse grow out tank and a rat grow out tank. We just had 3 rat mothers give birth to 46 babies in one colony!
 
My ball pythons were on live feeds, but only because they were technically owned by my ex-girlfriend and she refused to switch. I hated it. Now that I'm home in BC and have my own snakes, they are on F/T.
 
My corns have eaten FT and Live. I usually stick with FT but if the pet shop is out of them when there is no reptile show in the near future I'll go to the mom and pop pet shop by me and get live for them to eat.

However my ball python will only accept live. I've been working with her to get her switched to FT this way all my snakes will then be eating FT and I'll be able to stock up much better. Now that most of my snakes are up to a similar size and feeding schedule.
 
I feed F/T myself, but if my snakes wouldn't eat F/T, I wouls feed live. BUT I would rather feed multiple pinkie mice, rats, or rabbits than any older prey (if I had to feed live) So that injury to my snakes was not a concern.

I have a customer who used to feed live a long time ago, he lost a snake to live prey and now only feeds live to a couple of his snakes who (at the moment) won't take anything else. But he stuns anything bigger than a fuzzy. And will also take an entire litter of lrg rabbit pinks (from netherland rabbits) to feed one snake live with no danger.
 
I like both

I'm a new snake owner and I'm feeding f/t. but I would like to feed a live once in a while just for the nutrition factor. freezing anything breaks down cells after a while. plus with live the snake will get any vitamins and minerals that the rodent had eaten recently. but like I said I'm still new to all this and not an expert by any means.
 
lambert6921 said:
I'm a new snake owner and I'm feeding f/t. but I would like to feed a live once in a while just for the nutrition factor. freezing anything breaks down cells after a while. plus with live the snake will get any vitamins and minerals that the rodent had eaten recently. but like I said I'm still new to all this and not an expert by any means.
Click to expand...

IMO, you could get everything you're saying in a fresh-killed prey item without any danger to your snake. Mice willl fight for thier lives, it was a mouse that killed my buddies corn a long time back.
 
I feed F/T only. It's also helpful with a shy feeder because it's significantly safer to leave a dead mouse overnight than a live one. :p
 
Farmgirl said:
IMO, you could get everything you're saying in a fresh-killed prey item without any danger to your snake. Mice willl fight for thier lives, it was a mouse that killed my buddies corn a long time back.
Click to expand...

I will defenitly do that with any thing bigger than a pinkie. I was just referring to anything that hasn't been frozen. but while I'm here cuz I have yet had to do how is the best way to pre-kill?
 
depends on the size. fuzzies can be killed with a firm, strong flick to the back of the head, it snaps the neck. Anything bigger you can either a) put them in a strong bag, and whack them on a hard surface, get some good momentum going in your swing so they die instantly, or b) lay them on a surface, put a straight edged object over the back of thier necks and pull the hind end up quickly and firmly to snap thier necks (some people pull up by the tail, I find this a hit or miss method, I grab onto the whole back end in front of the hind legs to get a good grip.)
 
oh yeah and hubby just puts on a pair of good gloves, grabs them by the head and flicks them like a pen that's running low on ink. he does this with the adult and jumbo rats and anything rabbit from weanling up. I have never seen him do this, but he says they die instantly.
 
Thanks farmgirl I'll keep this in mind when the time comes. All I could think of was a hammer, and didn't like the idea thaught it would be to messy. thanks
 
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