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I hope this live feeding law is only for vertabrate to vertabrate. I am not looking forward to knocking 1,000 crickets on the head each month.
 
peterjohnson64 said:
I hope this live feeding law is only for vertabrate to vertabrate. I am not looking forward to knocking 1,000 crickets on the head each month.

It's not that hard Pete, I get my beardies or ackies to crunch them in their mouth for me before ingesting them....... :shock: :lol: :lol:
 
another point is that wild dogs eat meat, yet we feed our pet dogs on buiscuts. Your pets will adjust to the dead rodent even if you have to brain it and wriggle it to look alive.
 
Can I say something in defense of both sides of this issue please.....
Yes they do naturally hunt,but the situation is different when a snake and a prey item are put in a small area together such as enclosure or feed tub...Matt sent a lovely picture in and I do not think that this is what happened to that snake while a owner was sitting there..I do think who ever owened that reptile had left the rodent in the enclosure for a period of time without monitoring the two..and that is stupid..However if a handler has no choice but to feed live then they should stay and monitor the whole time incase injury does occure to the snake or prevent it from happening......

I am not for or against feeding live..I think that ppl who think it is exciting to watch the kill have issues...But if it is something that I would have to do I would think nothing of it...Everything has to eat and why is it so bad for a snake to kill a meal ? We do the difference is we shoot it or cut its throat after our dogs get hold of it and ppl do it as a sport...As I said this is something I would only do if I had no choice and I would do this in a responsible manner...But I do not do this and hope I do not run into a time when I will have to again as I have in the past....Sorry if I have offended any one I think its a silly argument and to say its not humane..Common..
I do not in any way allow owners to feed live prey to there herps if they do not have to......If this is something that has to be done donk it first and do not leave the feeding area...
 
I had a customer tell me that she fed a live rat to a snake of hers once and the snake died. She had an autopsy done on it to reveal the rodent was rotting inside the snake. Why would this happen? Rat mighta been too big for the snake to digest or what?

All my repti-customers prefer using the frozen food. I have had a customer who have had snakes that wouldn't eat frozen food. But they bought a product called MOUSE MAKER. It stinks like hell but the idea was to give the dead food a live smell and he reckons it works wonders. I've sold 2 of these and both customers returned with positive feedback. But one of them was already on frozen food anyway. So I'm not sure of their purpose of using this. Maybe worth a thought.
Kathy :)
 
Maybe there was not enough heat for it to be digested...
 
Mysnakeau said:
I had a customer tell me that she fed a live rat to a snake of hers once and the snake died. She had an autopsy done on it to reveal the rodent was rotting inside the snake. Why would this happen? Rat mighta been too big for the snake to digest or what?
A snake that hasn't digested it's food to the point where the item is literally rotting inside it suggets to me that it's metabolism is slow for some reason. More likely than not the animal was kept too cold during and after feeding and since it wasn't burning up energy through excercise or warmth it's been unable to digest correctly. Generally speaking if items are too large for consumption then they just don't swallow them.
 
hey i was just arguing about this subject before on msn
before you flame me i was on the side of against feeding live

EDIT:
sorry i just gotta right this here as i cant tel him direct as i am blocked :)

there is no excuse for live feeding, if you snake will not take defrosted food try fresh killed and if not you can assist feed or as a very last resort force feed make sure you get shown by an experienced keeper before ever attempting on your own

or you could just feed live pinky's whether it be mice, rats or rabbits, and if its a big scrubby you better get breeding :p

thanks for reading my ........ (insert apropriate word)

Daniel
 
Had a little childreni and I got lazy and gave him a live mouse. The mouse wasn't overly happy about being bitten and squeezed so he bit back. The childrenirefused to eat for the next eleven and a half months. The sooner you can get your critters onto dead food the better. Rodents can make a real mess of reptiles (see Matt's photo)
But on the other hand, if I get bitten buy a mouse prior to euthenising it, Oh yes, it gets introduced to the Inland Taipans :shock: At least it's quick.
 
Lurk said:
Can I say something in defense of both sides of this issue ...Matt sent a lovely picture in and I do not think that this is what happened to that snake while a owner was sitting there..I do think who ever owened that reptile had left the rodent in the enclosure for a period of time without monitoring the two..and that is stupid

I wrote previously:

No that isnt my animal, its a ball python that was left with a live rodent over night.


Granted the image i showed to some degree was ment to shock, while the damage to the python was over a extended period, its very possible for a rodent to kill a python in a matter of seconds.

The Inland Tiapan has some of the most toxic Venom in the world, and its for a reason!
Matt

(Edited for: spelling)
 
I think this has been a really good post for all those people that maybe need a push in the right direction.
 
The majority of Aussie pythons are ambush hunters, with the rest actively searching for prey. No matter which way a wild python comes across it's prey, the attack is planned.

In captivity a python keeper will nudge his/her python from sleep and then drop a rodent into the enclosure, as the snake drousely uncoils. NOTHING is planned and both animals need to do some very quick thinking. At such a time a snake can grab the rodent, but with poor judgement and end up grabbing the rodent on it's rump. This allows the rodent to turn and sink those nasty incisors into the snake and a bite in the right place can kill a snake.

I have never believed it necessary to feed live prey and there are even published accounts of pythons taking roadkill, so i dont think any python needs it's prey to be alive. Hasn't anyone ever heard of stunning rodents. Just give them a wack thats not of the full impact needed to kill it and this will stun the animal so it's not aware of it's surroundings, but it still moves. Do this if your absolutely desperate, but PERSISTANCE is the word and it's usually only the experienced keepers that have it.

I hear so many keepers say that their snake will only take live prey, and it's almost always newbies that say this because i believe that they lack the patience needed to wean snakes onto dead prey, so they just go straight for live. Some keepers have tried to get their snakes to take dead prey and in the end they have asked me to try. The snake is kept with me for a week and in that time the animal excepts it's dead meal with glee. This is only because my style of keeping was different and better suited the snake, thus it was happier and so it fed on dead!!

Naturalist Harry Frauca once wrote "Environment influences behaviour". Words to live by as far as i'm concerned and are so very true when it comes to reptile keeping. I believe you can get any snake to take dead prey, you just need to provide it with an environment that best suits the individual. Many keepers don't. Instead they believe that what works for one snake will work for all, and therein lies the problem concerning live/dead feeding.
 
Personally, I wouldn't want to risk any animals life by doing something unnecessary and stupid.

I'll feed frozen. And if need be freshly killed. But I won't ever feed any of my animals live prey. Its unnecessary and dangerous.

JM2CW.
 
hey i was just arguing about this subject before on msn
before you flame me i was on the side of against feeding live

EDIT:
sorry i just gotta right this here as i cant tel him direct as i am blocked

there is no excuse for live feeding, if you snake will not take defrosted food try fresh killed and if not you can assist feed or as a very last resort force feed make sure you get shown by an experienced keeper before ever attempting on your own

or you could just feed live pinky's whether it be mice, rats or rabbits, and if its a big scrubby you better get breeding

thanks for reading my ........ (insert apropriate word)

Daniel

Ok first of all i didnt block you. Second of all you didn't even listen to what i have said. If a snake will not eat thawed, i will try fresh killed then live, i do not believe on force feeding unless under certin circumstances. What if the snake just doesnt want to eat? Its just like me offering you food, you saying no, then my shoving it down you throat making you eat it.
 
hahah kane you not the only person i talk to on msn :roll: i wasnt talking about you in that post

and i dont like force feeding ethier i said use as a very last resort and this would be obviously when the snake starts to become unhealthy from not eating and after you have tried everything else besides live feeding :) if done properly force feeding has very little affect and is surely better than taking a risk that your snake gets chewed up

live feeding is like me chucking you into a pen with a cow and then sending you in to get your own steak lol
but worse as at least you know what your in for when you tap your snake n then through a rat in gives it even less chance

have great night :D
 
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