>>Do you find FT feeders feed better and more consistently than live feeders?
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>>Jay A. Martin
>>Jay Martin Reptiles

I have had enough 'accidents' from live food given under supervised conditions over the years that I long ago stopped using live food unless forced to. Had a 15 year old bp die from a mouse nipping him while he was constricting the mouse...have had that kind of thing happen without problems with other snakes, but that particular incident .... the minor bite led to an unforseen systemic blood infection and the snake was dead 3 days later. Had a black rat snake come pretty close to being dead after a mouse got to him. Having learned the lesson from the BP a few years earlier, this snake was prescribed antibiotics for 2 weeks by the vet asap. The systemic infection he suffered caused him to ultimately loose a few good size chunks of flesh long various parts of his body where the infection settled along and gangrene had set in. The quickness of getting the snake on antibiotics was probably the only thing that saved his life and took 6 months to fully recover from the effects of the infection. Had a burmese that got a good chunk of it's upper gum ripped out by a rat. The snake had a perfect kill on that rat and yet that rat was still able to either rip the gum by tooth or claw so fast it wasn't seen. Only realized afterwards once the snake ate the rat that his mouth was leaking blood. Again, a good course of antibiotics was given. No infection set in thankfully. That 1 death and 2 close calls were enough for me to just switch everyone over to F/T from there on out. I stopped giving live unless I really had a problem with a snake switching, but eventually everyone switched over.

I've taken in 2 bp rescues in the last couple years that supposedly would "only eat live mice" according to the respective owners. One snake was a 10 year old pet I took in 3 years ago (kids had gone off to college and father was moving cross country and didn't want it with him). The other one I took in this past May & was told had been purchased from a pet store back in 2001 making it 5 years old but I would say is really little more than a year old from its size. I have a feeling on that 2nd snake the kid bought it without parent's knowledge and got busted for it and told to get rid of it fast lol. Anyways, being told that they were live mouse eaters that "refused rats" I expected them to give me some trouble. However, to my surprise both snakes took F/T without so much as blink of an eye. The older snake is actually addicted to rats, but will take F/T mice if that's all I have and she will give me dirty looks the whole time and snubb me for a couple days afterwards. There was only one time that she turned down a meal since I have had her and that was because she was within 2 weeks of laying a clutch of infertile eggs. I haven't tried F/T mice on the newer bp as of yet so don't know if he'd be as accomodating to food switches in times of need....but he's certainly proven consistant when it comes to food. The baby is a downright bottomless gut. If I were to offer him a rat every day he would slurp them up lol.

The only thing that hasn't been 100% consistant with feedings of F/T is how the snakes want the food presented to them. Sometimes they feel the urge to attack the food and constrict it like it were alive while other times they are just lazy and take the food and swallow immediately...their mood shifts from week to week regarding that lol.
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PHWyvern

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