Thanks for your input, Ameron. I agree with much of what you said. The idea of feeding pre-killed mice/rats is definitely a choice of convenience for me because it's less expensive to buy them 1,000 at a time and just tuck them away in the extra freezer. Also, that is what my captive bred snakes were started on, so it's worked with this one exception. I would be willing to feed lizards to this snake but I really was concerned about parasites. You've shed more light on that subject though, and I'm glad to add that to my data bank.



There is another issue for me though, which is, I love lizards so I feel terrible buying them or catching them outdoors and giving them to my snake. Maybe it's a "girl thing" but I feel like I'm betraying them. It doesn't bother me that this occurs naturally between snake and lizard in the wild of course. I can hear you saying, "Get over it!"



My cages are pretty natural and I do interact daily with all of my reptiles (snakes and geckos) which is one reason I restrain myself from acquiring too many - I like to be able to relate to them as individuals and give each the time it needs in terms of cage care and for those that seem to welcome it, some one on one attention. I won't go so far as to say that they love me back )but they do know me, know my voice (the geckos), and they anticipate my visits, so I feel like they are generally content, and maybe a little happy )



Thanks again for your input. Good ideas. April

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