Mark is absolutely correct in that you are what you eat. A very large percentage of the macro and micro nutrients a predator takes in are derived from the intestinal contents of the prey animal. This is true for virtually all predators in existence and relates back to the importance of the diets of the prey animals. He is also correct in that freezing has nothing to do with the quality of the feeder. That is determined by the quality of the living animal before it was frozen. It may have somewhat of an effect on the parasites within the feeder, but unless your freezer is extremely cold, freezing will have only minimal effect on the viability of parasite eggs within the prey animal. Additionally, it would be highly unusual for captive raised rodents to harbor parasite species that could use reptiles as an intermediate or primary host species.

Live prey animals are rarely the cause of serious damage to snakes, except when it comes to the rare cases of eye damage. In the ‘70’s with wild caught boa constrictors and in the early ‘80’s with wild caught blood pythons, I fed hundreds of live rats from juvenile to large adult size to these captive snakes. These snakes would only eat live and the bloods were uncommon then, rarely ever being bred in captivity at that time. It was not unusual for them to be bit on the body, neck, and head, by the feeder rats but I never saw any serious damage or anything that caused a permanent scar. However, I have seen snakes in other collections that had eye damage from prey bites. That to me is the main reason to avoid live prey if possible, not because of body and head bites, but because of potential eye damage and the ease of use of frozen feeder rodents.

Kelly

[ Show Entire Thread ]