I feed live and have been for around 16 years. I feed approx: 5,000 times a year (not counting pinkies to babiy snakes). I have fed f/t a few times out of necessity but 99% of the time I feed live. No, I don't throw a live mouse in the cage and leave them unattended. I wack the mouse as I put it into the snake's cage. I have never had a "biting" accident in 16 years. I feed mostly mice products and some of my snakes feed on small rats as well. I only have colubrids, no large exotics.



I have had a lot of people who buy snakes from me ask if I power-feed and my response is NO. They ask why are my baby/yearling snakes bigger than others? I feed once a week and with mostly one item a week. But I do feed live. I will feed females more during certain times of the year (after coming out of brumation & after egg laying). I do not feed large items to snakes. I feed them items that can go down easily.



I also believe that we feed our captive-bred snakes WAY TOO MUCH as compared to wild snakes. "Skinny" wild snakes do great in their environment! LOL



Now, I don't have official stats on frozen items, but here are some facts:



Frozen-thawed rodents ARE NOT as fresh as live. Do they loose nutrition, YES. Is that loss significant??? I do not know. I hunt and fish a lot. Fresh fish (straight into the skillet taste WAY BETTER than frozen-thawed). Same for meat. A fresh slice of venison off a hanging deer taste WAY BETTER than one I take out of the freezer. Go to your butcher ( a real butcher, not a grocery store meat guy) and ask.............



Also, once an animal is dead (ie, mouse). It starts to decay IMMEDIATELY. For example: Your rodent supplier will put down lots of rodents at one time. Once THAT mouse is dead it starts to decay. How long from the time it died until it gets into the freezer????? How long do you think it takes for a mouse to freeze? If you freeze a mouse by itself, not in a bag, about 8-10 hours. If you freeze a bag full of mice together, about 24 hours, with the ones in the middle - about 48 hours. In the meantime, that mouse is decaying. Some of your frozen mice that you bought have beed dead for 48 hours before frozen. Then, once you get these frozen mice from your supplier, you put them into your freezer. You take one out to thaw, guess what starts to happen then - yes, the decaying process starts up again (actually with our freezers, it never stops, just slows down). Then depending upon how long you let that mouse thaw before feeding, then how long until the snake eats that item, then how many posts have you seen about people asking if they can re-freeze an uneaten mouse, to take it out again and start the process over again?



Once an item is put into the freezer it starts to loose moisture, THAT IS A FACT. All the liquids in a mouse start to dissipate when frozen. The colder the freezer temps the quicker the dissemination of moisture from your rodent. You can see this on areas of the mouse that have less circulation and protection (feet & nose & tail). Obviously pinkies have less insulation than hairy mice and you can see this affect there as well. This is the technique used in Freeze-dry taxidermy (sucking out all of the moisture). Those freezers are set colder than your common household freezer, but it shows how it works. For example in Freeze-dry taxidermy, a squirrel that weighs 2 lbs will be put into the freezeer and weighed every day. The weight will drastically drop right away and will level out about after 7- 10 days. Over 50%! At that time, 99.9% of the moisture (all fluids) IS GONE from the animal. Moisture in the veins, moisture in the bones, & moisture in the meat - GONE! This process is the SAME THING THAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR FROZEN RODENTS - FACT. Just not in 7-10 days.



I raise my own rodents, about 2,000 mice and rats/month. I feed live because that is my choice. My live rodents are fresher than frozen-thawed, THAT IS A FACT! Is it enough to make a difference.......... your choice.......... It may not make a difference.



Feeding live DOES NOT CAUSE HARM to your snake if you feed responsibly. (Sounds like a commercial LOL)



I have no gripe with people that feed f/t, I do have a gripe with people who put down feeding live.



Mice, it's whats for dinner!



Kerby...

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