Posted by:
toshamc
at Sat Jul 23 12:47:57 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by toshamc ]
Ok paralizing a rodent so that your snake doesn't have to hunt it down or whatever the reason - aside from being just plain cruel to the rodent - it's a bad idea - an injured animal will fight twice as hard as one with all its faculties. Either feed it live or feed it pre killed or frozen thawed. If you prekill and are quick enough you can get a couple of really good enticing twitches out of the rodent but it's not going to wake up and fight back.
I personally know of two incidents (and another was just posted here a couple of weeks ago) involving stunning the rodent before feeding and in all three cases the snakes ended up eating the animal alive and the rodent woke up and tried to claw it's way out. I have one girl that I got through a rescue that has been rehabbing from a wicked rat bite to her chin - everything was going well but the rats final struggle was just enough for those incisors to go right through the snakes chin, so much so that the vet had to remove the rodent from the snake. Luckily she's a ok now she has a mass under her chin but we've gotten her back to eating well - yes she takes f/t and won't even consider anything moving around her cage.
Accidents happen when feeding live and even to the most careful keeper - that is why I prefer switching to f/t for the safety of my animals. But I do realize that it is a preference only and some animals will only eat live. Feed whatever you prefer - feeding prekilled food does not take away any of the snakes natural instincts - my most aggressive feeders eat f/t ! Oh yeah - and if hunting down it's prey is your snakes only form of excercise then, well, I feel sorry for your snake.
Just my two cents.
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Tosha 
"One of these days i am going to wake up..look around...and realize my place looks more like "Ace Venturas"s than my own." Coldthumb
7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope John Paul "JP"
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.1 lizard rescued from vicious feline
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Throwing my 2 cents in here to ... - toshamc, Sat Jul 23 12:47:57 2005