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I went to a local reptile store thinking that would be my best place to find frozen feeder rats and when I inquired the lady said that they didn't "believe" in feeding frozen prey. I asked her why and she stated that they need the exercise of killing live prey and that they are warm blooded so they also should have warm, freshly killed prey. I asked her what she thought about the feeder rat injuring the snake and she stated that only happens because they are being fed prey that is too large for the snake to handle.

What is all of your opinions on this?

The lady is either a fool or has been misinformed about the animals in her care. But what do you expect from a pet store.
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Tosha

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Morph Evolutions
www.morphevolutions.com

I think it's typical of the stupidity you find when dealing with people who think they know more then they actually do. A snake can "hunt and kill" a f/t rat just the same as it can a rat that runs to a corner scared sits there for a few seconds before a hungry snake strikes and wraps. If you're worried about the snake not getting the "effect of the kill" feed f/t on tongs and wiggle the rat for a few seconds while the snake constricts. Works great.

As for snakes not striking bc the animal is too large.. that very well may be true in part, since I don't think a ball python is going to try and wrap a rabbit, but it definitely is far from being the only reason If your snake is full or going into shed or a million other reasons and it doesn't want to eat, size of the prey is meaningless.
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Morph Evolutions
www.morphevolutions.com

Yikes! You might be interested in reading this. It may or may not help you decide.

Feeding F/T

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I disagree with 2 points on the F/T list...

1) freezing, if anything preserves bacteria and other potential pathogens....it absolutely does not kill them. I work with various microoganisms on a daily basis and all of them are kept at -80C or -150 C for permanent storage and -20C for temporary storage. The colder it is the longer they last...

2) It is just as easy to inject a live rat with what ever medication after it is dead, but while the snake is still wrapping it. Therefor there is really no difference between medicating with a live of F/T animal.

Otherwise, that is a good list!
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

They need the "exercise" of killing live prey? As mentioned by morphevolutions, you can get your snake to strike and constrict a F/T prey item just by wiggling it with tongs. Exercise accomplished!
Snakes are not warm blooded, they are cold blooded. The true meanings of those terms (endotherm vs. ectotherm) doesn't even apply to whether or not the animal should have "warm, freshly killed prey". There's lots of "warm blooded" animals that eat things that have been dead for a long time. True, most reptiles kill their own prey and eat it immediately, but their digestive systems are not equipped to digest rotting food. F/T *is* freshly killed prey that just happens to be preserved through freezing. Since we can warm the prey back up, wa la, warm, freshly killed prey that won't hurt the thing eating it. I really doubt a snake with a full belly cares that it didn't actually do the killing of the prey all by itself.

I like Tosha's reply best - "the woman is either a fool or misinformed". Sums it up, really.

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.0.1 california kingsnake (tetris)
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
2.0 horses (Buddy and Sam)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

My neighbor worked exclusively with reptiles at the Saint Louis zoo. She said they feed live prey when it is smaller and fresh killed when the prey is bigger. She didn't have exact reasons to explain why they feed this way but I guess it's good enough for me.

She told me to make sure the prety doesn't bite the face or spine of the snake. I usually make sure that my snakes don't get bitten at all by locating the prey's head after constriction and moving it if needed.
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1.1 Normal Ball Pythons (Snakerton and Mathilda)
1.0 Het Albino Ball Python (Walter)
0.1 Albino Ball Python (Perrie)

We mainly feed live or p/k, i only feed frozen, if i froze the original animals or they came from a very close friend who froze them. We breed our own rats and when we have excess we sometimes freeze them, but i will not buy frozen from very many people. At least 50-60% of the frozen rats are from labs. And i just dont trust rats from the labs. I also know a lot of people that get these animlas from the labs in huge bags that sit outside for a few days before the rats are sorted through and re-frozen, i personally would never de-thaw and re-freeze so that is another reason why i dont feed f/t unless they are mine. I am not saying all f/t is bad by any means, but i have had snakes regurge in the past due to a bad f/t rat, and i have seen rats from labs with extended bellies or black bellies.
Just my personal opinion..

where do I get frozen...it makes me a little nervous knowing that some leave the rats b4 freezing. What is a reliable source?

Thanks again, all those posts definitely helped. I can't imagine someone who is supposed to specialize in reptiles telling someone that???