Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the blonde pastel girl we got from Alice Cobb back in OCt 08'... she's doing great alice and she loves to eat as shown here in this video... but look at this strike!!

I think I kinda startled her by just throwing the rat in... but it's pretty crazy to see how she wrapped it up!

I would like to add that this video is a couple months old... but I was going thru some vids and thought I'd share this one...

This video should be removed not only from KS but from youtube. I see nothing funny about this, yes snakes eat rats but to not only video tape it but to have one die a slow death like this should not be shown.
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FireBall Reptiles

I agree with the previous response before mine. That video is hard to watch. I know that is how snakes catch their prey in the wild, but that is really too much. To watch that rat suffer is not something every one wants to see. It is a gorgeous snake though.

Chrissy
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1.0 Ball Python-Siegfried
1.0 BRB-Pedro
1.0 Blair's Phase GrayBanded Kingsnake-Elvis
0.1 Paradox Albino Sand Boa-Cleo
2.2 Dodoma's
0.1 pug mix

I 100% agree with Chrissy and fireball.

>>I 100% agree with Chrissy and fireball.
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Charles Glaspie
picasaweb.google.com/coldthumb

Rats are a "pest" disease spreading animal and snakes are one of their predators, friends of "man".....

Nature is a beautiful thing and may seem "terrible" to some people, that's a harsh reality from our point of view but that rat suffered less then any poison you buy at home depot,

I hope you where not traumatized by the video.....LOL....
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

perhaps goldfish or algae eaters are for you.

I have seen countless kills on TV of big cats and other animals...that suffered more then that "poor" rat...

There is nothing wrong with posting that video...unless you support Peta I guess....limited point of view
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

First time I've ever seen "nature" in a Rubbermaid.

ROFL.

We are keeping wild animals in a captive environment and they display the qualities they posses in nature.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Tree huggers are with us, we should keep it mild so not to offend .

I'm a total tree hugger...Left of Lennon, if you will. Not offended by ANYTHING though. Why be afraid of the REAL WORLD? Waste of time and energy...and ya just sound like a damn baby. Haha.

If I really thought this video would have caused such grief I really wouldn't have posted it... Especially after posting it on a site where the average member feeds enough live or frozen rodents to where feelings for the rodent shouldn't come into play... however...

Me personally... I think rats are disgusting creatures and I feel I'm doing the world a favor by feeding as many as my snakes will eat!! That is only how I personally feel, but I'm confident there are others who feel the same way...

I was just enjoying some cannibal corpse "hammer smash face" and figured I'd tape a feeding one night and happened to have captured this crazy strike and figured I'd share it others only to demonstrate how incredibly impressive and sometimes weird a snake can just grab it's prey and constrict. It's no differen't then when someone posts a couple feeding pics or when you see snakes eat on an episode of snakebites TV.

I was only thinking more of an educational view of how a python can grab it's prey... with a little more of a sound enhancing twist!

I apologize to all I may have offended, but to everyone else I hope you enjoyed! = )

If people are bothered by watching a video of a snake capturing its prey they should not watch. The title of the post indicates what is going to happen so they can't be suprised.

The interesting thing is that these people are the ball python forum so they must have pythons. I wonder what they are feeding them if not rats and mice?

Are you kidding me?! What forum is this? Didn't realize there were vegetarian ball pythons now. This is retarded. What do you backwards sissies feed your own snakes?! I'm just like astonished that ANYONE who keeps snakes could be "offended" by this. I watched that vid while I ate my own lunch. ?????

>>I'm just like astonished that ANYONE who keeps snakes could be "offended" by this. I watched that vid while I ate my own lunch. ?????

Your bad, your bad...and anyone not considering "domestic" rats not a pest is short sighted, they are a "conntrolled pest" and if liberated would become a pest in nature.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

I admit I didn't watch the video. So my only comment is this - IMO it's disturbing when people glorify the killing and feeding of animals and putting it in an entertaining format. I don't know why people find it entertaining - so much so they make videos and put it music - makes me wonder if those same people would find it as entertaining to watch their own food get killed and processed or if it's just that they live the hunt and kill process vicariously through their snakes? Like I said I didn't watch the video so I don't know if it fall under the glorification aspect or not - but when more and more kids are out there killing things cause they "want to know what it's like to kill stuff" I find this behavior on the disturbing side. Anyway - it's food for thought.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

First time I've ever seen "nature" in a Rubbermaid. - Jeff Favelle

How is that any different than what National Geographic does? They film lots of animals catching prey and put music to it all the time. Sometimes the music is sad sounding and lots of people say "aww, thats so sad, that lion is eating the baby zebra" or "that old wildebeest didn't make it across the water and the evil crocodile killed it" Then they may film a penguin soring through the water and catch a mouthful of fish and have an fast paced orchestra music playing. I really don't see much difference.

It's not like he took a hammer, cranked up the cc and smashed the rat while filmng it. He fed his snake while listening to music.

I for one feed almost exclusively live and those that aren't offered live are prekilled. I have more than once adopted a rat/mouse because it had an either desired color/pattern or a personality. With that said I have never nor will I ever gain pleasure when I prekill a rat/mouse or when one of my snakes kill one. I also hunt and fish and find it just as satisfying spending the day on the water or in a tree observing wildlife as I do when I take an animal. There is a reason that the hunting industry does not show poorly hit animals or the dieing moments on TV. NEITHER SHOULD WE. It does portray us in a negative light especially when the anti-snake keeping people show this with the title "when it grows up this can be your child". Everyone else won't know or care that it's a ball python that will only get 4-5ft long, they will just care it's a python and have the picture of their child suffering like that rat. If you don't care what others think of our hobby, I don't want to hear you complain when they ban it!!!!
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Josh & Krysty Hutto

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

If you did something wrong or against the T.O.S. your post/video would have been removed. If poeple dont like it, they shouldnt watch, or they should join a web-site that doesnt allow such posts. You posted it and the people who are complaining probably watched it as much or more than others. There are people who would delude themselves as a means of feeling better, to think that the frozen-thawed rats they feed their snakes died humanely...HA! What a joke! Like a rat being stuck in a container and having CO2 pumped in until its lungs cannot get another molecule of air no matter how hard they slap against the inside of the rats rib cage, while its eyeballs potrude from their sockets from the blood its pounding heart is desperately pumping through its veins in a fruitless attempt to continue to let the rats body live. All this until the rat slowly sufficates while gasping for its last breath? Frozen thawed is as bad or maybe far worse...

My opinion is that rats are vermin and feeding my snake is the best contribution they can make to the world.

Carry on mate, dont fret the egalitarian fruitties...

Maybe you should switch to tropical fish...wait they are predators too...perhaps "knitting" is for you...do you know how many people have died because of rats ? me either...but I bet less people have died because of snakes....Nature is suffering from a thin skinned human perspective!!
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

fleas on rats cause almost half of europe to die to the black plague.
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nice vid of a formidable predator at work!!!
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

I don't mind the video actually.
Nice snake, weird strike.

Kinda weird to me that a bunch of snakes owners are complaining about a snake doing what it does.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

My thoughts exactly! My gosh. Do some of you not watch your animals eat? Good grief!

I personally don't see anything wrong with this video. Scenes like that one are played everyday in countless snake collections all over the world, as well as in the wild. All snake keepers know that snakes are predators and that they kill other animals. That's nature's way. You can look the other way and pretend that your snake is not a killer, but that doesn't change the way things are. The only other option would be to feed the snake a pre-killed rat, but that would mean having to kill the rat yourself...asphyxiating it, breaking its spine, hitting it on the head...Any way you look at it, the rat has to die, either the snake kills it or you do it. (or maybe someone else so you don't see it, so it doesn't offend your sensibility)
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Neutiquam erro. Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.

and noone has any idea how they kill them prekilled rats. Maybe they throw them in a freezer to slowly freeze up. Maybe they slam them on the ground. Maybe they play hacky sack with them. who knows.
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We all know how snakes eat, I think all feeding videos are distasteful, just my opinion.

I have no problem feeding rodents as they are the key to survival for all of my snakes.

I do not think captive bred rats are pests or will kill half of europe.
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FireBall Reptiles

Agreed.

These rats are captive bred in large numbers for the purpose of feeding to snakes or as pets. They're not pests if they're being intentionally bred for a purpose...

Feeding videos can be neat - I have one of my monitor disemboweling his prekilled mouse, and it's freaking sweet to see someone you know on a video feeding an animal notorious for being hard to start in captivity. (Have you ever seen a mangrove snake eat a small rat? It's kind of awesome.) Not so sweet to see a burm take out a live bunny and hear it screaming.

This one may or may not have been in poor taste. Maybe a different angle next time so the more delicate among us don't have to see the rat gasping for breath? Sucks for the rat either way. The point isn't that it's terrible to be feeding the snake a rat, it's just that most of us would prefer not to see the face of it slowly suffocating. If you like watching things slowly die, that's your call. I clicked it figuring I'd see a pretty pastel nail and constrict a rat, not necessarily looking for the "oh, I can see its face while it dies."

In any case, beautiful snake. Obviously well cared for with an excellent feeding response.

~jen
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)

captive bred rats are a "controlled" pest and if they could establish themselves in the wild, they would be the "same" as their wild counterparts.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

I would have to say that a shorter vid might be more appropriate. Maybe just showing how the pastel grabs it and wraps it up, but I don't think we need to see it expire. I guarantee you that everyone would take your word for it. The music was crap and very distracting..if you even want to call that music....You probably could have used some halloween horror music or something to make it a little lighter to the viewer. I love rats, but I love my balls more, so that is what I HAVE to feed them. I feed live, so I do see some unfortunate slow deaths sometimes. I watch, and say a little silent prayer for the poor thing.

I say we can agree to disagree on this particular subject I will admit i had to feed a ball python that i no longer have live prey once and it just isn't something that i felt comfortable with. That may make me a "sissie" or "girly",but my father taught me to be humane in whatever way i can towards animals, even ones that are meant to be food for my snakes. All in all, i do love to watch my snakes eat and i find it fascinating, it's just my own personal preference that the feeder be prekilled before the snake takes it. I respect all that feed live,and their opinions, but there is a right way to offer live prey to an animal, and a wrong way that might result in injury or death to the snake. Okay, i think i'm done babbling now, but i hope you get my point and respect mine and others feelings on this subject=)

Chrissy

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1.0 Ball Python-Siegfried
1.0 BRB-Pedro
1.0 Blair's Phase GrayBanded Kingsnake-Elvis
0.1 Paradox Albino Sand Boa-Cleo
2.2 Dodoma's
0.1 pug mix

While many snake owners like to watch their pets strike, constrict and kill their prey, I must caution you that I lost a very beloved animal this way. When I saw your snake grab a foot and begin to constrict, it brought back similar images of my snake doing the same thing. Only in my case the rat tried to defend itself by sinking a deep bite into the snake. This bite broke a blood vessel and within a week the snake was dead. I NEVER feed live food anymore unless it is a fuzzy or smaller. I'd hate to see you lose that beautiful animal over a $2. rat. Don't mean to preach, but I feel you should be cautioned about that feeding technique. Dave.

Thats why you stun the vermin rat before you feed it to your snake. Grab the tail and whack its head on thed table...many, many do it. Dont lie either, you know who you are, and I would say it is a mojority.

Rather than use a table which can get messy, I have a little souvenier wooden bat, maybe 18 inches long that works perfect for a quick stun. U just cant risk losing your snake to a rodent.

We all know and understand that wild rats are pests, and kill off large numbers of crop, spread disease, etc. It's the same old song and dance. We don't feed them off for that factor. These rats are here for sustenance to provide to our animals. It is our responsibility.

Personally, I feed live. Whether you feed live, frozen/thawed, pre-killed, etc. That is your decision. What strikes most is the lack of maturity and respect. Maturity and respect for the animals being fed off is what will represent our hobby best. Everyone knows our animals are predators. They understand our animals feed on other animals in order to continue on. What makes us look unprofessional and immature are videos like this. Those rodents are also sold as pets to others, and although most do not feel like rodents should be pets, and that they're nothing more than feeders.. you're still disrespecting them, and making it out like we are out for blood, we get our jollies off by watching other animals die, or we lack the maturity to keep our animals properly... and the reason we keep them is the thrill of watching them kill.

That does not float well through main stream media. It does not represent us well through a respectable point of view through congress. It makes us look like nothing more than kids. Not the professionals, herpetologists, and experienced breeders we are attempting to show ourselves as.

All I see this doing is dumping another drum of fuel over that big fire they're using to end our hobby.

If you want to help our hobby, and promote it... this is not the correct way to do it. This is a shove backwards.
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Andrew H.

>>We all know and understand that wild rats are pests, and kill off large numbers of crop, spread disease, etc. It's the same old song and dance. We don't feed them off for that factor. These rats are here for sustenance to provide to our animals. It is our responsibility.
>>
>>Personally, I feed live. Whether you feed live, frozen/thawed, pre-killed, etc. That is your decision. What strikes most is the lack of maturity and respect. Maturity and respect for the animals being fed off is what will represent our hobby best. Everyone knows our animals are predators. They understand our animals feed on other animals in order to continue on. What makes us look unprofessional and immature are videos like this. Those rodents are also sold as pets to others, and although most do not feel like rodents should be pets, and that they're nothing more than feeders.. you're still disrespecting them, and making it out like we are out for blood, we get our jollies off by watching other animals die, or we lack the maturity to keep our animals properly... and the reason we keep them is the thrill of watching them kill.
>>
>>That does not float well through main stream media. It does not represent us well through a respectable point of view through congress. It makes us look like nothing more than kids. Not the professionals, herpetologists, and experienced breeders we are attempting to show ourselves as.
>>
>>All I see this doing is dumping another drum of fuel over that big fire they're using to end our hobby.
>>
>>If you want to help our hobby, and promote it... this is not the correct way to do it. This is a shove backwards.
>>-----
>>Andrew H.
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Charles Glaspie
picasaweb.google.com/coldthumb

some people just dont get it.
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Proud supporter of USARK and Kingsnake.com
“We stand together or we fall apart”

Kyle
www.royalvariations.com

"be safe, be happy and dont let anyone make you afraid"
David Coverdale

>>We all know and understand that wild rats are pests, and kill off large numbers of crop, spread disease, etc. It's the same old song and dance. We don't feed them off for that factor. These rats are here for sustenance to provide to our animals. It is our responsibility.
>>
>>Personally, I feed live. Whether you feed live, frozen/thawed, pre-killed, etc. That is your decision. What strikes most is the lack of maturity and respect. Maturity and respect for the animals being fed off is what will represent our hobby best. Everyone knows our animals are predators. They understand our animals feed on other animals in order to continue on. What makes us look unprofessional and immature are videos like this. Those rodents are also sold as pets to others, and although most do not feel like rodents should be pets, and that they're nothing more than feeders.. you're still disrespecting them, and making it out like we are out for blood, we get our jollies off by watching other animals die, or we lack the maturity to keep our animals properly... and the reason we keep them is the thrill of watching them kill.
>>
>>That does not float well through main stream media. It does not represent us well through a respectable point of view through congress. It makes us look like nothing more than kids. Not the professionals, herpetologists, and experienced breeders we are attempting to show ourselves as.
>>
>>All I see this doing is dumping another drum of fuel over that big fire they're using to end our hobby.
>>
>>If you want to help our hobby, and promote it... this is not the correct way to do it. This is a shove backwards.
>>-----
>>Andrew H.
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___________________________
www.RoyalGemReptiles.com

It's sad cause I don't like to see a rats or any animal or anything suffer. I think the rat still deserve the right to be killed the right way with the less suffering as possible.

I feed frozen as much as I can, from someone I know who killed them the right way.

There is also other way to feed live. If you could at least use tongs and not throw the rat in the bins that way. At least it's less dangerous for the snake.

Looks at 8ball python video on this matter ! I think it's the right way to feed live, kinda like feeding FT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9jqKCdAB8

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love this world, don't hate it.

How would you rather the rat die? Blunt force trama? Gas chamber? Freezer? Or by the clutch of a snake, the way it happens in nature. Snakes that miss or make poor, off-target strikes might not be around to pass on their genes in the wild. In a way, that is natures way of ensuring that only the healthiest, most fit snakes survive to pass on their genes. In captivity, we change those survival rates. I don't think the rat suffered any more than a cricket would being eaten by a spider.

sure i feed almost my entire collection live. but that doesn't mean i still don't have any feelings for what's being feed. i personally don't like to see animals suffer.

but my animals need to eat so i do what i have to do. showing that rat suffer was distasteful in my opinion.

sure a rat is a rat.....but that rat is a living thing, that does have feelings and can feel pain. i really don't see any point in showing that rat dieing.

and for the person that continues to post and make it seem like it's ok.....you obviously show your ignorance towards life....regardless of what it is.

if reincarnation is true...hope you don't come back to life as a rat......

Pitoon
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www.UnitedHerps.com

well there is no such thing as reincarnation, and there is nothing wrong with how a snake kills it's prey, and IMO that rat did not suffer much. Nor do I enjoy what you call it's suffering.

That the way it is....
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

well there is no such thing as reincarnation, and there is nothing wrong with how a snake kills it's prey, and IMO that rat did not suffer much. Nor do I enjoy what you call it's suffering.

the rat suffered regardless....and i never said it was wrong how a snake kills their prey. but showing a clip and adding music to the clip proves what? shows what? explains what?.......i'll tell you......nothing but a rat being squeezed to death gasping for air.

maybe your religion does not believe in reincarnation...which is fine...however it still shows your ignorance towards life and why the hobby is the way it is now.....and possibly humanity?

Pitoon

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www.UnitedHerps.com

I didn't see it the way you did and didn't pay any attention to the music played, just noticed a snake subduing it's prey and everything that goes along with it.

Now you are blaming me for all the problems with the hobby and HUMANITY as well....ya you have figured it ALL OUT!!!
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

"nothing but a rat being squeezed to death gasping for air"

yep and every time they gasp... the snake tightens it's grip and they gasp again and then they tighten their grip, well unless you are talking big snakes, they squeeze so hard they just kill their prey faster.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

I didn't see it the way you did and didn't pay any attention to the music played, just noticed a snake subduing it's prey and everything that goes along with it.

Now you are blaming me for all the problems with the hobby and HUMANITY as well....ya you have figured it ALL OUT!!!

______________________________________________________________

of course you didn't see it the way i did...you are you and i am i. you probably didn't noticed the music because...maybe your eyes were focused on the small rat dieing & gasping for air.

i am not blaming you for anything......just bringing to the light that you obviously show or have no respect for life. it happens only once for everything that lives...and for YOU to say that it's only a rat....yes it's a rat, but it's dieing for YOU to keep a snake alive in your home that should be out in the wild.

if you can't have respect for that rat that allows you to keep your "pet" then maybe you should stop and think about it.

the world is the way it is because people don't have respect, nor can careless. it's a shame that humanity has gotten to this point.

Pitoon
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www.UnitedHerps.com

>>I didn't see it the way you did and didn't pay any attention to the music played, just noticed a snake subduing it's prey and everything that goes along with it.
>>
>>Now you are blaming me for all the problems with the hobby and HUMANITY as well....ya you have figured it ALL OUT!!!
>>
>>______________________________________________________________
>>
>>of course you didn't see it the way i did...you are you and i am i. you probably didn't noticed the music because...maybe your eyes were focused on the small rat dieing & gasping for air.
>>
>>i am not blaming you for anything......just bringing to the light that you obviously show or have no respect for life. it happens only once for everything that lives...and for YOU to say that it's only a rat....yes it's a rat, but it's dieing for YOU to keep a snake alive in your home that should be out in the wild.
>>
>>if you can't have respect for that rat that allows you to keep your "pet" then maybe you should stop and think about it.
>>
>>the world is the way it is because people don't have respect, nor can careless. it's a shame that humanity has gotten to this point.
>>
>>Pitoon
>>-----
>>www.UnitedHerps.com

Actually didn't care for the music as I do not like almost ALL the music posted with snake vids, never said I have no respect for the rat that your quick judgment indicates because you have it all figured out, but in the food chain..... a snake is higher then a rat, it's the circle of life.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

>>>>I didn't see it the way you did and didn't pay any attention to the music played, just noticed a snake subduing it's prey and everything that goes along with it.
>>>>
>>>>Now you are blaming me for all the problems with the hobby and HUMANITY as well....ya you have figured it ALL OUT!!!
>>>>
>>>>______________________________________________________________
>>>>
>>>>of course you didn't see it the way i did...you are you and i am i. you probably didn't noticed the music because...maybe your eyes were focused on the small rat dieing & gasping for air.
>>>>
>>>>i am not blaming you for anything......just bringing to the light that you obviously show or have no respect for life. it happens only once for everything that lives...and for YOU to say that it's only a rat....yes it's a rat, but it's dieing for YOU to keep a snake alive in your home that should be out in the wild.
>>>>
>>>>if you can't have respect for that rat that allows you to keep your "pet" then maybe you should stop and think about it.
>>>>
>>>>the world is the way it is because people don't have respect, nor can careless. it's a shame that humanity has gotten to this point.
>>>>
>>>>Pitoon
>>>>-----
>>>>www.UnitedHerps.com
>>
>>
>>
>>Actually didn't care for the music as I do not like almost ALL the music posted with snake vids, never said I have no respect for the rat that your quick judgment indicates because you have it all figured out, but in the food chain..... a snake is higher then a rat, it's the circle of life.
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>>Thanks,
>>
>>Frank Roberts

I also kill lot's of flies and a mosquito to day as well.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Well said. Its so funny because all of the people saying "its just a stupid rat" are the SAME people that'd be crying bloody murder if it was a video of someone suffocating a Ball Python because they thought it was vermin (which many people do by the way)....

ROFL

who called it a stupid rat ?
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Not really a fair comparison there. Certainly I would cry foul if I saw someone suffocating a ball python just because they did not like snakes. However, I would also cry foul if I saw someone suffocating a rat just because they did not like it. What the video showed, however, was a predator, not a person, subduing its prey. If the tables were turned and the video showed a snake being subdued by a predator that would be ok, too. It is what predators do....they subdue and eat prey.

I film and record every single one of my feedings.
Why? Because it facinates me.

I post all my videos on youtube.

Many people call me sick and twisted, a f*** face, mean, inhumane, death threats... I love em all, because something so natural bothers them so.
All my videos play to Bach or Mozart.

How would you feel if that was you? people ask...
Well my simple answer is...
Then I would not be an appex predator, and would not be on the top of the food chain... and would be forced to accept I may become food for a larger animals.
Cobras eat snakes, do I have a problem if they fed a ball python to it? NOPE because predation is natural.

In 2 months I have over 15k views of my videos. Obviously other people are interested in this part of nature as well.

Now lets talk about that Chicken you ate last night?
How about the cage it was forced to live in?
What about the way the babies are treated?
Wanna talk about humane? talk about another species, sapiens are monsters!

I have no idea what your talking about...but anywho...

I streamed one of my Jaguar Carpets eating a rabbit a while back. Got TONS of viewers. It was great. Regularily still gets tons of hits, although not as much as the live event.

Methinks you are confused as to what was and wasn't being argued here.

But oh well.

Dude, quit while you're...well, you're not ahead, but whatever. Just quit. Might need a new hobby too, cause your grasp on this one seems to be very sketchy.

Mightybd, right on! I've been watching constrictors eat since I was like 6 years old, so I'm not impressed enough anymore to videotape it, but I totally concur with your philosophy.

Ok dude. Like totally. Fer sure.

ROFL.

How would you react if I was using my foot to kill a snake ? What if that snake was yours ?

I would have received tons and tons of email probably. It's kinda the samething, sometime a live all need respect, from the little spider in the corner of your room to the big giant tree in Amazonian forest. Doesn't mean it can be used for food for others etc... otherwise I wouldn't be eating anything. Just that there is always a way to kill without too much suffer on the other end. When that's possible, that's the way it should be done, nothing else.
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love this world, don't hate it.

...as to speak for the original poster (whom I do not know). I think most people reacting are missing the actual intent of the post. It does not seem to me that the intent of the post is to glorify a rat suffering but, rather, to show a snake subduing it's prey in an unusual way.

Could the video have been edited to show just the strike/subdue sequence? Sure. Could the music have been different? Sure, however, I don't think the music was put there as a soundtrack. I think it just happened to be what he was listening to while he fed his snakes (not my taste but, whatever).

I care for all animals, not just snakes, and don't like to see animals suffer any more than the next person. In fact, when I do need to feed live or euthanize a prey item prior to feeding I usually say a little prayer asking for forgiveness for killing an animal. The bottom line, however, is the snake did what snakes do and if you want to care for snakes that is part of it.

I feed F/T as much as possible but please make no mistake, those rats in your freezer went through just as much suffering as the rat in that video before they were packaged neatly and sent to you. If you have never seen a rat gassed; they gasp for air, turn in circles, stumble and fall. The process takes just about as long as it did for the snake in the video to kill the rat. Just something to think about.

Rob

Thank you that's the way I saw it.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Really? We wouldn't have guessed by the 400 replies of you saying the same thing over and over...

ROFL.

That's 14 now and it's called forum participation
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Trolling/participation.....potato/potatoe.....

>>Trolling/participation.....potato/potatoe.....

Trolling lol...well I have been trolling here for years then.

And have contributed more reptile related info over the years posting here then you ever will.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

ROFL...what are you 5? Who says that?

Too funny.

>>ROFL...what are you 5? Who says that?
>>
>>Too funny.

you are calling me a troll which means I contribute no valuable information to the site and am here to simply start trouble.

SO I SAID THAT!!!! You must be a teenager I suppose.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts

Looks like PETA needs to start passin the plate round the ball forums...
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06
0.2 h albino
07
0.1 dh snow
0.2 leticia
1.1 triple het
0.1 albino h snow
08
2.1 hypo hog
0.1 sunset
1.0 ghost
0.1 arabesque dh stripe alb
1.1 h type 2 anery
0.1 pastel motley
0.1 leticia
1.0 hypo ph bloody sharp
0.2 ph bloody sharp
1.0 h blood
0.1 sunglow poss super
1.2 anery h snow
0.2 albino h snow
1.1 50% guyana h albino
0.1 triple het
0.1 ghost h albino
1.0 jungle h anery ph albino
0.1 pastel het albino
09
1.1 dh blizzard
0.1 h albino
0.1 jungle h albino
1.0 motley h albino ph snow
1.0 albino h snow
1.0 anery h snow
1.1 hypo dh stripe albino
and 25 balls

That's not cool at all, watching the animal suffer for pleasure is not in good taste. Do yourself a favor for the both animals sakes and feed frozen/thawed. Their was nothing cool about watching the rodent gasp for air and struggling to survive.

Let me just say this...

I'm well aware that prekilled or F/T is much safer for the snake and of course less dramatic but I have some snakes that will only take a live animal with a pulse...

Some will take anything! But some won't... But that's also ball pythons for you... they are so finicky!

I in no way intended to offend as many people as I did after posting the video.... I only wanted to share how crazy these snakes can grab their prey... I was merely impressed with how she managed to have done what she did with the type of constricting she did holding the rat by the tail....

-Steven Kelley

I think this is the ball python forum *checks*, yep definitely is the ball python forum..for a minute there, thought I was in 'Rats as Pets' forum over at www.exotichobbyist.com.

Snakes eat rodents and though they kill fast, its not death in .000001 seconds. There is nothing wrong with the video, I have seen far worse 'feeding' videos on YouTube. Nor is there anything wrong with this video and others like it in the snake forums. The only thing I suggest for future videos of this type, is add in the post that the video may be disturbing to some...or indicate it does show live prey being fed to a snake/lizard. This way posters can decide if they want to watch the video and if they do and they find it offensive, then its their own fault for not heeding the warning.

Life is sacred but the world revolves around the cycle of life. All life feeds upon other life, no matter what part of the food chain you are on. And there is plenty of life that feeds on death as well.

Me personally I think rats are great pets, far more intelligent and responsive than half the 'toy dogs' I have encountered over the years and far cuter than any toy dogs (most looks just stupid to me, or at best, rat like). What put rats far above toy dogs in my book, is they are far less nippy and don't bark. I love dogs of just about every 'group' except the toy group.

I also breed my own rats to produce food for my snakes. I feed pre-killed and frozen thawed most of the time but I have a few ball pythons who won't eat anything but live. I only feed live because its either that or watch the snake slowly starve to death. Far less cruel to feed the snake what he will eat, causing maybe half a minute of suffering for the rat, than months of suffering to the snake by never giving it anything other than prey it won't eat.
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PHLdyPayne

subjectively, the music, the lol in the title thread, etc, can be debated from both sides.

but if you were a 70 year old legislator in florida, ignorant of the ball python community, and someone brought this video into your office and said "this is what we're fighting against", we'd have one less lawmaker on our side.

I doubt the guy would even know there was such a thing as frozen rats sold for the consumption of reptiles though either...

The "LOL" wasn't about the rat dying... it was about how funny it was that she grabbed it by the tail... Kinda like when someone makes a post about eating the rat from the "Butt end" first...

I'm sure the congressman would probably say...

"well it's a snake eating a rat and that's what snakes do..."

I'm sure he doesn't think they eat fruits and vegetables or puppy kibble... and he might not like the music but what 70yr old do you know that listens to anything remotely close to cannibal corpse?

You are a beast feeding that poor snake. I despise that that rat had to die to feed that snake. It made me so sick that video, I almost gagged the 28th time I watched it...

You beast!

lol

Perhaps one night this will awaken you? if it does, please post the video. LOL?

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Proud supporter of USARK and Kingsnake.com
“We stand together or we fall apart”

Kyle
www.royalvariations.com

"be safe, be happy and dont let anyone make you afraid"
David Coverdale