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Is Frozen Rat Really Healthier Than Live?
One of Hong Kong breeder said that do not feed a live cause your snake will die. And always judge me feed a live. How annoying!?

Many long time snake keepers will say FT (frozen thawed) is best for many reasons.

1 A FT rodent can't bite and injure/kill your snake. There are many horror stories where feeder rodents seriously hurt and kill the snakes.

2 with FT you don't have to worry about what to do with a rejected live rodent. FTs that are not eaten can simply be disposed of if they go bad.

3 having been frozen will kill off some species of potential paracites that could harm your snake.

Hope this helps.

A
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>>Is Frozen Rat Really Healthier Than Live?

Many suppliers of frozen rodents pride themselves on very healthy rodents in terms of a good diet, which is great because the nutrients are passed to the snakes somewhat. So for that reason plus the convenience of stocking many feeders without having to take care of them makes for a very good arguement for using frozen food. But frozen rodents are not healthier because of freezing. If they are healthier, it is because they were raised on a better diet maybe.

I think by now we all know if the snake doesn't eat the prey item, remove the item. This arguement of rodents killing snakes is hogwash for anyone who monitors at feeding time.

Wild snakes eat all manner of young, old, sick, whatever prey they can get that fits their diet preferences.
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Mark

"This arguement of rodents killing snakes is hogwash for anyone who monitors at feeding time"

I strongly disagree with that. The simple reason being is that even if you are looking right AT the snake killing the rodent, the snake can easily get a bad grip on the rodent, and the rodent's mouth can then be free to bite the living tar out of the snakes body, mouth, eyes, etc... I have personally seen this countless times before in the past 44 years of owning snakes.

Unless a snake absolutely WILL NOT accept F/T'ed under any circumstances, why take the risk on the snake being harmed?. Not to mention all the other good points about convenience and parasite issues.

I DEFINITELY agree on never feeding a snake a live prey item un-attended unless it is very young and helpless. when I was a kid in the late 60's early 70's, I left a rodent in an Indigo's cage unattended, and when I came back, the entire tail from tip to cloaca was eaten down to the bare vertebrae!!. It was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen. Even with diligent medication, the 5 plus foot noble Indigo perished from it's massive injuries. And of course, I have seen many horrible maulings of other folk's snakes since then too...

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -Serpentine Specialties

What Doug said and more. What about the rodent why put an animal through that. I had a pair for burms and I fed F/T rabbits to them. I sure as heck would not feed them LIVE! I love animals. With F/T the suppler kills them humanly. And that's when they become snake food to me. Just my 2 cents
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Tom S
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I can't even feed live because I feel bad for the rodents. And I hate "cage hunting" when the prey is confined and can't run.

Was looking at this more objectively in my reply. F/T is more convenient, not healthier because its frozen.
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Mark

This arguement of rodents killing snakes is hogwash for anyone who monitors at feeding time.

I monitor my snakes at feeding time even though I use almost entirely F/T. Back when I bred rodents, I would kill them myself before offering them to avoid injuries.

I had a WC female Desert Sandboa that would refuse F/T. I tried all the standard tricks and finally just started offering her a live hopper. She ate it willingly. One day, she grabbed the rodent by the head and coiled around it. As she was coiling around it, it bit down on and severed part of her mandible (lower jaw). The snake's jaw never head correctly in spite of receiving veterinary care and the snake died a few weeks later from the infection.

I have also a kingsnake blinded by a single bite to the eye received during constriction.

So it isn't just the rodents that aren't eaten that pose a threat.

Wild snakes eat all manner of young, old, sick, whatever prey they can get that fits their diet preferences.

That's true. I have watched wild snakes peel patially decomposed roadkills off the road to eat.

And when you find wild snakes, they frequently have scars etc. received during feeding errors.

Wild snakes also have a shorter life expectancy overall compared to a captive snake that is properly fed (i.e not overfed).
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

>>One of Hong Kong breeder said that do not feed a live cause your snake will die.

That's a bit of an exaggeration.

It's possible but very rare for a live rodent to kill a snake, unless it's way too large.

However, old snakes that have been fed live rats their whole lives tend to be covered in scars and occasionally missing an eye. That's enough reason for me.
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

What the others have said so well. Another way of looking at this is in the wild neither the snake or rodent is confined to a cage and are free to move around or escape. The snake will ambush a rodent when the time is right. In a cage the rat is cornered and will fight for its life. Also in the wild sometimes when snakes take on various animals to eat, they don't always win or come out of the struggle unharmed. That is another reason snakes have so many ones born as in nature they are expendable. In captivity we may pay good money for certain snakes. We want them to look good and not be hurt, especially if kept as pets. Also much more convenient to keep frozen rodents.

If you mucst feed live rodents, kill the rodent right before feeding. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
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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

I used to do frozen, but I realized that there's another form of energy the snake gets from the mouse: life force.

And it gives the opportunity for one to feed the prey good stuff before feeding time.

I sort of worry about the prey biting the snake, that's why I crouch down and watch just in case the snake needs backup 0