Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have heard all opinions on the subject of feeding live or dead. So I was wondering from anyones personel exsperience has feeding dead made a snake less agressive? I know it eliminates the risk of injury to the snake which is reason enough to do it but if the snake is a wild caught animal, why not just feed a live food animal, like one of such size that the snake can easily kill it quickly?

to feed a snake live food items. You've heard all the opinions and now you're going to figure a rodent size that won't harm the snake. If your desire to feed a live food item to your snake is greater than feeding dead, than go with what your desire tells you. It's your snake so you can feed it how you want to. I'm sorry, but you haven't made one point to support throwing in a live food item for your snake to kill and eat outside of your personal desire and I don't agree with that. I have alot of snakes. It takes alot of time to drop a food item into each enclosure. I don't stop and don't have the time to see if the snake is going to go after the rodent. I don't have time to thump the rodent. My adults eat medium and large rats. A live rat could injure me just as well as the snake. As far as aggression changes with feeding live vs. dead, I personally haven't determined if a behavior change is strictly associated with live or dead food items. Some might think that if you get a w/c and get it switched over to thawed/frozen that they notice a behavior change where the snake becomes more docile. I would think you would measure or get a measurement related to aggression by opening the enlcosure and going in and picking the snake up and handling it. A w/c snake will have a behavior change because it's now in a captive environment and is being handled.

>>I have heard all opinions on the subject of feeding live or dead. So I was wondering from anyones personel exsperience has feeding dead made a snake less agressive? I know it eliminates the risk of injury to the snake which is reason enough to do it but if the snake is a wild caught animal, why not just feed a live food animal, like one of such size that the snake can easily kill it quickly?

>>
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Jimmy (draybar)

One reason Kathy Love states is that captives seldom get the "exercise" that they need when they lay around in a rubbermaid container all day, with nowhere to go and no stimuli. Just striking and constricting a mouse exerts a fair amount of energy. Notice how much more muscle tone there is on a w/c compared to a c/b rat. I can tell if an animal is w/c as soon as I hold it...well, I'm usually right! I believe that if you have a snake you can watch, it is quite safe to feed them live prey. Ratsnakes can dispatch a mouse amazingly well IF they are hungry. Adult rats are another story. I've seen firsthand what they can do to a snake (and my hand!)
Now I am almost playing Devil's advocate here, I have over twenty snakes and nothing eats live but hatchlings until they will switch over. So I'm not suggesting it. But if you have a small number of snakes, I think it's a safe practice if you can keep your eye on things. And if the snake doesn't eat, at least you don't have to throw away a thawed mouse, I do that more often than I'd like!
And as for taming the animal down more quickly, I have never seen a bit of evidence supporting that. Even though it would make sense...

If you want your snake to strike and constrict, you can always feed off hemostats and pull back when then strike. This is about the same excersise as them eating a tiny rodent that couldn't hurt them. My black rat pretends all his food is alive anyway, but i realize they don't all do that.
I think snakes actually get more aggressive when I feed them dead because they associate me that much more closely with consuming the prey item. But that's not a reason not to do it. I just probably shouldn't feed them all in their cages like that .

Once upon a time, in a fairy-tail-like household with two people who both loved snakes, there was a beautiful boa. This boa was nice and healthy, and about 7' long. She was spectacular!!

One day, the lady who brought food opened the cage and dropped in a live rat - not too big, not too small it was just the right size. The lady stayed right there by the cage, just in case something awful happened, so she could help stop it.

The hungry boa immediately grabbed the rat, and began to restrict. Unfortunately, the rat was very scared, and turned around and bit the beautiful boa right through the head.

The end.

PS - the lady cried and cried, because she thought standing "right there" would help her snake. After she buried the snake, she never, ever fed live food again to healthy, eating reptiles.
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Bonnie Keller
VA Reptile Rescue
www.vareptilerescue.org

Like that is gonna help in that split second when the rodent bites. By that theory we humans are so fast we should never get bitten by rodents......geesh I hate that. So, you will be standing there watching it hurt or kill your animal. Thanks for the story Bonnie.
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Sonya

Sorry to hear that tale. Please note I did neither suggest feeding live, nor fail to differentiate between mice and rats. As I said, I don't feed live myself. I do respect Kathy Love as much as anyone in the herp community and understand that she feeds live mice and her reasons for doing so. I personally prefer feeding dead almost as much out of respect for the mouse as the snake!

Bonnie,
I'm sorry to hear you went through that experience! I hope that others will learn from it without dealing with the same consequences. In the wild, it probably happens more than we think. Lions get kicked to death by zebras, being a predator is not the easiest of lives. We owe it to our captive creatures to prevent accidental deaths if we can. We control their environment and should keep them safe. I feel the same way every time someone tells me their cat or dog has been hit by a car. A preventable accident, cars belong on roads not cats or dogs. I've kept snakes and lizards for 15 years and am so glad I switched to f/t prey. I kept a small (8ft) Retic for a friend years ago and even though she was a brute- I still killed rats before I left them with her. I did try stunning them for a while, but once the rat came to and started fighting for it's life, the snake was in real danger. I know some snakes won't accept anything but live prey. That's truely their nature, but it's not a fair fight in a cage where neither the prey nor the predator can rethink their strategy.
I'll get off my soapbox now...
Lora