Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know some people argue its not safe or humane to feed live mice to your reptiles. The thing is my male and female dragon will not eat frozen mice, even if I don't feed them for 4-5 days, trust me I have been trying to get them to one for over half a year. So today I bought a small live mouse and decided to see if they would take one. I was worried about my draongs getting bit by the mouse, so I decided to snip its teeth off and quickly offer it to my female. Supprisingly she didn't hesitate at all and she violently snatched up that mouse asap! Whatever pain that mouse was in after loosing its teeth was over in ten seconds after it found itself in the jaws of my female dragon

Heres a few pics, I guess I'll have to post a few new threads to post multiple pics, I'm not sure of any other way to do it, haven't figured it out yet.

another pic...

and another pic...

how old is she. and whats her name. she looks healthy and happy to me. congrats with the first mouse =)

Her name is Rowdy, cuz thats exactly what she is And she is approx. 2 years old, about 24" long and nearing 1 pound in overall weight! She has always been the healthiest of my pair, shes never not once been sick before, however my male dragon is always finding away to hurt himself, curious little [bleep] he is

As for snipping the teeth, I just used a small pair of cloth scissors. The mouse was small, and the teeth weren't but an eighth inch long and very easy to snip off. I guess its not something everyone could do, it was kinda cruel looking, but hey, it was gonna die anyways. The mouse may bleed a little, one of them did, one didn't, I guess it depends how much teeth you snip off.

LK,

Nice pics, and nice Dragon...
How did you snip the teeth off??? I'm interested, since none of my babies will eat anything already dead...
Thanks,

~ El__Quijote

I know you said you trimmed the teeth, how did you do this? And why didnt you just buy pinky mice or un-opened eyed fluffs to feed to them as they will not attack the lizard.

I also feed live every now and then but I've never harmed the mouse before it is offered that is cruel.

Gazza

As much as I love animals, I'm not the type thats squimish or the type that thinks every sinlge animal is super precious and deserves the same respect a human gets. Its a freaking mouse, and it was dead 10 seconds later. How did it suffer? So what if it felt pain for a few seconds, did it really matter? Where do you draw the line, is it wrong to swat at mosquitos? Kill a bee that stings you, step on an ant? I personally don't have any feelings for the common house mouse, if I caught one in my house raiding my garbage, I wouldn't hesitate crushing its skull with my foot, but thats just me. Guess I'm just a cruel guy.

There is a huge difference between a mouse's capacity for feeling pain and a mosquito's, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. As for not being "squeamish" about cutting a mouth's teeth out, well thats just sick, maybe that is something you should look into. If this is the way in which you regard animals, perhaps they should not be in your care.

I don't find it inhumane to feed a mouse to your animal, because that's nature, it's what happens and your animal is benefiting from it. But cutting off its teeth i think crossed the line. It may be 'just' a mouse, but no matter what form it's in, it's another life. And that mouse went through pain as you pulled out its teeth, it was more than ten seconds, I really doubt you pulled out all its teeth in one pull. When you kill a mosquito, it's dead immdediately, there is no pain felt. Just think about someone pulling out all your teeth and not caring. It's still a life! Even if it's small. I'm the same way with spiders too, lol, I put them outside, or any other bug. Just because it has more than two legs and isn't your size, doesn't make pain OK.
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Julie