Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What are your reasons?
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Jay...while I maintain my adults entirely on forzen/thawed, I have always found thawing to be a serious pain and time consumer. Feeding live would be so much quicker. If I had local access to live rats at a reasonable price, I would switch in a second.

I raise my own rodents.
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RicK @ BbI

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>>I raise my own rodents.

This is why you prefer to feed live? Why not freeze them and feed F/T?
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Great idea!!!! I should have thought of that. Thanks.
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RicK @ BbI

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time saving.

my picky eaters will take them more often ensuring more feedings.

no wasted food items from refused meals.

I feed all my boas, corns, and kings P/K, but the majority of my balls get live.

I prefer to have them eat live on a regular basis than to eat a P/K sporatically.

TomChambers

we feed 50/50 because we are trying to switch to f/t totaly so for now they get 1 live that i thunk on the head 1 f/t.
our boas get f/t

brian n chrissy

and id rather the snake kill it than me.......

I own a total of eight snakes, so it's simple enough to feed live and not risk damage to the herps. I give em ten or fifteen minutes and if they don't take I try again in a few days. In fifteen years of keeping reptiles I''ve had one rat bite and it was superficial. Healed up in a few days. And the rat didn't live to talk about it .

Quig

In no particular order:

1) My snakes have a "killer" feeding response, I'm not messing with that.

2) I don't like to handle dead stuff - and thawing it seems gross too LOL!

3) Thawing out 100 food items then having to tease many of my snakes into eating them sounds time consuming.

4) With live there is no waste - if the rodent is not eaten, it goes back to the rack.

5) B/C I raise my rodents myself, I can pick exactly the size food item I want from my rack.

6) Live rats are cute!

7) Rats in the freezer...ugh...no thanks.

8) I think stalking and killing the rodent provides a certain amount of mental and physical stimulation to the snake that is good for its wellbeing.

9) As far as pre-killing rodents I have raised myself, I have determined the snake is a much more efficient executioner than I am.

Yes live rats are cute. That is why we have 2 as pets now. They were food but chrissy fell in love with them.

brian n chrissy

Looks like everyone has summed it up nicely!!

Jason

i had the same problem with my rats, and a hamster, the hamster is safe, but the rats are soon to be on the menu, time to switch breeding females, besides i recently got a siamese male rat, so ill try to produce some rat morphs and make a few extra dollars, and if they dont sell, well they meet the same fate as they would have anyway.
i prefer fk, it is just easier, and when i dont have the right sized rats, i can go into the freezer and get out the rats that were refused. but it is a pain doing the " im not really dead" dance with a thawed rodent. my snakes can be fussy, and my hand is warmer than the thawed rat. evn with tongs, my snakes try to get me.
besides, when the live rat is taken by the snake, it has time to sufferr while it dies, at least i make it quick and painless.

Well it all started with my first BP that wouldn't even take P/K at all. Then I got him to VERY freshly p/k occassionally on mice and that was it. He never took it again after going off feed this winter. I tried to raise mice but they are very stenchly and they all got sick and died. I have rasied rats for a little while now and find it MUCH easier to toss in one fo those and watch to see if it's eaten then ti fret and worry because my snake refuses to eat f/t or even p/k. I have two that will going to any food no matter what and two that are strictly live eaters. All are being raised on rats. I like that I can raise the pups up to any size I need and if they get too big just freeze then for the not so picky girls to eat. It's eaier, fresh, no too thawed and the guts falling out after you teased the snake that refuses to eat on the tongs too long; this is most disgusting I might add. I am also sure that rats have been healthy and well fed before feeding them off. The only time live food bothers me is when I have to clean the rat cages. It's not the worst job or the longest I have done but not my favorite either. Also rat pup races are BIG fun in this house. Me and my kids have races to see who is the best rat pup and we let those live long enough to be breeders or a bigger sized prey item. Atm, I have about ummm 50 - 60 pups and 2 males, and 4 female rats. Now if my one male BP would quit starvbing himself while waiting for a girl...I could get down my population faster. Darned teenagers!

Because they will actually eat.

I don't have to thaw them out, warm them up to a suitable temp and then give the snakes a puppet show on the end of the hemostats in order to entice them. All of which is very time consuming.

I keep many different species of snakes. The balls are the only ones that I feed live prey to. They are the most finicky, and feeding live is the best way to keep them eating regularily.

I used to be very adamante about feeding frozen thawed and fought with my balls for many years because of it. Now that I'm feeding them live, I'm happier, the snakes are happier, and I've got more time to clean cages.

>>What are your reasons?
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>>Jay A. Martin
>>Jay Martin Reptiles

I feed live mainly for financial reasons. By breeding my own rodents, and selling my surplus (both live and frozen) to local pet shops, I make more than enough to pay for food and bedding. This alone makes it worthwhile to me, even if I spend a couple hours a week in the rodent barn cleaning. Being up $100/month by selling rodents is better than spending $200/month on frozen. Most of my adults will eat F/T during the summer when their feeding response is better, but eat live more regularly, especially once fall rolls around. I still keep a ready supply of frozen that I feed to my less finicky feeders if need be, but the majority get fed live most of the time. I really don't mind feeding f/t, and I fed f/t exclusively for about 2 years, but now that I breed my own, I prefer to feed live.
Evan Jamison