Feeding snakes with animals that are usually pets.

[Doodles]

Not trying to start an arguement so mods please close thread if it goes that way.

Would any of you use stillborn puppies kittens etc as food? Would you also consider using the family cat if it does from something that wouldn't make the snake ill?

Personally I have no problem with it and would be quite happy to be used as food when I die.

What is everyones opinion?

[Athravan]

Maybe stillborns I would, rather than go to waste.

A family pet I wouldn't. Our first dogs that died we had cremated and scattered the ashes. It's just for my personal mental happiness but I would rather think of my beloved pets either being buried somewhere, or being scattered into a tree or a walking spot etc. than being a pile of snake poo! For the same reason I suppose people scatter relatives or like a grave site to go to.

I don't really have a problem recycling animals that have died of natural causes although I would be against farming of cats/dogs as snake food as it would be totally unnecessary when we have healthier, easier and more humane alternatives.

But things like my dogs & my cats I treat like family, and I wouldn't chop my mum or my aunt or a cousin up to feed to animals and I wouldn't recycle a family pet in such a way either.

[essexchondro]

I would have no moral objections to feeding cats or dogs to snakes (I don't think its even illegal to breed them for that specific purpose?) but I think the biggest issue to this would be that people wouldn't want to proactively kill their healthy pet cat/dog to feed to their snake and waiting for your cat/dog to die before feeding might not be very healthy for the snake; what did the pet cat/dog die from and could it kill the snake too, or at least render the cat/dog a less than ideal meal from a nutritional standpoint?

Lets not forget, also, that many people keep mice and rats as pets...so we're already effectively feeding animals that are pets to many people, anyway!

Stuart

[Moosmoo]

I've often thought about this, I read one thing about feeding leos / other geckos to ackies and that kinda upset me, but i guess in places these are considered pests or just normal things like mice.

However the Chinese DO have a problem with abandoned babies...

[essexchondro]

I've often thought about this, I read one thing about feeding leos / other geckos to ackies and that kinda upset me, but i guess in places these are considered pests or just normal things like mice.

However the Chinese DO have a problem with abandoned babies...

I used to keep oriental whip snakes (Ahaetulla prasina) that needed to be fed on live geckos.

[Moosmoo]

Originally Posted by essexchondro

I used to keep oriental whip snakes (Ahaetulla prasina) that needed to be fed on live geckos.

Cant be cheap lol

[Flutterbye]

Its all done live in the wild with a menu full of variety all bone crunching, suffocating and blood guts etc.

This is why i don't batter an eyelid when feeding defrost to my snakeys...when people whinge and moan saying its sick its not right...my god i wish they'd get a grip...come back down to earth...preferably face first as i am just mean

I used to keep mice when i was younger, those mice were my pets....but mice that live in my freezer that i have no emotional attachment to...doesn't bother me at all. For a split second i think 'awww it looks like they're sleeping' an observation but then tiz dinner time for snakeys.

As for feeding dogs cats etc not for me personally as i keep smaller species of snake. But why the hell not eh? China eats dogs and cats....kill them quite brutally too!

[essexchondro]

Cant be cheap lol

You can source house gecko's for about £1.50 each...but it was still costing me about £20 a month to feed the 4 snakes. If they'd been rodent eaters it would have cost about £5 per month.

[stuartdouglas]

I would have no problem with feeding stillborn animals to snakes. I would have no problems breeding animals for food. The moral difficulties would be encountered when breeding dogs, cats etc which are effectively anthropomorphised by people. Although why would you want to feed dogs or cats when you can buy piglets, large rabbits, lambs etc already dead?

[essexchondro]

I would have no problem with feeding stillborn animals to snakes. I would have no problems breeding animals for food. The moral difficulties would be encountered when breeding dogs, cats etc which are effectively anthropomorphised by people. Although why would you want to feed dogs or cats when you can buy piglets, large rabbits, lambs etc already dead?

I suppose the answer to that question would be that, to some people, pigs, rabbits, lambs etc are more like pets than cats or dogs.