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video put me off snakes

2K views 54 replies 36 participants last post by  Lionheart 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Live feeding is fairly rare in the UK most of us feed FT prey, however - some will buck the trend.

Live feeding though, is a consideration you have to bear in mind when getting any snake. It doesn't happen often but occasionally a snake - not just Royals will refuse to take anything other than live.

It is an emotive subject with supporters for and against live feeds. ultimately if you will not give a snake live feeds and that is all it will take you have to consider letting the snake die or giving it up.

Personally i have no problems with live feeding and if needed would live feed, luckily i have not had to do it so far
 
#3 ·
Obviously in most cases live feeding is unnecessary especially with quality CB that is about today. When I got my first pair of candoia I had a few restless nights worrying about would they feed after hearing they can be a tricky species. Fingers crossed they have not yet missed a feed but before I decided to go for them I did ask myself the question, would I feed live if It came to it. And yes I would ... Only if all over avenues have been exhasusted.

I feel a bit guilty as I did lol at 0:18 :whistling2:
 
#7 ·
Wow. I found that video fascinating. Snakes are amazing creatures.

If it came to it, and I'd tried everything but live feeding, I'd be fine with it if it was absolutely vital to the snakes health. And anyway, it's natural. I don't get wussy about small creatures - I regularly find myself putting mice and birds out of their misery when my cats have made a mess of them.
 
#8 ·
i have fed a live pinky to a mantis after it layed an ooth, i felt sorry for the pinkie but they are good if the mantis is hungry, the mantis left the bones which made me fell a bit sad :( i will never do it again though
although i would feed live mice and stuff to snakes cause you dont have to watch the mouse being eaten slowly,
 
#10 ·
nothing wrong with live feeding if it is done right, i would use it as a last resort in monitored conditions.

i take it as it's a utube vid it's from the states? they tend to live feed most of there animals, just the way it's doen over there.

if you do get a royal just make sure it has been feeding well before you buy it. they can all be a bit tempermental at time all part of royals charm. just got to be paiten keep trying once a week, as long as there is no drastic weight loss i wouldn't worry to much. good luck with your royal
 
#12 ·
its always a possibility that you may have to try live feeding. with any snake.
but if you get a royal/boa thats already an established feeder i doubt you would ever have to, of course the more snakes you keep the more likely one may need it!
i have 5 royals, 2 are dustbins, 2 awkward feeders and 1 im not sure of yet as she hasnt fed for me.
i say if you do get one, get an older snake thats already a great feeder.

oh and you'd be surprised what you can do once you love your snake...... you say you wouldnt do it now, but if you adore your snake
i think you'll find you'd do anything to keep it alive
 
#14 ·
What did you expect from a snake!

That's what they do!

That's what they're built for!

Killing Eating Machines!

I liked the video, and so should most snake owners on here like it also.

If David Attenborough presented a program showing snakes eating live creatues, nobody would have a problem with that would they?

In fact, if he did, most of us would even praise him for such a good program!

Top Video!

:no1:

Matt
 
#15 ·
to be honest I always said I wouldn't ever feed live - BUT after keeping for over a year now, if it meant I could keep all my snakes alive I'd do it. I'd feel guilty but my snakes mean more to me!
 
#16 ·
I wouldn't feel in the slightest bit guilty if I had to live feed. What we feed our snakes was once alive, just somebody else has done the nasty bit for us. My son was shown how to kill a small rodent to feed to his snake, I was really proud of him for having a go at it too. If you're going to keep snakes, you have to be prepared for feeding live at any given time, I certainly wouldn't have a problem with it.

Quite glad I don't have to do it, but I would if necessary without a problem.
 
#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
The question is, Is a bastard snake worth more than all those animals thrown in combined? I dont think so. I know this is a snake lovers forum and some people on here would argue yes it is worth more but I think live feeding in this way is a disgrace and shames the owner. F* disgraceful, hopefully nature will record its own verdict on the owner - it usually does.
 
#18 · (Edited by Moderator)
That's the food chain, rodents are prey animals, they breed much more rapidly than snakes - a snake whether it's wild or captive needs to eat lots of rodents over the course of its life to flourish, and there are plenty of rodents, it is just how nature intended.

A snake does kill quickly, it's all over in seconds, and the rodent usually goes into shock - far more humane than poisoning rats and mice as millions of wild rodents meet their doom.

I think you have to be open minded, if a snake will only eat live then that's what it eats and that what you have to do.

It's better than leaving frozen thawed rodents in every week and having to flush them down the toilet because they are uneaten - that is more unethical.
 
#19 ·
Videos like that are bad for the hobby and very dangerous for the snake. It is an outdated practice feeding live and i would only do it as last resort. Most people in the uk don't feed live but in the states they like the 'cool' factor of it. Don't let videos like that put you off getting a snake, but if you really don't want to feed snakes mice get a lizard.
 
#20 ·
live feeding for the fun of it is wrong in my opinion - BUT this is a discussion as to whether you would live feed IF your snake was going to die from not eating - answer for me (as I said before) is YES!
 
#25 ·
This is a "what if" thread - none of us particularly like the idea of live feeding. To be honest - that video made me feel sick and if the only way to ever keep snakes was to feed live all the time I wouldn't of had any.

BUT if it meant keeping my snakes alive now I have them then I would do it - I couldn't watch but I would do it to get them back feeding if that's what it took
 
#26 ·
Live feeding is one of those things I feel shouldn't be done unless absolutely necessary. Any snake that will eat frozen/thawed should be fed as such.

However, as others have said, there is always that chance that you may have to feed live at some time in your snake's life, and you must be willing to do it. When you buy a pet you become responsible for that animal's life, and allowing your snake to starve because you're too squeamish to feed it just isn't fair. I honestly feel that if you're totally unable to ever feed live, then you probably shouldn't keep a snake.

That being said, it's unlikely you'll ever have problems if you go for something CB and voracious like a king or a corn, but still - always a chance.
 
#29 ·
absolutely awesome video, call me sadistic if you want, but I love live feeding vids. Its a reminder that what you have in your viv isn't a cutesy pet, but an awesome predator built for lightning reactions. Every part of snakes behaviour fascinates me, and catching prey is the most awesome part.

I would love to live feed TBH, its just not terrible practical.
 
#44 ·
I've never seen my Royal do a lightning reaction. You drop a rat in the viv and she'll just sniff it, give it a bit of a cuddle, slither off, have a drink of water, climb on the vine for a bit, watch tv, have a snooze, do a belly dance on the glass for awhile, sniff the rat again, do a lap of the vivarium.....and then eat it.

Yet the moment you take the rat back out she's like..."Whoa where do you think your going with that?"
 
#30 ·
Great video enjoyed it thoroughly.

Snakes doing what they do best.

Gunblast you need to engage brain before you post, we breed faster than snakes!! Think about it honestly. And rodents in that video being worth more than the snakes being fed, again think about it, there was an albino in the middle of the video which was easily worth 10x more than all rodents shown in the video. People sell mice, rats and rabbits as food items in frozen form for under 2 quid and thats making a profit.
 
#31 ·
My royals live feed because they weren't doing very well on defrost, they were ok but most people i know with royals feed live and the difference between mine and theirs was HUGE so i decided screw what i think/like and get on with it so i did and my royals have gone from strength to strength.

The corns/boas/carpets all eat defrost and a couple of royals do too because they don't like live. I'll be trying prekill when i get the gear to make a gas chamber but for the moment they'll be on live for a bit, i do however feed strictly defrost to snakes i sell because live feeding isn't the method most people use so it's better to have animals for sale on defrost.

Basically i feed my animals what they want, some royals don't like live so get defrost, some never wanted defrost so get live i'd rather they were eating and growing than sitting hungry or being difficult.

Rach
 
#32 ·
My royals live feed because they weren't doing very well on defrost, they were ok but most people i know with royals feed live and the difference between mine and theirs was HUGE so i decided screw what i think/like and get on with it so i did and my royals have gone from strength to strength.

The corns/boas/carpets all eat defrost and a couple of royals do too because they don't like live. I'll be trying prekill when i get the gear to make a gas chamber but for the moment they'll be on live for a bit, i do however feed strictly defrost to snakes i sell because live feeding isn't the method most people use so it's better to have animals for sale on defrost.

Basically i feed my animals what they want, some royals don't like live so get defrost, some never wanted defrost so get live i'd rather they were eating and growing than sitting hungry or being difficult.

Rach
I reckon they must get a lot more neutrition from live/fresh kill.
 
#33 ·
in south africa when i had snakes you could only get live food there was no frozen so personally i have no problems with it
 
#34 ·
I do live feed - on occasions, I breed my own rodents in a seperate room and make sure they can't hear whats going on. I make it quick and offer it once. If the snake doesn't go for it I dont try again. I believe time is of the essence - The rodent must NOT be under any stress what so ever as that is when I start to see it being cruel. My self and my partner have saved a few snakes due to live feeding - but Its definatly personal preference and nothing to shout about. :snake:
 
#35 ·
Exactly, i'll be testing this later in the year with some holdbacks.

We reccomend keeping frozen food for a maximum of 3 months in our freezer before it's no good really for the snakes.

This food is often bred on the continent in places like lithuania etc and is shipped here to a food company, it is then sold onto traders/shops and sold on to the keeper.

So how long did they have it frozen in lithuania? how long did the journey take? how long to the wholesalers have it? how long do the shops have it? and that's BEFORE our 3 months so in theory it could've been frozen for more than 3mnths already.

Also how many times has it been defrosted already? I see a lot of posts about black belly mice and mice smelling bad, same for rats and THIS is why they're like that.

I worked briefly in a shop and a frozen order would come at 3pm wednesday afternoon soft and wouldn't be frozen until 10/11am THURSDAY morning...

I find a masive difference in using live/fk myself and i enjoy breeding the rats, they give me a nice food source and i keep them as best i can for them with time/cost efficiency in mind for me, people say it's expensive but it's really not.

I have 1 wood rack that holds 10 boxes, i use 9 at a time, the whole rack cost probably £50-60 and bottles are £1.50each so initial cost call it £75 MAX for the initial setup of racks, the rats cost £2-3 from a breeder and i started with 5/6 i now have 1.3 in each box breeding (5 boxes). Food costs a little under £9 for a 15kg sack that feeds LOADS of rats including babies (i use 4 boxes for breeding girls 3-4 females a box and all their babies stay in their with them until they're weaned or fed off and each female drops anything up to 13-15 babies for me on average) and the bedding is £7 give or take and a bag of that does me for at least a month.

so....

Setup £75
Rats £12 (assuming 1.3 bought for £3each)
Food £36 (a month 4 x £9 sacks)
Bed £7 (per month for 1 bale)

so the first £87 is a one off spend and the other £43 a month contributes to breeding enough rats to feed 50 snakes EVERY week which aint bad going so scale it down to needs and it's still cheap IMO.

*NOTE: I round UP figures so things are actually a little cheaper.
 
#36 ·
Feeding FT is exceptionally compassionate for the food compared to what they'd experience in the wild and therefore what the simulated experience in captivity would be. I see no reason why feeding live is cruel as it's natural, there's no problem in something dying to be food either way.
I wouldn't feed live unless neccesary, although I'd have absolutely no problem doing it. My only concern would be the snakes welfare incase the rodent fought back?
 
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