Yeh, not keen on people feeding live simply for, what seems, their own pleasure in watching a small animal die.

I can understand, however, that some snakes/other reps simply turn their nose up at f/t or pre-killed and do require to be fed live. But i also think that this needs to be done in a way that doesn't make it onto a mainstream webby like youtube. People don't really need to see it.

One example of a youtube video that i saw was a guy killing a mouse (placed into a pillow case and slammed against the floor) and then feeding it to his ATB. Why did he need to post a video of him pre-killing it..to teach others? IMO if you are a new keeper, and you need to pre-kill prey prior to feeding a snake that refuses f/t then you have obviously bought the wrong species.

 

I hear this all of the time! Most people come round are like 'have you fed live yet? you should put one in, itd be amazing to watch' to which i respond whats the point? my snakes do perfectly fine on defrost with a great striking response why risk harming the snake or indeed putting the rodent through unnecesary pain!

 

The real issue that a lot of people have with live feeding is due to the stress on both animals involved but also, and just as importantly, the amount of damage the prey item can actually inflict on the snake itself. In my time on RFUK I have seen numerous threads with graphic pictures of half eaten snakes with flesh hanging off and eyes missing all from being fed live.

As you have wisely stated though, some animals must be live fed and in these situations it is in the interest of the keeper to use the correct precautions.

 

Live

Unfortunately I have 2 royals that only eat live I've never felt the need to put this on the web for all to see, I don't even let the wife of kids watch the snakes eat, it's a private afair the prey is dropped into the rub and ill be honhest now I have never even heard a squeak from the prey it is so quick I often think the mouse never really knows what's going on. It's normally all over in less than a minute.
I get no pleasure from feeding live but out of 7 royals these 2 won't switch and the welfare of the snakes is my main priority.

 

Live feeding doesn't bother me, I've been bought up watching documentries of lions hunting and killing there prey, nature didn't bother me then and it doesnt now.to be frank, I'd be very hypocritical if watching a mouse die bothered me.

However, I do not understand the need to feed live if the animal feeds fine on defrost! that is unnecessary cruelty and very irresponsible.

If an animal needs live feeding than fair enough but it will always be my 3rd from last decision if all other tactics fail (before force feeding and assist.) it needs to be done under strict supervision though!

 

Live feeding doesn't bother me, I've been bought up watching documentries of lions hunting and killing there prey, nature didn't bother me then and it doesnt now.to be frank, I'd be very hypocritical if watching a mouse die bothered me.

However, I do not understand the need to feed live if the animal feeds fine on defrost! that is unnecessary cruelty and very irresponsible.

If an animal needs live feeding than fair enough but it will always be my 3rd from last decision if all other tactics fail (before force feeding and assist.) it needs to be done under strict supervision though!

I have no problems with nature. I've killed everything from rabbits to cape buffalo myself and am not squeemish one little bit.

However you cannot compare natural hunting such as a lion running down an antelope with a prey animal in captivity where it has no means of escape. People who think this is in any way, shape or form, 'natural' are deluding themselves. Those who do, and this is no way aimed at any individual are probably poor keepers unable to get their animals feeding on frozen defrost. In almost all cases it just takes a bit of patience and skill.

 

is no different to feeding insects to lizards really, just because the prey with snakes is often some cute fluffy mammal with big eyes.

some burm vs giant rabbit videos are pretty evil with the wierd shrieks of the bunny but it is just part of the natural process. these stories about smashing prey in pillow cases is evil and just goes to show some people enjoy it way too much, some of the voices you hear in the background of those more insensitive feeding youtube vids, it's straining to comprehend that people like that exist.

it's alright to enjoy that the snake is enjoying it, but you shouldn't gain pleasure out of the destruction or consumption of a live animal.

 

it is very different. insects do not feel fear or pain the same way vertebrate animals do. an ant can go on fighting another ant with half its legs missing like it was nothing, a mammal couldnt.
on another note, it might be quite quick for the constrictors, but from what ive read, hognoses will swallow their prey live? that doesnt sound quick.

 

since 1986 when i started keeping snakes i have fed live food to very few snakes in that time. the first was the snake i bought first in a pet shop in leeds and as i knew nothing about them at that time i did what the shop keeper told me to do which was live feeding. after that it has being dead food all the way apart from getting some hatchlings kick started. i can count those on two hands.

 

Im not fully convinced every thing i eat has been killed "humanely" and as quick and painless as possible. Im equally not convinced seeing the state of some frozen rodents that theyve been killed as painlessly as possible either. Its a sad fact of life that if i worried about everything id just be a shaking wreck in my bed. Ive never fed live although i would if i had to, i have no feelings for rodents, infact i pretty much dislike them. However i wouldnt particularly like seeing them being constricted and i wont be searching youtube.
Theres always going to be idiots out there just do what you gotta do to feel happy and let them get on with it.

 

two wrongs dont make a right.

 

If it's the sav monitor feeding on a live rat with the big blue water bowl, that's totally wrong. The prey item is clearly much too big so the only way it can possibly eat it's prey is by taking chunks out of it...

 

trouble is alot of those that do livefeed dont seem to realise the damage a cornered mouse or rat can do to the snake/lizard, ive seen some terrible pictures of the damage done to the reps by live rodents being given, not worth the risk in my opinion.

 

if its offensive to you and you don't like it, why did you watch it??

that's just what they do, if it caught it in the wild it would do the same thing, as this is how monitors kill before they consume....

in a way id see it better, as i bet alot of time these animals necks are broken and die... where as a live rat by a snake would need to be bit and then crushed slowly to death...

or why not let it slowly die in pain through a venomous bite?

i just don't get this at all, they're animals and that's just what they do and need to do to eat...

Get over it.

 

I watched it because I have never seen a monitor feed.

Nothing to get over. We all know the circle of life and accept what goes on in the wild.

I was commenting on hugely violent death (s) of small animals that is not necessary in a captive environment. Like the others have said on here, if they do feed live they do it in private, not for "entertainment"

 

I don't feed my snakes live for the same reason I don't release birds into my house to feed my cats, and I don't release rabbits and fawns for my dog.

I also own a snake that is a visual aid for "why feeding live can be really really detrimental to the snake".

 

I have always persevered with snakes when they go off food or when I have bought hatchlings that won’t feed and after rehoming a BCI for a friend that he was feeding on live I managed to get it feeding on FT but believe me it took a LOOOOOONNNG time to get it to the point where it would eat consistently. Then last year I got a pair of blood pythons one fed like a champ other wanted nothing to do with FT I tried everything to get it going and it just wasn’t interested and in the end I thought to myself this snake clearly doesn’t want to eat FT, is it not cruel to starve an animal and force it to eat something it doesn’t want too. In the end I made up my decision and fed live and as soon as I put it in there it was out and interested and I watched the whole time s***ing myself that something bad was going to happen I got no pleasure out of it other than the fact that the snake was obviously getting some food down it finally. To cut a long story short it is now feeding on FT but I wish I had tried live earlier and now would see myself as inflicting unnecessary hunger on an animal in my care if it clearly didn’t want anything to do with FT and I didn’t try live sooner because at the end of the day they are predators not scavengers and it is not natural for them to eat something that is already dead.
I just wonder how many of us would have the amount of snakes that we do if we had to kill all the rodents ourselves to feed to our snakes rather than buying rodents that are already dead.