Corn snake live prey?
- Thread starter mimic58
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I don't think I've ever heard of any kind of ratsnake taking insects. I'd say just feet it live mice but your being in england kindof precludes that doesn't it?
Is there a particular reason you'd prefer feeding it live?
Is there a particular reason you'd prefer feeding it live?
They havent installed surveillance cameras in your house..? ;-)mimic58 said:
I would feed my animals live anyway. I refuse to back down to stupid PETA laws
A few snake species take insects, but corns not one of them. Pinkies and fuzzys are too small for your snake, feed it adult mice.
/Lelle
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I don't understand this. You can buy a live mouse, but you have to kill it before feeding it to your snake? :?
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You could always try chicks with your corn if you want to vary its diet, you can buy them pre-killed and frozen in the states. All of the ratsnakes I've ever had loved the occasional chicken or quail chick.
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Sting Crazy said:
IIRC by law in the UK you can't even do this. You have to purchase vertebrate prey items pre-killed.
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What, do they kill them somewhere else and ship them in? Is there a special mouse-killing license? 
Yes, it is law in the Uk that you arent allowed to feed live vertebrate prey to other animals. It's not as ridiculous as you might think it is. The reason it was originally put in place was part of the animal welfare act, to prevent cruelty to animals. The law was written to prevent shows where vertebrate prey would be fed to large predators such as lions and tigers, but i think it is still applicable in UK pet husbandry. Of course the law can be broken easily, but isn't that the same with most laws? I agree that there may be extreme cases with some rare reptiles that refuse prekilled prey, it may be necesary to feed live prey, but the fact remains that nearly all the snakes kept as pets in the UK will happily feed on dead animals. There is no need to expose the prey animal to the stress of being killed, and the potential risk to the predator of the prey fighting back.
Mimic, obviously i can't stop you feeding live prey to your snake if you want, but if you like your snake and dont want it injured, you shouldn't. It is quite possible that the snake may loose an eye or sustain severe scarring when the mouse bites back. If your snake is 3.5 ft long, you should definitely be feeding it adult mice, at that size you would need a lot of pinkies to full it, no wonder it is very hungry! You'll be suprised at what a corn snake can fit in its mouth. Corn snakes wont eat insect prey when they are adults, their metabolism isn't set up to digest insects. As galeogirl suggested, you could also try chicks but they are not as nutritions as mice or rats so stick to them as treats.
Cheers,
Mimic, obviously i can't stop you feeding live prey to your snake if you want, but if you like your snake and dont want it injured, you shouldn't. It is quite possible that the snake may loose an eye or sustain severe scarring when the mouse bites back. If your snake is 3.5 ft long, you should definitely be feeding it adult mice, at that size you would need a lot of pinkies to full it, no wonder it is very hungry! You'll be suprised at what a corn snake can fit in its mouth. Corn snakes wont eat insect prey when they are adults, their metabolism isn't set up to digest insects. As galeogirl suggested, you could also try chicks but they are not as nutritions as mice or rats so stick to them as treats.
Cheers,
You can buy live mice in any pet shop, they are common pets in the UK, and it is not illegal to kill mice, so that is no problem. It is a lot more expensive to buy live mice and kill them for each feeding than it is to buy a bag of prekilled frozen mice.Malkavian said:
galeogirl,
the place where the mice are bred for feeders would have a license, and be inspected to check on the standard of care and the method of killing them. i'm not sure if they would need a liscence to kil them, but the mice would have to be killed humanely (most likely a CO2 chamber).
Cheers,
I was told they just put them in a freezer!, CO2 now i dont know if any of you have every tried to inhale this gas but youl find its pritty much imposible as your body rejects it instantly coughing it back out before it even reaches your lungs, Try inhale the co2 from an empty fizzy a drink bottle and note what happens!danread said:
Iver way there sufocated to death wich is how the snake would kill it anyway! how much sence does that make?
It is a common misconception that snakes need to eat live animals to satisfy some need for the "hunt" Feeding live mice/rats can be dangerous as they have teeth and will bite to try and protect themselves as they are about to get eaten. I have personally seen it happen several times while I was keeping snakes. Besides, if you're in England feeding prekilled saves you from breaking any laws. On a side note, I don't believe i've heard of any type of corn snake or rat snake eating anything other than vertebrates. I know grass snakes and some ribbon snakes are fed crickets. Hope this helps.
-Jason
-Jason
Hi Mimic,
I've worked in a university animal lab in the past, and i've put down thousands of mice and rats for experiments. They don't cough, or seem to react to the gas in any way, they just stop moving and then die. Its all a very quick process, My main problem with feeding mice to snakes isnt the suffering of the mouse, although there is an argument for that, but the fact that your snake is likely to get injured by the mouse fighting back. Do a search on the net and you'll be able to find some fairly horrific pictures of injuries to snakes from mouse and especially rat bites.
Cheers,
I've worked in a university animal lab in the past, and i've put down thousands of mice and rats for experiments. They don't cough, or seem to react to the gas in any way, they just stop moving and then die. Its all a very quick process, My main problem with feeding mice to snakes isnt the suffering of the mouse, although there is an argument for that, but the fact that your snake is likely to get injured by the mouse fighting back. Do a search on the net and you'll be able to find some fairly horrific pictures of injuries to snakes from mouse and especially rat bites.
Cheers,
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What danread said! No live prey to avoid injury to the snake please.
danread said:
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Thats intresting, I took biology myself and was 98% certain C02 is the princable/primary gas that triggers the lungs to Exhale in mammals, but anyway its intresting that they dont apear to choke i wonder why that is?danread said:
As for Injury to the snake id be inclined to agree and can imagen it could get a farely nasty bite Especialy from a good sized rat,
But it begs the question how do they survive in the wild? what do they eat?
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In the wild, the animals are hunting in an open space, not the confines of a cage. A prey animal cant easily corner the snake and attack. A snake will not have a live rodent dropped in front of it in the wild when it may not be ready either. It will only actively hunt if it is hungry, and therefore prepared to be the attacker. Additionally, if a snake does get injured in the wild, that's just nature doin' it's thing. If it happens in our care it's just irresponsibility.
mimic58 said:
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It didn't chew it because... well.... snakes don't chew. Snake Biology 101.mimic58 said: