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I only feed live myself, f/t is far to boring for me and they seem to appreciate live imo. Plus if you feed them things of appropriate proportion you rarely have an issue.
Fun with a venomous friend!
- Thread starter Talkenlate04
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I posted a live feeding and did not really get any flak for it at all. Its what they eat. I mean think about it, which is more natural? Freezing a rat or mouse in whichever method at your disposal, then thawing it and feeding the snake, or feeding it live? I choose to do it the natural way, the rat and mouse lovers can jump off a bridge. I even own "pet" rats that have names and get to come out and run around and are spoiled and I care about, but at the end of the day they are rats lol. Maybe I am strange for thinking like that lol. Oh well would not be the first time I was in the minority.
There is nothing natural about how your keeping the snakes.
Its safer to feed F/T 99% of the time live wont hurt but all it takes is that 1% to bite you in the ass. You have an injured or possibly dead snake. I hope you have a good vet that will be willing to deal with your injured venomous snake.
How "natural" is the setup you have this snake in? Most people that try to pull the its natural to eat live food have their snakes on newspaper with a dog bowl of water. Now that doesnt seem very natural to me.
Its safer to feed F/T 99% of the time live wont hurt but all it takes is that 1% to bite you in the ass. You have an injured or possibly dead snake. I hope you have a good vet that will be willing to deal with your injured venomous snake.
How "natural" is the setup you have this snake in? Most people that try to pull the its natural to eat live food have their snakes on newspaper with a dog bowl of water. Now that doesnt seem very natural to me.
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The habitat is extremely naturalistic, but regardless if it was or was not a natural setup, live prey is still natural. That is not really a debate, that is a fact.
Sometimes when I am offering up some larger prey that can put up a decent fight I will thump them first but that is rare because I offer a size of prey that can be subdued by the snake easily. If it takes a bite it takes a bite so be it. Other than a neglectful owner leaving a rat in a tank for an extended period of time unsupervised I have never seen a bite from prey inflict damage anywhere near capable of killing the snake.
Yes you can argue there is a risk of some crazy fluke attack but thats a risk I and many other live feeder owners know about before hand and accept. I get a better response from all of my snakes feeding live. That might have something to do with the fact that they have always for as long as they existed hunted and eaten live prey. (but thats just my thought on it) To each his or her own.
Also with venomous most strike and wait for the prey to die, then come back to it and eat it once it is dead.
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First off.. I wasnt trying to start a debate in this thread.. I was just wondering if live was fed because of the venom..
Thanks for the answers..
Oh.. For the record.. If I ever own a hot.. That little booger would probably get live.. Im not sure I would have the balls to sit there and wiggle the F/T around in front of it like I do with my little 5.5' boa.. Id shipoo a brick if that thing almost missed..
Yeah.. The more I think about it.. I will stick to my boas..
Thanks for the answers..
Oh.. For the record.. If I ever own a hot.. That little booger would probably get live.. Im not sure I would have the balls to sit there and wiggle the F/T around in front of it like I do with my little 5.5' boa.. Id shipoo a brick if that thing almost missed..
Yeah.. The more I think about it.. I will stick to my boas..
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Oh.. BTW.. That snake is gorgeous!
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Ehh debates are fun sometimes. I personally can see both sides of the fence and understand why people choose live or f/t. It really comes down to personal preference imo.
She is indeed! I may be getting a Naja naja soon, that should be interesting. It is a toss up between that or maybe a Dendroaspis polylepis, but I might hold off on that one until I have some more experience under my belt! I wanted a Naja kaouthia, but interestingly enough in my state they have not been classified yet as ok or not ok to keep so by default they are on the not ok list until they are defined. Many other Naja species are ok to keep here though.
I am responsible for around 200 snakes at the shop by me and not one of them has scars from their live prey, not even the big retics which get live rabbits weekly. Those snakes and the snakes in my personal collection are in perfect health and there is not a single mark on their body that would indicate otherwise.
Lousy attitude? Lol, dude get real, snakes are not fragile creatures made of glass. They exist on this earth to hunt and kill LIVE things, they are not scavengers. So long as reasonably sized prey is offered they will do what they do best, kill and eat it. Yes we can sit here and talk about all the what if this what if that,and you can say its not necessary to feed live in captivity because most will eat f/t thawed, but you can safely feed live fairly easily imo.
Like I said above already, its a matter of personal preference. You do it your way, I do it mine, that does not make one of us a better keeper than the other imo.
Yes lousy saying well if it gets bit well it gets bit.
Bites can happen anytime. I had a rat bite me the other week taking it out of the box.
You're attitude how you first responded is what got me. Saying its "boring" to feed f/t at first and the part again saying if they get bit they get bit.
The live feeding videos are mostly bad for the hobby because most of them involve people laughing and giggling when the snakes strike and kill the mouse. It doesnt really show the hobby in a good light.
Enough of the debate aspect of this post let me oogle over your venomous snakes. lol
She is a really nice leucy what other venomous are you currently keeping?
I've thought about getting a few venomous but I just dont think I would feel comfortable enough keeping them. I thought about maybe a copperhead because they arent exactly deadly, but I think I'm just going to stay away from anything that can disfigure me with one slight bite. One of my dream snakes is a Gaboon viper I hate 99% of fat body snakes but for some reason I just really like the gaboons. The black mamba would really intimidate me lol
Bites can happen anytime. I had a rat bite me the other week taking it out of the box.
You're attitude how you first responded is what got me. Saying its "boring" to feed f/t at first and the part again saying if they get bit they get bit.
The live feeding videos are mostly bad for the hobby because most of them involve people laughing and giggling when the snakes strike and kill the mouse. It doesnt really show the hobby in a good light.
Enough of the debate aspect of this post let me oogle over your venomous snakes. lol
She is a really nice leucy what other venomous are you currently keeping?
I've thought about getting a few venomous but I just dont think I would feel comfortable enough keeping them. I thought about maybe a copperhead because they arent exactly deadly, but I think I'm just going to stay away from anything that can disfigure me with one slight bite. One of my dream snakes is a Gaboon viper I hate 99% of fat body snakes but for some reason I just really like the gaboons. The black mamba would really intimidate me lol
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A copperhead will cause permanent damage as well, just not as severe as most rattlesnakes. If you want something "less deadly" but still venomous I would recommend you start with a false water cobra or a mangrove snake... Something rear fanged and not a boomslang
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I think its awesome to watch, its what they are designed to do. I doubt there is any animal lover out there that believes a snake eats vegetables, so me getting excited over watching it eat live, or someone giggling and rooting for the snake to kill the mouse is really not an issue imo because its what they do!
Were you constricting the life out of it while biting it when it bit you? lol.
I have some friends that clip the rat teeth before they feed them to the snakes. (no nerves in rat teeth) But I cant bring myself to try that, it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.
They do get quite big, and they are quick little devils! I like adders too.
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Oh no sir I do feed live,some of my hots prefer it,I would not post a video on it is all I was getting at.I like watching videos on it.I just notice a lot of people flaming them for it.Anyways no disrespect to you man:worship::worship::worship:
I think they actually sell a tofu type sausage for reptiles and I've heard crazier things.
It just isnt a good image for snake keepers when you have people doing that is what im saying.
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200 snakes!? Wish there was something like that around here. Went to one specialty reptile place fairly close when I was thinking of getting into snakes. They had about 20 snakes but I walked out when I saw they had avics with zero climbing space.
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You gotta remember in a retail environment space is an issue and in the short term a confined avic in a small container is not going to have any issues. At the same shop they have started stocking tarantulas and they are all in small deli containers and such, but they still get fed and watered like they should. I have no problems with that personally.
Feeding live is an unnecessary risk. Period. Your snake doesn't prefer it. You do. You are putting your animal's health at risk for your own enjoyment. With live, you run the risk of injury to your reptile, or parasites. Saying your snake "responds" or "prefers" live food is total BS too. I could show you a thousand snakes that ate live and a thousand that ate F/T and you couldn't tell me the difference in any of them if you didn't know which were which, other than maybe the wounds on the ones that were fed live. I can't make you choose F/T, and if you wanna feed live you will, but feeding F/T is safer and an option. The fact is, you're passing on the safest option for your pet, for your own enjoyment.
In nature your dog would have to find and kill something to eat, but I'm guessing it gets dog food. Having a pet isn't about "nature". You take responsibility for a wild animal when you put it in a cage or a domesticated animal when you make it your "pet".
In nature your dog would have to find and kill something to eat, but I'm guessing it gets dog food. Having a pet isn't about "nature". You take responsibility for a wild animal when you put it in a cage or a domesticated animal when you make it your "pet".
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That is a good point! I love all my critters,but at the end of the day they are critters!! so each is their own in my opinion we must learn from each other is all
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I agree that most snakes can't tell the difference, but if you never had a snake that didn't prefer live, you haven't kept enough snakes in my opinion.
Later, Tom
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This guy was fun to play with today too.
Lol what a load of crap. That is truly amusing.