Thoughts on Feeding Mice?

[Greasylake]

I've seen some conflicting opinions on feeding pedes mice, one side saying that it's unethical and cruel and the other saying that it happens in nature and the mice are made to be feeders anyway. Personally I've never fed my centipede anything other than roaches before but I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on feeding them mice and other such feeder animals.

 

[BoyFromLA]

My thoughts:

 

[bryverine]

If you're doing it to see the mouse in pain as it's being eaten alive, then I'd say that you have some serious issues...

Personally, I would never do it because it smells just awful afterwards...

 

[Greasylake]

Part of the reason I haven't done is because I'd really rather not watch the mouse be in that much pain when I could just feed it roaches. If I did feed my roach a mouse I would try to give it a frozen one but I haven't looked into whether they will take down frozen food like that so I'm not sure if it'd be feasible or not.

 

[basin79]

My Scolopendra viridicornis eating a F/T mouse. There is absolutely NO excuse to feed a live vertebrate to an invert. NONE. NEVER. A pede will happily take a F/T mouse from tongs.

 

[chanda]

My thoughts -

It is not natural. Sure, in the wild, mice are at the bottom of the food chain - but they still have the opportunity to run away or hide from predators. In the artificial environment of a cage, they have no such opportunities. They are trapped in a small glass box with a hungry predator and no way out. That seems cruel.

It is an unnecessary risk. Live mice can and will bite or scratch in a last-ditch effort to fight for their lives. This can cause injury to your centipede (or tarantula or scorpion or snake or whatever other exotic pets you might keep.)

It is not necessary. Centipedes, tarantulas, and other inverts do just fine on roaches, crickets, mealworms, or other traditional feeders. There is no nutritional deficit that they need to compensate for with rodents or other large prey. In fact, because rodents are so much larger than their usual prey, it is likely that a substantial portion of it may remain uneaten and go to waste - which will then decay and make a smelly mess in the cage that you'll have to clean out.

I do have a snake and I feed him mice. That's because for a snake, things like roaches or crickets are not an appropriate food source. He needs to eat small animals like mice. That said, I buy frozen/prekilled mice to feed him. Yes, the mouse is dead and eaten either way - but at least it is spared the terror of being hunted and the relatively slow death of being swallowed head-first. (It also prevents my snake from being scratched or bit - and spares me having to hear the poor thing squeaking as it's being eaten.)

 

[chanda]

My thoughts:

So... you're basically saying that you have no thoughts of your own?

 

[Greasylake]

Thanks for all the input. As i said before I would only have given my centipede frozen mice because I can't stand watching animals be in that much pain and it seems extremely cruel to force a mouse to be bitten by an animal with such potent venom. After reading some of the other threads and you guys' posts I think I'll be sticking to Dubias for the convenience and so I won't have to worry about accidentally forgetting a few mouse bits and stinking up the room.

 

[BoyFromLA]

So... you're basically saying that you have no thoughts of your own?

My thoughts / my search results say

 

[LawnShrimp]

Part of the reason I haven't done is because I'd really rather not watch the mouse be in that much pain when I could just feed it roaches. If I did feed my roach a mouse I would try to give it a frozen one but I haven't looked into whether they will take down frozen food like that so I'm not sure if it'd be feasible or not.

Centipedes eat nonliving items like carrion and fruit in the wild alongside live insects and vertebrates, so offering F/T mice is absolutely fine. You can also offer scraps of lean meat like chicken or beef though mice are probably healthier.
Never feed live vertebrates. It's not safe and it is cruel.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

It's not natural. For example, I watched a video where a yellow anaconda was fed a live rat and the guy said "it's nature, that's what happens".
A domestic rodent originating from Europe/Asia being fed from tongs in a house in North America to a captive bred semi-aquatic snake native to South and Central America is not called nature. Same applies to giant centipedes, it's not nature so if you have the choice to give it a frozen thawed mouse vs a live one, go with F/T every time

 

[Dennis Nedry]

@Trevors why the "clarification please" rating

 

[Ratmosphere]

Only frozen, never live mice.

 

[RTTB]

it never made sense to me to feed them live mice.