Live vs Frozen POLL

Nice points Shadera Lorrain (Fauna Good Girl) instead of good guy

I voted for both.

I'd feed nothing but f/t or p/k by preference simply because it's easier for me. Unfortunately my snakes don't take my personal preferences into consideration.

All my regular boas (BCI,BCC types) eat f/t. They get no live prey. I've never meet a boa I couldn't get switched over.

The balls are punks. 'Nuff said.

One of the viper boas* I have eat prey so small that they don't have a way to hurt the snakes, same with my Saharan sand boas. Due to the prey sizes and the species tendency to starve to death rather then switch it makes more sense for me to just let them eat live.

I will not feed live prey that has the ability to injure my snakes, all it takes is one well placed bite to cause a snake's death. I learned that the hard way and will not repeat that mistake.

*the other viper boa is still stuck on geckos

I feed live only because I breed my own rats and feed Accordingly...

Seems that I'm feeding both at this point, BUT hope to switch Shawn's last little corn over to f/t soon!

Amanda

I actully voted #3 becuase sometimes lil corns dont always like to start right up on Frozen at least not for me anyway so I try to feed some live mixed with a frozen one like DanD says to but not all are that easy to fool! He he he (still just a Intermidiate snake keeper have not achieved Pro status yet)

I must be bored. I deleted my vote twice to watch the percent change. HEHE

I voted both F/T & Live. I have a few very picky eaters that wont have a thing to do w/ F/T & only will eat live & kickin'. Then I have a couple that just dont care ~ bottomless pits.

I may not own a snake but in the past I have worked with them and other reptiles like tegus, monitors, gators and caimen that ate small mammals. I fed both F/T/prekilled and live. What made me choose which to use was the size of the prey. I don't like putting large prey in with the animal because of the risk of the food fighting back and causing harm. Smaller prey like pinky mice or fuzzy mice where the threat is minimal I chose to feed live. Of course there were times where I had to feed larger live prey but only because the animal refused dead prey. I tried my best to make the dead prey appear as if it were moving by wiggling it around on tongs.

Personally I don't care how others feed, it's their choice. As long as you feed appropriate prey and do it to feed your animal with the best intentions I don't mind. It's the people who are sick minded and just take a random live animal and throw it in the cage with their pet just to see it get killed that bothers me.

I voted frozen only, although I do thaw and warm them up first.

I too, on rare occasions, will use a live pinky or fuzzy, if all other tricks have failed. I will not however feed live, if the rodent is large enough to defend it's self. That means pretty much anything larger then a hopper is to be off'd first.

I love this part ...The Live Pile...for those who haven't seen what a rat can do to an adult Boa or two.



Now don't get me wrong, I fed nothing but live for more then 20 years. I've made the mistake of not supervising the entire feeding, and I've had some snakes messed up because of it. I just thought that's the way it was, that they needed live prey.

Then when I heard of the F/T routine, I tried it out. And not a single one of my snakes refused to switch. I've fed F/T rodents to WC rattlers, desert kings, gophers, even a coachwhip. Not long term captives either, but local removals that wintered with me.

So, IMO, there is no GOOD reason NOT to feed them F/T. That's what is the safest for the animal. Unless you make your animals your secondary concerns.