Potential first-time snake owner questioning morality

[Noh]

I suggest getting a herbivorous reptile. You never know what could happen.

I thought about my snake for a long time before I purchased her. One of the first questions I asked myself was "am I okay with feeding a snake?" I pretty quickly decided that yes, I was.

Frozen gassed mice are ideal, but you never know. Some snakes refuse to eat pre-killed food, as mine seems to be doing. I had to feed her a live pinkie mouse yesterday just to get her to eat at all. And if I can't get her to switch to frozen/thawed food in the future I'll have to eventually feed her live adult mice.

And I'll have to babysit her while she eats to make sure the mouse doesn't bite her back. I will have to be there when she kills that mouse.

I'm okay with this. Are you?

My sister was not. She knew she would never be okay feeding food "with a face" to a pet, even pre-killed. She bought a crested gecko on the same day I purchased my snake, and is very happy with him. She finds much enjoyment from watching him in his enclosure.

There are plenty of fantastic, interesting reptiles that eat plants and insects. If you decide you want a snake anyway though, I'm sure you'll fine a nice individual to rescue/adopt! c:

[kazz]

Originally Posted by Avarazac

So it feels as though I am intentionally causing mice to suffer because I am paying a breeder to produce a snake for me.

But any meat on markets is selling bc ppl buy it. That is how world is made.
You can feed your snake with unhatched birds, there are so many on bird farm and no need kill anyone.

[craigafrechette]

Originally Posted by kazz

You can feed your snake with unhatched birds, there are so many on bird farm and no need kill anyone.

Please elaborate on this.

[craigafrechette]

Originally Posted by kazz

You can feed your snake with unhatched birds, there are so many on bird farm and no need kill anyone.

Please elaborate on this.

[kazz]

Originally Posted by craigafrechette

Please elaborate on this.

When I got my carpet python She was fed with live mice. I have bought frozen baby rats but she didn't eat them. I have to force feed her and then I got unhatched quail and she gladly ate it. After that I have bought 3.7kg unhatched quails. Now I take 4 eggs, thaw them, take bird out of egg and cord them up. Then take my snake and she eat them.

The only thing is buying developed but unhatched eggs.

[daisymaisy]

This may seem counterintuitive, but you could raise your own mice, give them a really good life and then humanely euthanize them yourself. That way you know they've been well treated and painlessly passed on.

I thought this was a great idea, bought three live mice and....now I have three pet mice. I got attached immediately to their cute little faces. So that didn't really work out snake feeding wise and I went back to frozen/thawed. And the mice have their own habitat with tubes and wheels and all that good stuff. They are really cute so what can you do?

[Teedub]

Feed the snake tofu shaped mice

[phenyx]

I recently became the owner of a little brat baby BRB who refuses to eat. Because the breeder started him on live pinkies, I have attempted to continue feeding live pinkies while he's settling in.

After the last unsuccessful feeding attempt, I had to euthanize the pinky (in the freezer) after he ignored it for 48+ hours and it was slowly starving to death. The whole experience tore me up so bad I'm pretty sure I left a horcrux somewhere near the enclosure. I am dreading the next feeding attempt.

My point is that it never occurred to me that I might have to euthanize uneaten live prey items myself. The care sheets don't tell you about that part. They also don't tell you that some snakes never take to F/T rodents and insist on freshly killed prey if they can't have live. In that case, the killing usually falls to the keeper or to the shop that sells the feeders.

Are you prepared to possibly have to kill prey animals yourself in order to feed your snake? Or to walk into a feeder shop and ask the sales person to kill it for you? (I asked my feed shop about that and got a very graphic description of how they kill the feeders and what it does to the bodies of the rodents. I almost tossed my cookies right there in the shop.)

Even if you choose to feed frozen/thawed prey items and your snake takes them, sometimes you have to poke holes in skulls and squeeze out brain matter or slit furry little bellies and pull out guts in order to get stubborn snakes to eat.

I'm being explicit for a reason; you need to know this happens. This isn't a neat and tidy hobby. There has to be killing involved and it isn't always pretty. If you're not willing to do the dirty, sometimes gruesome, work that may be necessary to feed your snake properly for its health, then this is not the hobby for you.

[kazz]

Originally Posted by phenyx

There has to be killing involved and it isn't always pretty.

Everything is easy . Newbies just must buy snake who eats f/t food.