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[Lisa]

All our bp's eat F/T.
They've eaten f/t since day one. if they don't strike when we dangle the rat it goes to some one else (same with everything but our corns). I'm guessing we're lucky.

[mykee]

Pia, glad you asked that question. What I mean by restraining my prey is basically taking a rat, and holding it by the scruff of the neck, so that all the appendages stop moving (to mimic a mother carrying it) I replace my fingers with a pair of 16' locking hemostats. I do not give a gentle, loving grip, to the contrary, I grab as much neck skin as I can, ususally enough to not allow the rat to move his head. I lock the hemostats and place the rat in the enclosure, laying him on his side, and twist the hemostats so that any bit of fur that was loose is now tight. If done correctly, the rat is immobile. When my snake attacks and constricts it, I make sure he/she has a good grip, and remove the hemostat by sliding it out from between the rat and the snake. Voila!! No no rat bites, snakes are fed, no scratches, scarring, etc....All is good.

[marisa]

Just curious Mykee but if you already go through that procedure to feed live, why is that so much different from F/T?


Marisa

[Ballkingdom]

I could have gone about it nicely, but what good would it have done? He should have known full well prior to even owning that ball python that feeding live is stupid. And maybe I would have gone slightly lighter on him if he had at least tried. I probly wouldn't have been rude at all, except a snake was hurt. All the warnings were out there, right in plain site. If he'd been feeding live with no prob I'd have lectured him, but his snake got hurt because of sheer stupidity. Manners were left at the door when his piss poor husbandry caused serious harm for his snake. He already knew feeding live was dumb.

[mykee]

Ballkingdom, you haven't heard one word anyone in this post has said to you, have you?

Marisa, I have tried to get all of my BP's on F/T at one point. Almost half of them have converted, and for the others, I'm not going to starve for months (yes, months, not "three weeks" like Ballkingdom said) when they are perfectly happy eating live. I don't know about you guys, but when I find something that works with regards to my BP's eating, I'm sticking with it. They don't eat for a good enough portion of the year, I'm not going to deprive them of food when they'll eat it. Like I said, I am on the fence with this topic, since I feed both live and F/T, but since BK is being so.......... you know, I took offense and decided to defend myself for the 50% of my snakes that eat live. I would not recommend to anyone feeding their snakes live, because frankly, not many people would go through the preventative measures that I take to ensure the SAFETY of my live-eating balls. I understand that most people have their balls eating F/T, but when you have over 15 balls, you're not always going to bat 1000.