Yet another example of why not to feed live...

[vanderkm]

There is no doubt that feeding thawed prey is completely safe for the snake, and feeding live prey has risks, but the choice is not as easy as many of these posts imply. It can be very stressful and difficult to convert ball pythons to thawed prey, for both the owner and the snake.

We worked with a pair of 12 year old (WC) balls that had been given live until we got them. It was our decision to continue feeding live prey (gerbils) after attempting to switch them because the stress involved for them from prolonged stavation and repeated teasing with thawed prey that was scented, brained or presented from different angles, was worse (in my opinion) than the risk of a bite from the prey.

I was not prepared to make the snakes miserable continuously, to avoid the very low risk of a bad bite. I was also not willing personally to be constantly frustrated, to waste prey that was not eaten, or to deal with the hassle of a non-feeding snake, when the risk of a bad outcome was low if the situation was closely managed. Selfish, perhaps; but my choice, none the less.

My experience with snakes that are accustomed to feeding on live prey is that they are far better at striking accurately than those fed killed. These snakes relied on prey behaviour to signal them to strike and they were never fooled by stunned prey - in fact they were frightened of a thrashing, stunned gerbil and withdrew rather than striking. I don't think they recognized a slack, dead animal as food - they responded immediately to a live gerbil peeking into the hidebox and they didn't miss.

We never left the prey in unsupervised, we fed infreqeuntly enough that the snakes were hungry when prey was presented so they were in hunt mode, we signaled feeding was coming by misting the hide box to alert the snake, and we still had one instance where a snake was bitten while constricting the gerbil. It was a minor bite that healed without treatment. Certainly it could have been worse if it was the snake's eye, but, in my opinion, the risk of that is just not high enough to make me change my decision and make the snake's life miserable for months on end to convert him.

Based on our experience, I would never get a wild caught ball python, I would never start one on live prey, and I would never feed one a gerbil. I also have not changed my mind that we did what was best for these snakes and ourselves - I would choose to feed live if faced with the same decision now.

I advocate feeding only thawed prey, but I think it is important to remember that there is a balance between risk and benefit in any situation. Not all the snakes we keep nor the people we are in contact with can be forced to do things our way, nor should they be.


just an alternate point of view,


mary v.