Ray, i have fed some of mine live because they would refuse to eat dead and thankfully never had a problem but I've seen snakes that have been seriously hurt and killed due to being eaten by their dinner. If you feed live there is a proper way to do it. Restrained being the best option. Many of the large breeders though with upwards in the hundreds of BP's do not feed dead prey, in the snakekeepers video they place a live rat into a bin and close it, I actually backed it up to see again cause I couldn't believe they were feeding live unattended. I do see how much easier it would be to feed large numbers of snakes live rather than having to thaw out 300 rats only to have 1/2 refuse or having to thaw out more later. When i have to feed live I either feed restrained or sit over the open bin ready to snatch out the mouse if a problem occurs. Currently everyone eats FT though but it took 2 yrs with 3 of them to make that switch.
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Nita Hamilton
BALL PYTHONS!!
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