GP as feeder

[kristinalee90]

Not sure if I'm stating the obvious but IME GP's mustn't be fed to snakes as the claws can do serious damage, live or not. Many years ago my brother once fed one of my GP to his capet python and it literally sliced the poor thing up on the inside (GP was dead), and the snake died soon after i feel like I should explain, my bro did not do this to test the theory and put his python at risk, he did not know and as my GP had died, we froze it for a month (kill bacteria) and figured, the snake eats rats and chicks, why not a GP? Years later we were told GP should not be fed live, or after being frozen with feet to any snake no matter what size.

[fuzzymom]

I definitely agree with not feeding a live GP to a snake as those claws can do some damage on the outside too. As far as frozen, I've never heard that but I guess in your brothers experience it proved true. Perhaps cutting the paws off prior to feeding could eliminate this risk?

I plan on breeding GP as feeders (in the future, no room right now) for snakes and other carnivorous pets so that you for this information.

[kristinalee90]

Yea if we had known we would have removed the feet altogether, but still fed the GP to the snake, just thrown out the feet. Since the GP had recently died, we figure why not, food is food, (we grew up on a farm/bushland) but figured if it wanted to if it was live, could maybe take a bite of the snake, not only scratch it up, so we were more concerned about the teeth. We know better now my bro now has 3 very happy fat pythons but we don't breed any more. I'd like to get back into it, but my partner wouldn't let me raise my own as he's only seen mice/rats etc as pets not food.

[Katt]

Ew, good to know! Poor snake!

*As an added note, captive snakes should NEVER be fed live prey. This is very dangerous to the snake and several snakes die every year from being attacked, killed, getting infections from bites, etc from live prey. Snakes should always be fed f/t prey for their safety.

[josiesmom]

Fuzzymom,
What do you plan to feed the GPS to?

Some pocket fuzz from my SG II

[fuzzymom]

This is always the subject of much debate in the reptile community but I will share my opinion on live feeding. Most, if not all of the live feeding accidents you hear about are the result of live feeders being left in cages with uninterested snakes. With no food, the rodents resort to nibbling on the snakes. In other cases if an extremely anxious and frightened rodent is put in the cage with an uninterested snake, the rodent could attack the snake out of fear.

If you go about live feeding in a proper manner it is not dangerous in the slightest. Personally I have a few snakes that WILL NOT eat frozen thawed. I have tried multiple times to convert them and it just doesn't happen. I have been keeping snakes for almost 6 years now and I have only ever had ONE snake injured during a live feeding, and this was due to human error. I had been feeding my corn snake frozen thawed for so long that she didn't really bother to constrict her prey anymore. One day I had a left over live mouse as one of the ball pythons didn't want to eat so I gave it to her. It bit her side when she didn't constrict it properly. The wound was mild, did not bleed and was gone within the next shed. Today, you'd never know she was bitten by the mouse.

Proper live feeding prevents this sort of thing. #1: Always supervise any live feeding. I do not leave the cage unless I see the snake strike and constrict and I always check to make sure the rodents head is in a position that it cannot bite the snake. #2: As I've learned with my corn snake it is best to feed live only to snakes who are already used to eating live. #3: Always feed the appropriate sized rodent. If you follow these simple rules there is very little chance of injury.

Josiesmom - I plan on feeding the guinea pigs to snakes as well as ferrets.