feeding live pinkys??

[infernalis]

vagrans are known to grab a mouse and wrap a coil or 2 around them....don't actually constrict and suffocate the mouse, but do hold it so they can eat and also helps restrain the mouse while the saliva mildly sedates the mouse....I have seen this myself with some wild caught vagrans.

my only vagrans is still a baby, but man does it eat.

[Elliot]

my only vagrans is still a baby, but man does it eat.

Mine isn't a baby, and it resembles a black hole when it's fed. Pinkies are way too small, so I think I'm going to move it to fuzzies or hoppers seeing as how it can take 3 pinkies a feeding.

[infernalis]

She's almost ready for pinks....

[Stefan-A]

I still don't see anything wrong with it, and I never will! My opinion on live feeding will never change...

And why is that?

[snakeman]

I can't believe this thread generated 6 pages.I am all for feeding lions live zebras.If they are going to keep them in cages at least let them have some fun.I am not a big fan of zoos.Certain animals do not belong in cages in my opinion,which is all this thread is about.Peoples opinions.There is no right or wrong in feeding live or dead.

[infernalis]

I can't believe this thread generated 6 pages.I am all for feeding lions live zebras.If they are going to keep them in cages at least let them have some fun.I am not a big fan of zoos.Certain animals do not belong in cages in my opinion,which is all this thread is about.Peoples opinions.There is no right or wrong in feeding live or dead.

I have mixed feelings on the Zoo subject Tom, Some species are so close to extinction that Zoos play an important role in species preservation, for that I say hell yeah.

On the other side of that double edge sword is the animals that should have been left in the natural environment, but I think that bears and raccoons, etc.. help to bolster attendance and educate the public, thus providing funds for preservation and helps teach people why it is important to do our part.

Further, many of the "common" animals found in zoos are either rehabilitated or seized animals that stand a better chance for survival in a captive environment, Like eagles that have been shot in the wing by some moron with a .22, or I know personally of a red fox that had been a "pet" and later dumped off in the median of interstate 4 near Orlando, the creep who had this fox as a "pet" severed it's tail and hung it from his rear view mirror, and was subsequently arrested as a concerned citizen wrote down his license plate numbers as it happened.

In a certain way we are all somewhat selfish, we keep wild animals captive for our own personal pleasure.

my point was merely that snakes who swallow their prey live make up a tiny percentage of snakes overall, to a point that it was not worth mentioning for another paragraph.

Shannon, please note that this is a Garter snake forum, hence the name "Thamnophis.com" and with that in mind, our primary topics of discussion are supposed to be Thamnophis. and that "small percentage" of snakes you mention in your reply are quite simply the very snakes we are supposed to be discussing here on a garter snake forum.

My opinion on live feeding will never change.

And why is that?

Here I agree (once more) with Stefan, Opinions should always be subject to change, it marks growth and learning.


Thankfully I save text files of everything, The forum had a DNS gateway failure just as I hit "submit reply"....copy/paste rules!

[drache]

I'm still not convinced that eating live prey is more "fun" for animals
to me that is just somebody's fantasy
nobody has ever measured pleasure waves in snakes' brains, and they don't smile or wag their tails
while it is true that many wild caught snakes may not recognize dead food, just as many do and readily take it
when a snake readily takes dead food and you decide live is more fun, who's fun are you talking about?
again - disclaimer:
I have absolutely no problem feeding live when the snakes survival or even health is at stake, but beyond that I consider it unnecessary
so, I wonder - do people actually seriously consider it necessary for their snake to have that particular kind of "fun"?
I mean - whatever floats your boat, man, but I hope you understand that the snake having "fun" is - after retyping about twenty times - delusion? serious denial? rationalization?
what I mean to say is that it's your stuff and leave the snake out of it

[Stefan-A]

I can't believe this thread generated 6 pages.I am all for feeding lions live zebras.If they are going to keep them in cages at least let them have some fun.

What about the zebras?

Besides, it's probably not much fun for the lions to have jaws, legs or ribs broken by live zebras' hooves. And definitely not in their best interest.

[infernalis]

What about the zebras?

Isn't being torn apart by lions fun?

[Stefan-A]

Isn't being torn apart by lions fun?

Make it a cape buffalo and it'll be more even.