Omg aw
omg is this even real?
These pictures makes me angry.
I don't really condone live feeding except in the case of snakes that refuse to accept pre-killed even after multiple attempts with both frozen/thawed and freshly killed, but that isn't really the least of this fucked up situation.
Ball pythons are shy snakes and can be finicky when it comes to food. Their ubiquity in the pet trade means that they get picked up as a first snake for many owners, many of which don't know about ball pythons--that they can go off their feed if their conditions are off, or even just because. Fortunately, a healthy and previously well-fed ball python can go for quite a while without eating! In fact, there's a lot to suggest that captive-bred ball pythons get overfed, as in the wild they're primarily ambush predators and are eating ground-dwelling rodents that are much leaner than a captive-bred domestic mouse. I could tl;dr about this, but whatever, that's not what this post is about. Point is that a ball python that doesn't accept food may not be hungry or stressed, but it's not a big enough issue unless the snake goes months without eating or there are other health complications.
Some owners flip out and think that a live prey animal will stimulate their snake's appetite. But due to their shyness, ball pythons are more likely to curl into a ball than strike out at something they're not familiar with. With a shy snake and a scared mouse that can't flee, bad things happen. I've worked at a pet store and there were several times a customer returned a mouse/rat to us BECAUSE IT STARTED EATING THEIR SNAKE.
Speaking of that, you never walk away from a snake that has something like a live rodent in its cage. All it takes is one miss, or the snake being non-aggressive, and the mouse/rat could attack your snake. Just google "don't feed live ball python" for some gruesome pictures of what happens when you drop a live mouse in a ball python's cage and walk away for an hour. This can occur with just about any snake, but ball pythons get more of it because, as said before, they're shy and also common as fuck. When feeding live, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SUPERVISE. The only exceptions are with insects that cannot roam the enclosure freely. And for people who think it's natural that a snake should be fed live prey, YOU'RE KEEPING IT IN A GLASS/PLASTIC BOX. A ball python wouldn't come across a domestic mouse in the wild anyway! Also this mouse is too big for this snake!
Also this tank looks horrible if it's not a feeding tank. Like, I would hope it's a feeding tank, especially given the lack of visible hideboxes (but maybe there's one to the side?), but if the mouse and snake were together for five fucking days I doubt it's a feeding tank. It's not remotely a decent enclosure for a mouse.
tl;dr this isn't cute and is bad for both the mouse and the snake, don't do this. I've kind of stopped using my tumblr but this hit one of my pet issues, DON'T JUST THROW A LIVE MOUSE OR RAT IN WITH YOUR SNAKE, AND DON'T KEEP THEM LIKE THIS IN THE PHOTOS JUST BECAUSE IT'S CUTE. BALL PYTHONS ARE NOT SOCIAL, AND THIS IS CRUEL TO THE MOUSE TOO.
edit: actually fuck, I'm pretty sure this is a young rat? I've always been kind of terrible at telling young rats and adult mice apart, but if it's a rat and not a mouse, that's EVEN WORSE.
