whisperingechos replied to your post: Papyrus is being moody and mean. Tried to bite me....
As a snake owner, I have to explain some things. For one, several snakes are picky, and will often refuse frozen. To keep them from starving you need to feed them live. There really is not another option.
Now I cant say Im very experienced with snakes but If you jiggle a warmed frozen rat in its face, how would it know that its dead?
In fact when I was considering getting a snake i did lots of research so that I could be ready to take care of it and I ran into stories about picky snakes and most people seemed to find that warming the prey (carefully of course, dont want to scald the snake) seemed to work fine. They just had to use forceps to jiggle the prey in front of the snake and the snakes feeding instincts kick in.
same thing happened with certain captive birds of prey, especially ones that are being rehabilitated. They might be to weak to hunt for real, but their hunting instincts need to stay intact so that can be released
Is it more work then just throwing a rat in there and letting nature take its course? Yep. But if youre not willing to work for your pet then why have it?
In the wild snakes can and do get killed by their prey fighting back. But this isnt the wild. Its a pet and personally I wouldnt be willing to risk my snakes life just so it can act more ‘wild’. Rats and mice can bite. Hard. Not to mention potential parasites that you snake can get from a poorly taken care of feeder.
