general What is it with people feeding snakes the "wrong" animals?

[FirePuppy 640]

I've seen a lot of YouTube videos where snakes (like boas and pythons) get their food from animals like mice, rabbits, chickens, etc.. Often times, the animal screams in pain at the moment of the blow.

What are your reactions to things like this?

[Gestum 2,493]

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. Can you please explain it?

[FirePuppy 640]

1 minute ago, Gestum said:

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. Can you please explain it?

OK. Here's what I mean: It starts off with the snake and its prey in the exact same location, and after a few moments, the snake strikes at its prey (either a mouse, rabbit, chicken, or another animal), then constricts it. While this happens, the prey often screams in pain (and sometimes, tries to escape but fails).

Why do some people have a "bad" habit of making something like this happen?

[Steve Piranha 28,887]

5 minutes ago, FirePuppy said:

OK. Here's what I mean: It starts off with the snake and its prey in the exact same location, and after a few moments, the snake strikes at its prey (either a mouse, rabbit, chicken, or another animal), then constricts it. While this happens, the prey often screams in pain (and sometimes, tries to escape but fails).

Why do some people have a "bad" habit of making something like this happen?

Snakes need to eat as well yo

[Guest]

Are you asking about the moral ambiguity of feeding snakes live food? I think it's distasteful to make a show of it, but unfortunately that is one carnal aspect to owning large snakes that attract a lot of people.

[SharpWit 2,483]

I'm not sure what you mean by wrong animals. They might not all be a snake's natural prey but my understanding is that they're opportunistic to some degree, and I don't know what else you'd feed them that's cheap, readily available, and to their liking.

As far as the method of using live rather than pre killed prey, I see a few benefits. Live prey can be breed and raised so there's a continuous supply, it's fresh and can be fed to your snake at any time, and you don't have the problem of storing it in your freezer and having to thaw it out. Snakes aren't necessary the most active of animals, they like to conserve energy, so allowing them to kill their prey themselves is a way to get them active and stimulated. Although I said that snakes can be opportunistic, they can also be picky. Snakes don't always eat what you've thawed out for them because it doesn't give off a heat signature or move about, so it doesn't appear like a source of food, and the smell and texture could be off as well depending how long you kept something for. I don't know how much a snake's stomach can handle as far as disease and decomposition, but maybe a corpse would naturally pose as a health risk.

I cringe at seeing other animals suffering but I'll also admit that under circumstances like the constriction process of a python, I'm fascinated as well because it's so different. However I'm not going to blame a snake for it's methods because they're only acting on instinct. So if the prey animal suffers in the process then that's something you have to deal with because there might not be a better way.

[RDDash 18,886]

21 minutes ago, FirePuppy said:

OK. Here's what I mean: It starts off with the snake and its prey in the exact same location, and after a few moments, the snake strikes at its prey (either a mouse, rabbit, chicken, or another animal), then constricts it. While this happens, the prey often screams in pain (and sometimes, tries to escape but fails).

Why do some people have a "bad" habit of making something like this happen?

Have no idea, I suppose they prefer it for the snake to hunt its prey, and not devour the dead animal.

[Earl Grey Ghost 444]

Alright, I am a person who has owned snakes in the past and absolutely adore them as pets.

You can choose to feed a domesticated snake live or frozen. There is debate on which is better for a pet snake in captivity. Personally, it can depend on the snake and what it was raised on before you purchased the animal. I had a ball python that I fed live mice. It kept his instincts sharp and it was a natural urge to hunt I refused to take from him.

Then I had a baby ball python and the pet store had given him "pinkies" which are flash frozen baby mice that don't even have their fur yet, thus "pinkies". All you did was soak them in warm water to defrost them, then dropped them in the cage. He took them quite well. As he grew up, I advanced to live.

Snakes are animals that eat other animals, it doesn't matter how cute or fluffy, if you don't like the idea of seeing a snake eat naturally, then I suggest not to buy one. It's that simple. 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,284]

3 hours ago, FirePuppy said:

I've seen a lot of YouTube videos where snakes (like boas and pythons) get their food from animals like mice, rabbits, chickens, etc.. Often times, the animal screams in pain at the moment of the blow.

What are your reactions to things like this?

Just a question. Why are you watching videos you don't approve of?

[FirePuppy 640]

12 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

Just a question. Why are you watching videos you don't approve of?

Don't know why really, but I do know that sometimes these videos become so disturbing that they get removed for “violent content”.

[Guest]

I don't think there's anything exactly 'wrong' with snakes eating like they do in the wild. They're living things with the need to eat too and they don't really care about what people find uncomfortable to watch.

While I also don't feel like filming a snake eating is necessary, I can't stop people from doing it. The best way to go about your day would be just not watching such content. If you keep watching that stuff just to make yourself feel bad, I have no idea what to tell you.

[Twilight Dirac 720]

As other posters have pointed out, snakes eat in the wild by either swallowing live prey whole or constricting live prey and then swallowing it.  It's simply how they hunt.  When you have them in captivity, you generally feed them the same way.  I wasn't even aware you could feed them dead animals until Mori mentioned the frozen mice. 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Twilight Dirac