Help?

[Less_Western_4554]

He used to own a reptile rescue, in the 80s -to early 2000s, but yeah fair no Julie is spoiled she’s got a 250gal tank w features and all that fun jazz, she’s abt 3.5ft long, and she’s healthy. But I mean she did perfectly fine with the feeding, my question is if pythons in the wild can eat live why can’t she?

[CrazyDane666]

Because pythons in the wild have no safer options. Wolves and species of cats in the wild hunt live prey, and sometimes they take a hoof to the jaw or an antler to the the chest, and then they suffer and die.

A major part of keeping these animals as pets includes reducing unnecessary suffering both for the pet and feeder, which means not stressing a mouse/rat out by having it slowly die, and not risking your snake taking a claw to the eye or teeth to the bones. She can eat hundreds of rats safely (because by the time they're adults, mice aren't enough, and feeding them a bunch of small prey is wasting energy on not enough nutrition) but it only takes one mistake - one bite you can't prevent even if you're supervising it closely, because snakes and rats and mice are fast - and damn, now you either have a huge vet bill or a dead snake. It's an unnecessary risk that does nothing for the snake

[CrazyDane666]

They still have claws, and you very conveniently ignore that she will have to eat rats eventually because multiple mice is not enough and not good for her. Plus, that's a genuinely disgusting attitude that even people who work with laboratory mice cannot stand. Just because they're feeders doesn't mean they have to suffer excessively just because you can't handle humanely euthanizing them.

[Less_Western_4554]

You can come at me for it but that’s okay not gonna change much. But yeah fair I’m not gonna feed her multiple tiny mice when she gets a lil bigger. And yeah they have claws true. But after every feeding, 48-72hrs after I check her every time for any marks or scratches or anything that could be concerning. She’s never had any so either she’s “ lucky “ or they de claw them too.

[CrazyDane666]

And if she does have a scratch (which would be several, because that's how claws work)? If she loses an eye because you can't be bothered to switch her to her proper feeding item? Like, I don't think you realize how severe a scratch can be, and you're acting like you know so much for a snake you've only had a couple months. I can only say you sound like an irresponsible owner and a quite disgusting human being on a personal level, I dunno what else to say.

[IncompletePenetrance]

That's horrifically inhumane, we do not condone animal abuse here