feeding live pinkys??

[snakeman]

I would be more worried about what parasites you are exposing your snakes to by feeding wild live pinkies to your snakes.I am assuming they were not bought at a pet shop.

[infernalis]

A coworker was cleaning up out side the shop and found a mouse nest w/ 4 babies. Itook them home and offered them to all three garters only one ate them, my female that just had a clutch.

That would have been my impression Tom.

I would be more worried about what parasites you are exposing your snakes to by feeding wild live pinkies to your snakes.I am assuming they were not bought at a pet shop.

I agree with you there. I can locate mouse nests in my back yard any day, I just leave them be.

My (wild) Eastern milks need to eat too.

[prattypus]

Being lazy, I didn't read all four pages, but wanted to toss out my two cents. Mine go for the F/T pinkies and tilapia, but on the occastion that they get some guppies, they go in with a bowl of water, as they will not go after still fish.

[snakeman]

live fish,live pinks what's the difference?good point prattypus.

[mtolypetsupply]

Parasites and diseases aside, I don't see a problem with feeding the mice found in a human-inhabitated area to the snake. Having been around barns and horses for nigh on 30 years, I've seen many mouse nests deliberately crushed with the heel of a boot. To me, that is cruel and a waste of food. (PS- the barn cats no longer got so much Meow Mix available to them after the humans found the nests.)

Taking parasites and disease into account, I'd just put them outside for the predators.

That's just me though.

[Stefan-A]

Parasites and diseases aside, I don't see a problem with feeding the mice found in a human-inhabitated area to the snake.

Ingested poisons and other toxic substances they may have come in contact with. You have no control over what they eat. If you want to use wild rodents, you're better off catching them far from any human-inhabited areas, which sort of prevents the use of wild house mice. There was even a story in a recent issue of a local gun magazine about a case where mice had actually chewed on wax-covered lead bullets. The interesting thing was that there were no pieces of lead left lying around, so the mice must have actually swallowed the lead. Frankly, mice will chew on and eat anything and there's plenty of harmful stuff in human-inhabited areas.

[mtolypetsupply]

Ingested poisons and other toxic substances they may have come in contact with. You have no control over what they eat. If you want to use wild rodents, you're better off catching them far from any human-inhabited areas, which sort of prevents the use of wild house mice. There was even a story in a recent issue of a local gun magazine about a case where mice had actually chewed on wax-covered lead bullets. The interesting thing was that there were no pieces of lead left lying around, so the mice must have actually swallowed the lead. Frankly, mice will chew on and eat anything and there's plenty of harmful stuff in human-inhabited areas.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I should have said something to the effect of, "Contaminants of any kind aside, I have no ethical problems with feeding...."

I see how feeding wild caught anything could be problematic. But I have no problem feeding live pinkies, even with f/t being readily available.

[drache]

I don't have terribly much of a problem with other people feeding live pinks, if that's their vice of choice
I myself tried it once because I had a non-feeding snake, but neither the non-feeder, nor most of my other snakes were interested in their food being that fresh, so I was stuck with a handful of little rodents I had no accommodations for and who were complaining vociferously - it was awful
fortunately, the one snake who was willing to eat them, was hungry enough to eat them all
I wouldn't put the feeding of live prey quite in the same category as dog-fighting, and yet I do believe it to be a spectator thing, rather than anything that benefits the snake

[infernalis]

A point I'd like to bring up, mice found close to humans may have already eaten from decon bait blocks, not worth the risk to me.

On another note, having been breeding mice for a year now, I could never use poison or traps again, I prefer to make my "area" less mouse friendly, so they will chose to be somewhere else instead.

[guidofatherof5]

Imagine the delight a Garter feels when it comes across a nest of pinkies(all you can eat buffet). The way mine gobble them down I can just imagine.
It also makes me think of the positive human invironmental impact these snakes have. Since so many of them live in close proximity to us they must really help keep the mouse population in check. I'm sure a med. size Garter could eat a nest of pinkies without too much trouble.

It's just another reason for use to protect them. I know how I feel about the wild mice who come into my home and having Garters eat them is a safe,clean way to get rid of them.
"Thamnophis to the rescue"