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Question: Why is it normal to feed pet snakes mice, but when it comes to feeding them to dogs its terrible?

(Posted by: A Betta World Rules on 2010-01-25 10:47:39)

Posted by: ♥Love♥ is a German Shepherd Dog on 2010-01-25, 10:54:35

Feeding what to whom? My 5 foot boa receives 1 extra large rat a month (2 a month during warmer weather). Zeke, my adult german shepherd, ALSO gets an extra large rat at the same time to eat, fur and all. He LOVES it. Zeke ALSO lives with 7 rats, that get an hour of free roam time a night. youtube.com/ watch?v= sGFxkviWZc4 youtube.com/ watch?v= Lk3Bu3tFuIU &feature= channel LMAO The corn snake hatchlings get pinkies every week, and sometimes I buy pinkies to feed to the rats (who LOVE eating meat). I would NEVER feed pinky rats to the rats, cannibalism is just wrong and can lead to MAJOR health problems! Look how we fvcked with cows and caused mad cow disease! EMILY, study some actual biology and anatomy before spouting off myths. Dogs are CARNIVORES. Plain and Simple. And yes, you are right, they have no real need for LIVE prey. But whole DEAD prey animals are as nutritious as you can get as far as doggy diets go. BTW, no real hunting instinct? Have you ever heard of PREY DRIVE?

Posted by: Rayven ~ Life's a B on 2010-01-25, 10:53:10

Because apparently things like Guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and mice are only prey for snakes and lizards in some people's minds. And besides unlike snakes and lizards dogs have ZERO problem eating an already dispatched animal so the animal is not suffering to be someone's meal. Katie - what are you talking about? who said ANYTHING about feeding live rodents to dogs? And large snakes don't eat pinkies.

Posted by: ♥Chigirl on 2010-01-25, 10:59:41

It's not terrible either way, you just have to ignore people's opinions. If your dog is a good mouser, then you should happy, he/ she will keep the mice away. You shouldn't let your dog ingest a rodent if it has had contact with poison though, keep that in mind. I use to have a corn snake, even though he ate Pinkies, they were alive, I know because I bred my own mouse population to feed him. In the wild, pinkies are not frozen & then fed upon. OMG, like the world of Y/ A! needs another bunny hugger.

Posted by: ξBindi§ on 2010-01-25, 10:59:45

I tried feeding whole rats to my dogs once. Only thing they've really refused to eat so I won't do it again. If they liked them I'd have no problem feeding them again. Haven't tried mice, the cat might like them, but the dogs would swallow them like they weren't there. My dogs absolutely love frozen whole rabbits though.

Posted by: Emily on 2010-01-25, 11:04:20

Actually, feeding live mice could constitute cruelty to animals, and a subsequent charge in several states. Even in zoos, feeding live prey is not common practice at all. Responsible owners will feed frozen and then thawed mice to their snakes, obtained from companies specifically breeding mice and rats for food. ((My family worked in raptor recovery, and were a rehab and educational-resource home for hawks, owls, and eagles... the birds ate mice, which we got frozen from the woman who ran RR in Nebraska... bred and raised on her property, and humanely killed.)) Dogs are omnivores, and have no necessity for live prey. Most dogs, domesticated as they are, do not have the same "hunting instinct " necessary to eat live prey anyway. Most dogs would "play " with the mouse, causing undue suffering to the animal. Which is just cruel.