I’ve stumbled across videos on YouTube that show snake owners feeding them a live rate or rabbit or whatever. Some people in the comments say well that’s just nature, others say it’s animal abuse. What do you think?
On reddit I saw a snake owner saying what they normally do is kill the prey beforehand with a CO2 chamber and freeze it, and that there’s no reason to feed live. Like the snakes don’t need it. If that’s true I guess it’s needless suffering then. Weird that these videos are so available on YouTube then.
I will preface this by saying that I feed my snake frozen-thawed
That said, I’ve killed enough pest mice in my lifetime that I no longer feel sympathy for them. They’re cute for sure, but they’re not so cute when they break your oven/range by building a nest in it and shitting everywhere, or by eating all of your food and costing you hundreds of dollars. The only traps that work for city mice are glue traps, and I usually finish them off with a crossbow so they don’t suffer for long.
Regardless I’m personally against live feeding. A live animal can cause harm to a snake. It will also tend to shit and pee everywhere because it’s terrified, rightfully so. I’ve also seen enough mice die from poison traps that I would never EVER give my snake a wild mouse
On reddit I saw a snake owner saying what they normally do is kill the prey beforehand with a CO2 chamber
That’s a horrible way to die. When you feel like suffocating it’s not lack of oxygen but excess carbon dioxide. Breathing in pure CO2 causes instant panic attack on even people with a brain damage making them unable to feel fear. Nitrogen is the gas you want to use - CO2 is among the worst possible choices. Even drowning them would probably be more humane.
So you’re saying it’s like the lethal injection? Not actually a peaceful way to die but just looks so to outsiders?
Yeah, I worked in a biology lab that regrettably used co2 for euthanizing mice. They would struggle, and begin to thrash uncontrollably as they ran out of oxygen, then they would slow down until they are just barely twitching before all movement completely ceases. It’s a disgusting way to die.
I used to keep a lot of spiders and they will only eat live prey, so I’d say no. However if pre-killing was an option, I’d use it.
Also: Don’t use mammals as spider food. It’s a total mess and not very nice to clean up. I tried it once but stuck to crickets after that.
There’s no way this is going to end well.
Here’s an ugly truth.
If a person is going to take on the responsibility of caring for an animal, they are supposed to give it all the care it needs. No limits to that.
Snakes as pets are a horrible idea. They can’t be domesticated, the best you can hope for is a snake that’s not aggro. This isn’t to say they aren’t just as wonderful as domesticated animals, they are. But there’s really no such thing as a pet snake, only a captive snake.
That’s not a value judgement. I’m not saying that it’s bad or wrong to keep reptiles, IDGAF as long as they’re being kept healthily in all respects.
Which means that nothing involved in keeping a snake is “natural” at all, because the snake would never strike up a deal with a human to exchange food for company. Again, natural doesn’t equal good or better, I’m using the term in the limited definition here.
Trying to pretend that feeding a snake live animals is better for the snakes is, frankly, bullshit. They’re in an enclosed space, so the truth is that the risks outweigh any rewards in terms of the snake’s well being. Even if live food provides them with some degree of mental health benefit, small mammals fight if they’re alive and awake. Snakes get injured this way, regularly.
Since there’s other ways to stimulate them into eating dead mammals without that risk, it’s a pretty shitty caregiver that opts for live feeding.
Has nothing to do with the idea of animal abuse because before you even get to the question of that, the practice falls short of its stated goal: giving the snake the best overall care while captive.
As far as why they’re available on YouTube, the platform allows a wide range of stuff that’s not necessarily in line with YouTube’s stated criteria. The company doesn’t give a fuck about animal welfare, it cares about selling ad space. It doesn’t care about anything else. That’s because it’s a company being run by yet another dickhead ceo that, by choice or by necessity of fiduciary duty, does not give a fuck about anything other than stock values. That’s always the answer to anything “why does YouTube X?”
For real, if YouTube’s owners thought that videos of decapitation and rape wouldn’t lose them ad sales, they would not care.
Do you eat meat from the grocery store or a restaurant? Are you 100% certain of its sourcing? I would argue factory farms are far crueler long torture than a snake eating a mouse which happens quickly. Not saying any one is humane, but I don’t think it’s the worst animal abuse to focus on.
