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Post by jadieglitch on Mar 26, 2009 18:16:57 GMT -5
Depending on what I have available for my snakes, they either get live, humanely euthanized, or frozen/thawed prey.
What do you do for the ferrets? Do you just toss a mouse in with them and allow them to use their hunting instincts, or do you pre-kill??
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Post by jadieglitch on Mar 26, 2009 18:22:30 GMT -5
WHOOPS! This is in the wrong place, huh? I'm supposed to already have my ferret switched over to be here (I don't even have a ferret yet, lol).
Moderator: Please feel free to move this question to the appropriate place!
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 26, 2009 18:25:06 GMT -5
I throw them in live, right in front on my littlest female, she's the only one any good at it and she's fast and effective. She also knows when I'm calling her it means food and gets up and runs to the door. If she wasn't around I would prekill them as the rest of the group either lets the mouse run by like it's a new ferret friend or don't know how to kill quickly and would torture the poor thing to death. If a mouse manages to get away they have great fun chasing but are pretty terrible at finding it so I step in and catch. I wouldn't do this with larger prey but rabbits, rats and the like all have to be ordered in frozen anyways. Mice seem to be easy prey. My snake gets live as well.
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Post by sherrylynne on Mar 26, 2009 22:36:23 GMT -5
Mine get frozen, thawed. I couldn't handle the idea of having to kill it for them if they couldn't do the job(call me a wimp )!
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Post by Heather on Mar 27, 2009 0:53:34 GMT -5
My guys get frozen rats and live and frozen mice. They've hunted live rats but sometimes the rats were too large and the kill wasn't clean. I'm a huge softy so I couldn't let them play with their dinner. So now I get my rats from a lady who raises rats for her snakes, she humanely dispatches the rats and then freezes them for me. The mice I raise myself so usually what happens is my guys go on a major hunt and I just freeze the kills that they don't need to eat. Ferrets are very economical, they will keep killing as long as their food continues to show up. They usually stack them in the corners of the tub and I just pick them up, count them and then place them in a freezer container and put them in the freezer. ciao
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 27, 2009 8:44:08 GMT -5
Heather I can totally imagine ferrets stacking up mice like little food logs. Mine never get them in huge amounts so they kill them in their room and then Pandora runs to the tent or into a tunnel while Hobo will drag hers to the top shelf of the highest cage to stash. Then they run around trying to steal the others.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 27, 2009 13:38:34 GMT -5
I have some that will only feed live on live/"realistic" moving prey, so rats and mice are fed live. I have to say - I hate live feeding. Maybe its because I have seen the bad, the good, the uglier and the even uglier. Once the ferrets have latched onto the prey they are given 3-5 seconds before I will intervene and dispatch if the rat/mouse is still alive. They are pretty good about it though. They will take down adult live rats pretty easily and I have only once had to dispatch it myself. I dont bother with mice coz they are evil little gets with live feeding haha. Rabbit has to be a dragged carcass. Apart from the live feeders, I pre-kill. I am lucky enough to be able to breed alot of my own whole prey (quail, rabbits, mice, rats...) so I dispatch and feed straight away it possible. On the off chance I dont have prey of the right size/quantity I will take one out of the freezer and slowly warm it up in warm water.
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Post by bluedove on Mar 27, 2009 17:02:00 GMT -5
I must just be evil, LOL! It does not bother me a bit to feed live prey. In fact, I prefer it. I don't expect I would intervene in a kill unless the pet I am feeding were somehow in peril from the prey animal. Although if the pet only wounded the creature and then left it for dead, I would finish it off. But I'm fine with giving a good 5 mins to make the kill as I believe it is good for them to make their own kill... and I don't find that I am concerned for the stress or pain experienced by the prey animal...
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Post by nwheather on Mar 29, 2009 3:55:14 GMT -5
5 out of 8 of mine eat (live) whole prey, including Caiden, my newest rescue (a Real Canadian). Zena, was slow to learn, & does not kill them quickly, so I let someone else kill them for her, then she can eat it, which usually just nibbles...she's still getting the whole "eating whole prey thing"...she's a slow learner..LOL They will stack them if they're not going to eat all of them, so I gather them & freeze the extras. It doesn't bother me if they kill them quickly. I do not like them to suffer. Most of mine are very efficient at quickly killing them.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 31, 2009 14:33:36 GMT -5
Only one of mine is any good at hunting so she gets hers live (mice and smaller). Anything larger and it is pre-killed. I don't want to risk her getting hurt.
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Post by whipple on Mar 31, 2009 22:27:28 GMT -5
So I usually do feed live. But I now have 3 pet mice and a pet rat. So I might have to get a harder colder heart before I try again. Or just find meaner mice. The rat was too big either way. Dax can kill and eat a mouse in less then 30 seconds. I've timed him. So I know thats more humane then gassing them. That takes like 5 minutes. I hope to be getting some breeder mice soon though, then I can be sure they're mean. I just wont handle them. Then I have no trouble feeding them.
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 2, 2009 22:38:55 GMT -5
Also, I only feed live if I'm sure the ferret/cat is going to kill quickly. For instance, Damien would play with it and take his time in killing it therefore Damien is not allowed to kill his own. Twitch on the other hand doesn't waste time and does not torture her prey. I am concerned for the stress of the prey animal because I want the prey items to suffer as little as possible. Both cats that kill prey play with them so they are not allowed to kill their own prey. When they show that they can kill efficiently, then they can hunt their own prey.
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Post by nwheather on Apr 15, 2009 18:08:32 GMT -5
My two new girls, Flash & China have never had live prey before & both dispatched very quickly. So now I have 7 that will dispatch quickly & effectlively. Zena, who is *very* slowly catching on to whole prey feeding, does not dispatch hers quick, at all, so I have someone else to that for her & then she gets the mouse. I will be switching over to ordering pre-killed mice from RodentPro for a while, & hold off on anymore breeding of my own. I will likely resume when I get into a differenct house, although that may be a while.
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