Ubersaur'd

fireskink:

anotherhomestuck:

squeedge:

bowrll:

wow, not only is there shit and urates everywhere, they gave a live rat to the snake.  What a winner.

Stuff like this is why I had to stop browsing the “snake” tag on tumblr.

Let’s count how many things are wrong with this picture:

1. That tank is fucking nasty, holy hell.
2. Snake is being fed in said filthy tank. 
3. Live rat. Because that couldn’t possibly go wrong (gore warning).
4. Live rat let unattended with snake long enough for this to happen. If you simply have to feed your snake live prey, do not leave it unattended, ever. Safely REMOVE the prey if it is not eaten under your supervision.
5. Live prey being fed in the same tank the snake is kept in. Recipe for disaster. This increases the chances of missed or bad strikes exponentially, gives the prey hiding places, increases the likelihood of getting bitten when you put your hand in the tank (because now the snake will associate moving things in its space with food), and could result in your snake injuring itself trying to get at the prey.
6. Prolongs unnecessary suffering for the rat. This rat might look “peaceful” but ultimately, the rat is stuck in a tank with something that wants to eat it, and will fight for its life if it gets the chance.
7. No seriously, this is really dangerous for the snake. It would only take one major chomp on that ball’s head to kill it, I’m not kidding. 
8. Even if you think you are prepared to intervene should something go awry, there’s actually very little you can do once something goes wrong. You are not as quick as a rodent, and they have surprisingly powerful jaws that can easily bite right into muscle. Just one bite could lead to infection, blindness, scarring, or even death. Go to any reptile forum, people have dozens of horror stories to share about live feeding gone wrong.

This isn’t cute. This is the epitome of not cute, and an excellent example of irresponsible snake ownership. Whoever took this picture should be ashamed, g’damn.

It’s not difficult or expensive to buy feeder rats that were raised and euthanized humanely. It will save you money, it’s safer for the snake, safer for you, and cuts out the part where you pin a terrified animal up against your pet. Even if you cannot attain frozen mice from a petstore or supplier, it’s still safer to freeze and thaw yourself before feeding. It’s also very possible to switch from live TO frozen, and I personally believe should be attempted no matter how picky you think your snake is.

Sorry gonna be a downer

My friend has a snake and they feed it live food? In fact they breed their own mice, not rats, for it to eat? and just kinda toss it in watch for a while and go do whatever? And the snake eats it quickly? Because they were told to by the person they bought it from?

Sure if its taking its fucking sweet time and the mice/rat goes to sleep, get it out of there, cause most likely the snake  isnt hungry (GASP something living not hungry? OH THE SCANDAL) But face it, snakes are preditors they like some play once in awhile. They dont have much room to move in and snakes are big.

As for the cage it looks fine to me but im no expert so dont hold me to that. But maybe they were about to clean it? Who are we to say?

And as for playing, well they always take it out to play with about once or twice a week. Since they’ve been doing this for a long time its quite friendly and used to humans? But again, im no expert, and im starting to sound like a jack ass so ill just shut up now yeah…

You sounded like a jackass from the first sentence. Should have stopped while you were ahead.

The cage is filthy, yes, the fake carpet is discolored from feces and the defecation/urates present not only looks old but unhealthy/irregular. So you can mark that off your check list. Ball pythons eat once a week and in general poop once a week, and when fed regularly ball pythons don’t poop on the day they are fed, so either this owner is A: really bad about feeding their snake on a proper schedule or B: has left that in there for at least a day, but likely more.

Feeding live is a bad idea. It should only be done in dire circumstances where the snake would rather starve itself to death than accept live prey. Its not a humane death for the rat, and it can very quickly mean death for the snake. It takes only one well placed bite from a sufficiently sized rat to kill a snake, and that doesn’t take a long time to happen. I have a burmese python who was fed live his entire life by his old owner, and he’s COVERED in scars from rat bites- all of which appear to have occurred after constriction began. One of the benefits for snakes in captivity is the fact the danger in obtaining their meals can be removed entirely, but a lot of owners chose not to for the entertainment factor or misguided, ass-backwards reasons, and that is horse shit.

That’s not even covering the fact that this poor thing is sitting in a crowded corner with another living animal sleeping on top of it, evidence that it has no proper hide which is VERY important for ball python health, that the rat has been in there for awhile to get comfy, and that the snake has been frozen there and unwilling to eat the rat long enough to let it settle in.

If you ARE experienced with snake keeping, this species in particular, this simple snapshot sets off a million warning bells. I happen to be one of those experienced people, and I must say squeedge is right and you’re wrong, the end.

reblog for snake education