# Feeding snakes with animals that are usually pets.



## Doodles (Aug 4, 2007)

Not trying to start an arguement so mods please close thread if it goes that way.

Would any of you use stillborn puppies kittens etc as food? Would you also consider using the family cat if it does from something that wouldn't make the snake ill?

Personally I have no problem with it and would be quite happy to be used as food when I die.

What is everyones opinion?


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

Maybe stillborns I would, rather than go to waste.

A family pet I wouldn't. Our first dogs that died we had cremated and scattered the ashes. It's just for my personal mental happiness but I would rather think of my beloved pets either being buried somewhere, or being scattered into a tree or a walking spot etc. than being a pile of snake poo! For the same reason I suppose people scatter relatives or like a grave site to go to.

I don't really have a problem recycling animals that have died of natural causes although I would be against farming of cats/dogs as snake food as it would be totally unnecessary when we have healthier, easier and more humane alternatives. 

But things like my dogs & my cats I treat like family, and I wouldn't chop my mum or my aunt or a cousin up to feed to animals and I wouldn't recycle a family pet in such a way either.


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## essexchondro (Apr 9, 2007)

I would have no moral objections to feeding cats or dogs to snakes (I don't think its even illegal to breed them for that specific purpose?) but I think the biggest issue to this would be that people wouldn't want to proactively kill their healthy pet cat/dog to feed to their snake and waiting for your cat/dog to die before feeding might not be very healthy for the snake; what did the pet cat/dog die from and could it kill the snake too, or at least render the cat/dog a less than ideal meal from a nutritional standpoint?

Lets not forget, also, that many people keep mice and rats as pets...so we're already effectively feeding animals that are pets to many people, anyway!

Stuart


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## Moosmoo (Jul 21, 2008)

I've often thought about this, I read one thing about feeding leos / other geckos to ackies and that kinda upset me, but i guess in places these are considered pests or just normal things like mice.

However the Chinese DO have a problem with abandoned babies...


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## essexchondro (Apr 9, 2007)

> I've often thought about this, I read one thing about feeding leos / other geckos to ackies and that kinda upset me, but i guess in places these are considered pests or just normal things like mice.
> 
> However the Chinese DO have a problem with abandoned babies...


I used to keep oriental whip snakes (_Ahaetulla prasina_) that needed to be fed on live geckos.


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## Moosmoo (Jul 21, 2008)

essexchondro said:


> I used to keep oriental whip snakes (_Ahaetulla prasina_) that needed to be fed on live geckos.


Cant be cheap lol


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## Flutterbye (May 14, 2008)

Its all done live in the wild with a menu full of variety all bone crunching, suffocating and blood guts etc.

This is why i don't batter an eyelid when feeding defrost to my snakeys...when people whinge and moan saying its sick its not right...my god i wish they'd get a grip...come back down to earth...preferably face first as i am just mean :lol2:

I used to keep mice when i was younger, those mice were my pets....but mice that live in my freezer that i have no emotional attachment to...doesn't bother me at all. For a split second i think 'awww it looks like they're sleeping' an observation but then tiz dinner time for snakeys.

As for feeding dogs cats etc not for me personally as i keep smaller species of snake. But why the hell not eh? China eats dogs and cats....kill them quite brutally too!


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## essexchondro (Apr 9, 2007)

> Cant be cheap lol


You can source house gecko's for about £1.50 each...but it was still costing me about £20 a month to feed the 4 snakes. If they'd been rodent eaters it would have cost about £5 per month.


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## stuartdouglas (Mar 5, 2008)

I would have no problem with feeding stillborn animals to snakes. I would have no problems breeding animals for food. The moral difficulties would be encountered when breeding dogs, cats etc which are effectively anthropomorphised by people. Although why would you want to feed dogs or cats when you can buy piglets, large rabbits, lambs etc already dead?


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## essexchondro (Apr 9, 2007)

> I would have no problem with feeding stillborn animals to snakes. I would have no problems breeding animals for food. The moral difficulties would be encountered when breeding dogs, cats etc which are effectively anthropomorphised by people. Although why would you want to feed dogs or cats when you can buy piglets, large rabbits, lambs etc already dead?


I suppose the answer to that question would be that, to some people, pigs, rabbits, lambs etc are more like pets than cats or dogs.


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## Daredevil (Jul 10, 2007)

I see no problem with it. What makes a cat or dog any different to a rat or rabbit apart from the obvious size difference. If the animal is dead anyway it might as well got to use and help another animal stay alive. I'm not sure if illnesses and diseases from mammals from can affect reptiles, but if not then whats the problem with it? I also wouldn't have any problem with people breeding snakes to feed to reptiles, nor have any problems with people feeding their dead snakes to any snakes they have that only eat other snakes or that have snakes in their natural diet.


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## reptiles_galore (Aug 13, 2008)

we eat lamb


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## Nikolai Nielsen (Aug 12, 2008)

I wouldn't feed with cats and dogs as I can't maintain a steady flow of them to feed with, but I have no issues what so ever with other people doing it. It's just the same as a rat or rabbit, some people just tend to think differently about it.


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## Prettyjoby (Aug 11, 2008)

No logical reason why not.

I loathe blatant hypocrasy

We eat pigs (well not me personally) but most people do. So, its proven that pigs are at LEAST of equal intelligence and awareness as dogs are.

If its okay to eat pigs, its okay to eat dogs. Same with snakes. Okay to eat a mouse, okay to eat a hampster, ok to eat a kitten.

One point where I would draw the line is that I wouldn't feed Sammie (my dog ) to peddlebin if she died. not because it would be in anyway wrong but because my emotional attachment would make doing so too traumatic. If it was just A dog, then quite frankly I cant see why it would be any different to feeding a baby pig to a burm.

Personally I don't eat fish or meat, but I am well aware that my snakes have to. I'm not going to differentiate about one meat or another. That kinda irrational labelling I shall leave to other people.

(Again just my opinion and therefore I refuse to respond to any flaming I might get for voicing it)


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## *mogwai* (Feb 18, 2008)

no flames coming from this direction

meat is meat. i wouldn't feed my dog or cat to the snake for 3 reasons, my snake is only a corn, i wouldn't be happy incase they'd died of anything that could harm my snake and my dog and cat are like members of the family and as a general rule i'd try to not let my snake eat family members. 

however, i recently rescued a bunny who was preggers (didn't know at the time) if any of those babies had been stillborn, they'd have prolly gone in the freezer.


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## Robbie (Dec 4, 2006)

Rodents and the like; no.
I would feel immoral feeding say a stilborn puppy. I'd die myself of guilt if I had to feed a ferret kit (stilborn).


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## sarahking20 (Apr 12, 2008)

hi, Sarah's OH here!!

my arguement is i have eaten monkey, elephant, osterich, rabbit, frogs legs, snails, aligator, pig, lamb, deer, cow, chicken, pidgeon, phesant...well you get the point, the list goes on!! 

all of the above are/can be kept as pets, so why not feed a snake cat, dog, rabbit etc?

we get snails from our local rep shop for our skink, but we have to tell them we are keeping them as pets, as they wont sell them as food.

snakes are quite a delicacy (sp?) in some places too, and yes, given the chance i would try it.

if they can safely eat it, they why not? but saying that i would not eat/feed something else an animal that i have cared for and kept as a pet, as ppl tend to emotionally connect with their pets

:2thumb:


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## sparky1510 (Jun 1, 2008)

meat is meat if its a pet with emotional attachment its different but stillborns and the like why not why let it go to waste


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

when my dogs die (which will be never!) i'm going to have them cremated and ashes put in a nice box with a little plaque with their name engraved on it, a nice message and their to and from dates.

somehow i can't imagine a snake turd sitting in the box, holding as many memories for me. All i'd have to remember them by is a rotting turd in a box and my final memory of them being crushed and sliding down my royals gullet.


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## Prettyjoby (Aug 11, 2008)

Meko said:


> when my dogs die (which will be never!) i'm going to have them cremated and ashes put in a nice box with a little plaque with their name engraved on it, a nice message and their to and from dates.
> 
> somehow i can't imagine a snake turd sitting in the box, holding as many memories for me. All i'd have to remember them by is a rotting turd in a box and my final memory of them being crushed and sliding down my royals gullet.



LOL this did make me laugh! I can see your point tho, most people wouldnt feed their own pet to a snake, and that probably includes pet rodents too.


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## Issa (Oct 13, 2006)

I'd probably try and avoid it to be honest. It'd be just my luck that whatever I fed the cat to (for example only, before anyone gets the wrong idea!) would imprint and only eat feline from then on.


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## Starshine Tara (Jun 22, 2008)

Nature is all about minimizing waste. 

I would have no hesitation.

Tara xxx

: victory:


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