Do you feed your pets live animals?

[birdgirl]

I've never tried giving Hammie bugs or worms but I do feed my fish (Hogan) other small fish and some times shrimp.

[Jenny]

Every once in a while my birds will sneak some chicken or tuna, and my cat loves that too! (of course) I've never tried feeding my conures bugs, but I'm almost positive that they'd ignore them, I mean, they're not used to "moving" things like that! Even my brother's uromastyx ignores meal worms and bugs. I guess my cat is the only one who eats other animals all that much, since she's an outdoor cat and isnt' always satisfied with the amount of food we give her since she's about 4 lbs. overweight! (At least hunting burns calories, though!)

[somnseph]

I had a turtle that we used to feed worms to, and my dog will eat just about anything...but I couldn't ever feed my turtle the worms: it just seemed too heartless, in a way... but I guess I kinda qualify if you're asking if I feed my pets live animals. I don't really feell comfortable about it though...

I guess I kinda talked myself around in a circle. So, yes, I do feed my pets live animals.:( Is that an answer?

[ToxicTom77]

All of my snakes eat live animals..... Two prefer rabbits, while the smaller guy eats medium sized rats..... I haven't tried it yet, but something tells me that they will ignore the salads...



Tom

[birdgirl]

oooowww I love Snakes how big are yours?? I have a friend with a 4 foot snake that eats mice.

[somnseph]

I just don't see, myself, how you can feed a snake a live mouse... I don't mean this in a bad way at all, but I have a friend with a pet rat, and he's soo sweet, I couldn't imagine actually allowing one animal to feed on another... I'm not really sure that I know what I'm talking about, so please correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I think it's kind of mean to feed complex being to another: of course, if you read what I wrote above, I let my sister feed my turtle worms, so I'm not really one to talk.:o So, if you could maybe releave my moral dilema: is it ok to feed a live animal to another? It feels like playing God, in a way...

[somnseph]

I don't, however, mean to say that I don't like snakes. I think they're really cool. Is it possible to feed a snake something other than live food? I'm sorry I made this two posts, but I didn't think of this until after I clicked submit...

[Jenny]

Hmmm, interesting thoughts! First though, let me ask you something: Are you a vegetarian?? Now, this is how I see it... Look at an animal's teeth and eyes and in birds, how many eggs they lay. Animals with eyes on the front of their heads are predators, and animals with eyes on the sides are prey. (generally. of course sometimes it goes both ways, since snakes' eyes are on the sides but then again, some animals eat snakes too...) Also, an animal's teeth are designed to eat flesh, eat plant food, whatever... In birds, pheasants (for example) lay large clutches on the ground so that there's enough for other animals to eat their eggs without the pheasants going extinct eventually, whereas parrots usually lay small clutches. Every animal is designed in a way so that it can eat a certain food and live a certain way, wether you believe in evolution, God, or anything else! You said you feel like playing God, but if you believe that God designed living organisms a certain way, then he had it in mind for them to eat certain things when he made them. So what I'm getting at, they're obviously a way they are for a reason, and to try to make a snake eat lettuce, for example, just wouldn't work the way they're designed. Their jaws can unhinge (or whatever word you use for that!) in order to get larger prey inside them, and since they don't have molars like mammals and other things, it'd make for a pretty hard time chewing vegetable matter or whatever! I think you get my point. (maybe not? am I being too confusing??? sorry if I am...) Anyway, I think it's sad too that some living things have to eat others, but it'd be impossible any way else in the whole scheme of things for it to work out orderly in the end if nothing ate any other living thing. (well, maybe if humans weren't overpopulating the earth so much and there was more room for OTHER living things then it'd be a possibility...) One last thought, rabbits (just an example) can reproduce extremely rapidly and have many at a time, and if nothign ate them, then they'd literally take over the earth! In some continents where they've been introduced, since there's not many natural predators then they're becoming overpopulated and slowly taking over the land from the native species, which will cause the native animals to become endangered eventually. So even though I like rabbits, it's good that they get eaten occasionally. (I'm really not exactly sure what I'm talking about either, so if anyone thinks I'm totally bizarre then that's ok!) :)

[somnseph]

How did you know I'm a vegetarian? And I guess I see what you mean. It wouldn't make since to feed a carnivore vegtables... it probably wouldn't be good for them. And feeding them dead food would probably be worse for them than live food... Ok, thanks!:)

[birdgirl]

I have to kill baby mice to feed to the bigger birds at thezoo I volunteer at all the birds at my zoo get some kind of live thing to eat and they love it I hate killing the mice but all in all I think it's best. I kinda guessed you were a vegetarian too you can tell by the things you say. I've had so many people ask me if I was a vegetarian just because I love animals (more then anything) but I'm not.

[birdygirl]

were those seed moths caterpillars. But when I saw them i threw the pellets away. Now I bag my bellets and freeze tem until they are ready to be used.

[jackie]

birdgirl....you kill the baby mice? how? and who eats them?

[birdgirl]

almost all of the birds eat the mice (the ones that can) the way we kill them (I really hate this) is we hit them agenst the wall:( it's really sad and I hate doing it.

[Jenny]

Will they not eat them live?:(

[birdgirl]

the mice would get a way

[somnseph]

Well, couldn't it be possible to kill them in, though not quite as an inexpensive way, a more humane way??

[birdgirl]

I don't think so pluse it would take a lot of time to do it any other way I'm not saying the way we do it now is right but I don't think it's going to change :(

[somnseph]

Ok... I guess the zoo wouldn't want to pay more money than it had to.:(

[birdgirl]

yeah :( it's to bad though

[somnseph]

Well, I guess it's ok, if the zoo can't spend the time or the money to do it a different way... the birds have to eat.

[birdgirl]

yes they do have to eat and we have some of the fattest birds you will ever see LOL manly the Amazons

[somnseph]

What types of birds do you have there?

[birdgirl]

oh to many to put on this forum we manly have amazons, macaws, go-away birds (one of my favs), touracos, jays,barbets and lots of other really cool birds that I can't spell the names of LOL the go-away birds are real cuddle bugs

[Umbrella]

My lizards get live insects and pinky mice. I feed some of my boas live prey, because they don't accept anything else. But I prefer feeding defrosted.

[somnseph]

Well... the Houston Zoo has a large collection of birds. How long have you been working there? And, Umbrella, what animals (besides your lizards and boas)?

[birdgirl]

I worked there last summer I'm not working this summer because I'd like to get a real job at a pet store that and I'm moving in a month or two and don't have time for the zoo

[JSimko]

The only animals in my house that will eat live food are my cat, because she spends most of her time outside. And my parakeet tweety will eat crickets and moths, however she will only eat them if she catches them herself. She will not eat them if already dead or captured by someone else.

[birdygirl]

No. I don't. My birds hardly touch veggies.

[Umbrella]

We just have an umbrella, bearded dragons and hog island boas. I used to have lots of tarantulas though.

[lacybey]

all snakes do not have teeth, and the ones that do usually the fangs are not chewing, what the nake does is swallow the live animal whole where it takes several days to digest, my brother use to own a red tail boa, and a ball python, and we live around rattlers and garden snakes, they are quite neccessary to control different animals, and by the way, it is our birds that feed on snakes, redtail hawks, eagles and owls, we live within a wild life sanctuaty of water fowl and eagles, hawks and geese and cranes and owls , ginney geese are known to keep rattlers away, so are pigs. I guess that is my grizzley addition to the live food format, I feed wax worms to my dragon lizzard, he won't eat them any other way!

[Umbrella]

Of course ALL snakes have teeth. They use them as hooks to get their prey inside. Constricting snakes use them to grab their prey, venemous snakes have fangs as well.