telling ppl to feed live
older reptile keepers really need to take a step back and reevaluate what they've been taught through the years. I have seen so many NEW reptile keepers asking about diets, and a 50 Yr old keeper saying "ah I've always fed live rodents to my snake/beardies/whatever, don't listen to the newbies. mine have been fine" and then OP gives an update about how their lizard died bc it choked on a hopper or the snake got bit and it got infected.
I completely understand the whole "my snake was literally starving and losing weight bc it couldn't eat anything else but live" as that is a different issue to "who cares, it's just a rodent"
it is not the circle of life if you've put them in an enclosed space for the rodent to be eaten anyways. zoos do not put live zebras in a lions enclosure for the same reasons, those animals are even wild, your ball python is not.
there are a million more cons to it than pros.
we should not be encouraging ppl to feed live especially if the reptile has only ever been fed frozen.
if we stick to the 'normal' then we'll never progress. reptile care today is completely different to reptile care even 10 years ago. we need to challenge what we do so we can improve.
feeding live insects to reptiles is completely different (ethical and dietary wise) to feeding live rodents to reptiles.
this is in no way disrespect to older reptile keepers, we ALL should be regularly evaluating our care and should be continuing our research even if we've owned a species for years. "oh but that's a lot of work, who has time" anyone who genuinely cares for the ethical keeping and the welfare of their animals should be kept up to date with the newest care. not everything will work for every reptile, some are more sensitive to others, but this is why we have laws and legislations. I'm from the UK where feeding live is illegal and i whole heartedly believe that live feeding should be the last possible solution to any hunger strike, not only is it dangerous but many ppl cant return the rodent if the snake still doesn't eat, and are then having to care for it in the most below basic care, which again is a violation of the 5 animal welfare needs.
to sum up, stop telling new reptile owners that live feeding is/should be normal or for the best. this is where accidents and injuries happen to both animal and owner. we should all also be kind to new reptile keepers who have been misinformed, it's their responsibility to research proper care but it is not their fault if 3 different reptile keepers are saying "doesn't matter, who cares"