I just came across a forum where they discussed pregnant mice as snake food ! Some said that the snake didn't touch pregnant mice,but this was maybe a coinsident,because some others said their snake don't care if the mouse is pregnant or not.
I find this quite upsetting to read.What do you think?
I also found a site about a law that says it is not allowed to kill animals for no reason and that snake keepers need to go to classes to leran how to kill a rodent properly,or they shpuldn't be allowed to do it.
Even some breeders say that you should feed f/t because everything else is cruel,which I agree,and I'm glad that there are many snake keepers/breeders out there that think like us.I know this discussion was on a hundred times.But not the pregnant-mouse one.So,what do you think?

Jacky as far as the snake is concerned a mouse is a mouse is a mouse. it couldn't care less whether or not it was pregnant...its dinner.
This sounds like another case of humans trying to project their own emotions onto the animal

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

yep but I wouldn't feed my snakes anything pregnant the results are not pretty.

Mice have a 19 day gestation day period and I know from my work in my research lab that you can really only tell by the 9th or 10th day or so. They just get real real big by gestational day 15 through partruition.

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I've never heard of anyone feeding pregnant mice to their snake before, but I see nothing wrong with it. I mean, what if the snake was fed the pinkies after they were born? Or what if the snake were fed the female before she got pregnant? Nobody would have any problem with it then. If both the female and her babies are going to be snake food anyway, I see nothing wrong with feeding them to the snake while the babies are still inside. Its a lot easier than waiting for them to be born and feeding them one at a time. I'm saying this only if the pregnant mouse is of the proper size for the snake and she is FK or FT. If they're all going down eventually anyway, they might as well go down at the same time if they all fit.

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"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." - John Benfield

I think that the question centered more around the idea that if the snake somehow knew the mouse was pregnant it would leave the mouse alone due to some anthropomorphic consideration.

Personally I would wait till the babies were born and use them for smaller snakes!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Hello,

Think about this. If a snake came across a mouse den and the mouse inside was giving birth, do you think it would say "oh,sorry...I will come back later". Of course not. He is going to eat the mother and any babies that she popped out.

How many time do you think you have bought frozen feeders and within the batch there was a pregnant female? I will guarantee that you have fed a pregnant female at one point or another if you buy Frozen.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with it. Of course, I wouldn't feed a live mouse to begin with unless I absolutely had too. If she were pregnant, and I knew it, I would wait and let her have the babies and rear them until they were eating on their own. Then I could feed mom and have all the babies to feed as well.

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yah if that happend to me I would wate and feed the babys when tere older but if you dont want the hastle well feed while she is prego it wont hurt the snake I have heard taht its more protine and cal cus of the babys??? duno

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I have fed one of my ball pythons a pregnent mouse before with no problems. I wouldnt normally do it but I was getting out of breeding mice because it was to much and I just got rid of a ton of other babys and then this one mouse was pregenent with more and I figured what the heck a big and better meal for my snake and he loved it .

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Jason