As Liz said, many different types of reptiles eat smaller reptiles, mice, birds, etc. It's not wrong or cannibalistic.

The problem here is mostly our perception of things. We're lumping all reptiles together, when they each are very different. We think mice and rats and birds are fuzzy and cute. So we are disturbed when our reptile eats these things. But we shouldn't see it that way. They have to eat, and they have to eat the things that their bodies are made for. It makes no difference whether that food consists of collard greens, crickets or mice. It's still food, and we can't say it's wrong to feed the animal what they need to live.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

Had to reply. We are farmers. We raise food for other people, and for animal feed. I also appreciate my hunters, as we have a severe deer problem here, along with coyotes. If they didn't take out some of the deer, disease would run rampant and many would die (we know this from past years). We feed pre-killed frozen to our snakes that we buy from a good responsible grower. It is hard for my niece to watch them eat that even. Most of them get covered because they don't appreciate people "watching" them while they dine. I do have a hard time with the people who feed live prey because it's "fun" to watch. Knew a guy who kept his Burmese in a room of it's own, and would only open the door to throw a live rabbit in for it to kill and eat while he watched, then left it alone until the next feeding, it was a real difficult snake to work around, because an open door meant food, and it would attack. Just my 2 cents, Kat.

Reality is reality! There's predators and there's prey. This has been going on since the beginning of time. For one to live means one has to die. Even plants are living things.
If you are bothered by an animal eating it's dinner on TV or on Youtube, Stop watching it!
As far as putting a Tarantula and a Scorpion together to fight, That's the same as Rooster fighting or Dog fighting which is wrong.
A Tarantula and a Scorpion would probably run away from each other out in the wild where they have plenty of room to mind their own bussines.

Let's see,
Big fish eat smaller ones.
I've seen Hawks in my area attack and eat smaller birds.
Praying Mantis' and Lady Bugs eat other insects.
King Snakes eat other snakes.
Even some human societies in Asia eat Monkey.
I don't think a lizard eating another lizard is unnatural at all.

I understand that People love animals. I love animals too, But heck, I have to eat as well as any other animal on this earth! Humans are not naturally vegetarians. We're omnivores that need a little of everything. We need protein for proper growth and brain function and veggies and fruit for vitamins and minerals and carbs for energy.
Just because your belly is full after each meal doesn't mean that you're getting the diet you need.

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Git'er Done!

I think everyone is missing the point of the original thread. The problem with the posted videos is about the inappropriatness of the posted material. It has nothing to do with the predator/prey aspect of things which is in fact a natural occurance in the "circle of life". Most of us have animals that require the feeding of other animals.
However on feeding day we don't stand there, cheer, and scream obscenities and yelling
"Kill that ***********!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

i get that part, but she also had a problem with lizards eating other lizards and fuzzies in general. Its a two part question. Is it wrong to post a clip of a waterdragon eating lunch, no.... until it gets into a display where the sole purpose is to show gore and people cheering it on. Its a two part deal this thread.

I agree with Og with the scorpion against a tarantula since its no differnt than dog fighting.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I see your point Merlin, and agree, but have to agree more with Liz. It's not right in my book, but my book doesn't rule you tube. I just don't get some people.
Kat

The thing about it is, You tube is not an animal lovers web site. You tube is for anyone that wants to show anything. I've seen a few videos on this site. They all seem to revolve around someone who has a herp. This person invites a bunch of friends over to watch a feeding . Most of the videos I've seen have the tank on the floor and you see a lot of feet in the background. In the end, It's still an animal taking it's meal.

It seems to me the little girl is shocked that her cute little green lizard eats meat. The question to me is, do you want to sugar coat nature for her or give her the truth?

I don't yell obscenities or yell Kill that @#$%! But I do get a certain sense of satisfaction watching a rodent die. I've said this before in other posts. Rodents spread the black plague in old Europe that killed 1\3 of my ancestors in a single generation. I've had them get into my house, My attic, and into my cabinets! They're polluting my living space and eating my food! I have no pity for them!

Some times I do actually cheer(But Privately)! Rodents spread way more disease than the usual "Creepy Crawlers"!

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Git'er Done!

I personally do not watch my animals eat, unless I have to. I check on them, but do not sit there and watch. It is not something that I find cool or anything else like that, I do however respect the fact that they also need to eat, and I cant feed my snakes a hamburger, lol. I also do not feed with a crowd as I feel that is stressful on the animal, but that is just my opinion and how I do things.
Well I guess I should re phrase that, I have 1 ball python who absolutely refuses to eat anything but live mice, I am not happy with his weight, so I will not wait him out at the moment. But that is a whole different subject. I do watch to make sure the mouse does not hurt him, but I only watch until he strikes and has him firmly coiled.
I personally have had rats as pets, they actually tend to be the smartest rodents I have ever come across.

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I have sucker tattood on my forehead

We've all discussed You tube and all that. we've debated the appropriateness of feeding videos. I've been thinking about this for a couple of days now. What is this animal going to be fed when it's "All grown up"?

"Not that I would do that" ??? What's going to be fed to this animal as an adult other than the meat that it needs?

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Git'er Done!

Actually, even adult water dragons don't need to eat meat. Their staples should still be crickets and meal/super worms, and veggies, if you can get them to eat them. Pinkies and small mice should be fed to them as a treat, not on a regular basis.

As long as she is feeding her water dragon the correct amount of their staple food, there's no reason why she would need to feed it mice at all.

That said, it's not wrong for the water dragon to be fed a pinky or two from time to time. I truly do respect vegetarians and vegans who have strong views on animal life, but all too often I've been on forums and encountered people who have said that because they don't eat meat, they are not going to feed meat or meat based products to their pets. In some cases, that point of view can kill a pet, if that's the type of food they require to live.

That's why I like to encourage a lot of research on any pet. Because there are plenty of vegetarian or bug eating animals available as pets, which can peacefully co-exist with any owner who does not want to feed an animal meat.

In this case, there's no reason to feel that she'll be neglecting her water dragon at all if she doesn't feed him meat later on. He'll probably be perfectly happy without it.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.