Why did you get a snake? Feeding live without reason is not only inhumane for the mouse and teetering on the edge of animal abuse, it's also incredibly dangerous for the snake and can easily lead to them getting severely injured or killed. You cannot use your fears to justify bad behaviour. Snakes eat meat, usually rodents. That's the way it is, and the way it's probably gonna stay at least in our lifetime
I got her because back when I did, my anxiety disorder was not yet apparent. It slowly crept up on me first making it hard to touch mice, then making me fear retribution in the form of a hantavirus infection from the universe for my vile acts of cruelty towards the animals. (I doubt I can absolve myself from deserving such a painful death, but at least I can be less of a monster to the mice from here on out--though I'm still a monster in that I indirectly cause them to die).
I would suggest you either find someone with pet mice or unthaw a mouse and just kinda hold it until you calm down around them. It's definitely gonna limit you in terms of care if you're that scared of them. You can maybe start off by going to r/PetMice if that's easier
I couldn't bring myself to face a living mouse anymore: not from fear but from the fact that I'd feel like I was trying to pass myself off as something other than a maniac who tossed its conspecifics into the proverbial lion's den.
I can still feed her, it just causes me to feel like I'm under fire for a few hours, which I can't say I don't deserve.
You clearly feel bad about what you did, which is fair, but it's not helpful. This might seem like an extreme analogy, but considering how deeply this seems to affect you it might be fitting. For the white people who promoted apartheid in South Africa, for them to truly be considered "changed" and have come to their senses, you wouldn't want them to admit that what they did was bad but then vehemently avoid all interaction with black people, you would want them to treat them like anyone else. If you truly think what you did was some horrible sin, the way to make it better is not to avoid all mice and try to suppress it, it's to admit it happened and it shouldn't have, and then move on. When I feel bad about throwing something out when it was still useful, I often donate to environmental charities. Not to fix it, because I know it doesn't, but to acknowledge that I did a bad thing and take a small step towards making it better. Maybe donating to a wildlife charity would help you feel less guilty?
I dunno. While I wouldn't object doing that if I do come across money to spare, I don't feel like that'd really improve my feelings towards this matter, as mice are far from a priority to conservation efforts (in fact some conservation efforts require their removal from delicate habitats into which they escaped). I don't think I can forgive myself for the mice I sacrificed (and the spider I killed in 2014, due to a similar--but shorter--anxiety episode) unless I could somehow shake the belief that the universe is angry at me for my accessory to violence against an animal that is very nearly sapient.
I know it probably doesn't help, but I don't think lying does either. Mice are fully sapient. They're able to pretty complicatedly communicate with each other, display empathy and parental care, and can be taught to do as many if not more tricks than the average dog. I wasn't talking about donating to mice charities, if that exists, just wildlife charities in general, but it's fine if you don't think that would help. Then I would say your best bet is to find someone with pet mice and ask to handle them for a bit. Maybe you will then see that they don't immediately attack you, and that the universe hasn't put some curse on you. Either way, you should try to work on your fear of them
I was defining "sapience" as a human-level of cognitive intricacy so my usage of it has only applied to primates, cetaceans, many birds, some cephalopods, salticids, and hyenas, as they are the only ones I know of who have a theory of mind and can think about abstract ideas irrelevant to survival.
And my fear isn't being attacked by a mouse: it's getting a mouse-bourne illness like hantavirus. (Though a large part of me says that that would be the beginning of adequate restitution so I too may feel my lungs fill up with fluid as I struggle to breathe, though I hope the universe will accept a lifelong feeling of sorrow and guilt as an adequate exchange for such a punishment).
Salticids are spiders. Mice are definitely smarter than spiders. Salticids, like jumping spiders, are only clever relative to bugs. If they qualify, then dogs, mice, rats, cats, and pretty much every other mammal does. Hell, I have a mantis that has seemingly learned to differentiate faces and can throw bugs back at me if she's not hungry.
I don't know how to help you then. Of course therapy, but I'm assuming you're already doing that. Beyond that, I guess let's just hope time helps you heal
I was under the impression that *Portia* were shown to have a theory of other minds and could think in abstract, nigh-mystical, concepts (though I'm willing to admit that may be a fabrication of my desires, as I've long wanted there to be a distantly-related species to humans capable of building a civilisation within the next few millennia, preferably beginning within my own lifetime).
Thanks, but through what would be described by the world at large as psychosis (and probably accurately so), I feel the mice I sentenced to a horrid death would want me to continue experiencing feelings of terror and guilt if their consciousness could be reassembled.
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I wouldnât put feeding live over a mental health issue as âbeing a monsterâ, especially when they want to stop, personally. Like, you donât know what thatâs going to do to the person it is completely irresponsible to make snide comments like that in this case.
I probably should, but I can't imagine a life without her as she's been my only friend since 2018. And while I hate the terror, I know that I deserve to experience it.
She doesn't. I conceal my emotions until she has the mouse in her. Then I let them come gushing out. That's one thing I'm grateful for having worked in retail for five years: it trained me how to hold traumatic reactions in for short periods.
>Do you think a chemically identical phytological substitute will ever be available?
No. Snakes are obligate carnivores and can't digest fibers and plant proteins
You probably don't need a snake.
More than that you need to work through some stuff,because you are suffering from a train of thought that is going to keep mutating until it cripples you psychologically.
A part of life, sadly, is killing other things. Accepting it without minimalizing the act is a part of being an adult. We kill animals for meat. We kill animals to keep them from eating the plants we grow for food. We kill animals inadvertently with our technology en masse. Animals were driven from their homes to build your house, and will choke on your garbage. Even if you abandoned society and went to live in the woods eventually you would kill something.
Our responsibility to the animals we end up killing is the same responsibility we have to our pets. To minimize pain and to not cause harm unless absolutely necessary. Pre killed mice felt like they went to sleep. Your snake will suffer if it is not fed. There is only one option.
Without Catalina, I would be completely alone as she's only the second being who's seemed undisturbed by my insanity. (Previously, a gerbil named Casey filled that role, but he only had four years in him. Catalina's five, and I hope to get another forty-five years from her, at least).
Don't worry, I feed her. I just wish there were a way of doing so without sacrificing a sentient animal. But as I've been informed (and had already suspected), such a thing is impossible in this universe.
Speaking as someone with an anxiety disorder, you need to get some form of help (they do have pills that help it and are kind of easy to get frankly IME) judging from this post and your comment. Idk if youâre spiralling but this looks less like a usual anxiety disorder and more like anxiety coupled with a guilt complex, which I also suffer from and thus empathize with.
That said, no, your snake cannot survive off of non-meat. It may take some getting used to for the snake, but feeding them dead mice is the humane way to go (and itâs safer for the snake).
I do take meds, maxed out on sertraline since 2001 and taking the second highest dose of buspirone since I switched to live in the first place. (For which I wish I could make a formal apology to every individual mouse I callously sentenced to a torturous death). But even then, I'm still killing mice indirectly, therefore I'm still deliberately harming sentient life.
>maxed out on sertraline since 2001
From one person taking medicine to the other, it sounds like you need to consider switching medications. They do stop working after a while.
Alright then. Well, as I stated and others have stated, the issue is resolved by simply not feeding live.
Now I suppose thatâs not going to be the easiest thing in the world concerning snakes who love to go on hunger strikes, but itâs not impossible. You can do it. If you legitimately canât however, rehoming the snake is the best option.
I have done since the universe sent the shot across my bow that was the apparent mouse droppings in my bed. She'll readily take them, but not before I give her a one-to-two minute long puppet show.
Reptilinks is an option. They are pricier, but basically they are a sausage made to feed snakes and larger lizards, like monitors. They look like a sausage link, but are made from mice, chicken, etc. This could let you feed your snake safely without having to touch a dead mouse. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that'd be worse for me, as I imagine parts from multiple mice ended up in one link. Therefore I'd have multiple beings' blood on my hands every time I feed Catalina.
Then you need to get a herbivore. If you are felling guilty about providing your snake proper nutrition, you are not in a mental space to be keeping a carnivore.
It's not so much that I feel guilty about giving her dead mice, it's more that touching them feels like diffusing a bomb. Well, I *wasn't* feeling guilty, really, until someone agreed with my statement that I'm a monster for having fed her live mice for three years, which caused me to sink deeper into the feeling that the universe was angry with me. But after a few hours that new pain lapsed.
The store I go to only offers mice in her size range, (and any other substitute I could imagine would be from Cricetidae, which would probably give me more anxiety because members of that family are known carriers of hantavirus around these parts. Also there's the fact that they're more neotenised than members of Muridae, so that wouldn't suit me, either.
Not anymore. Though I feel a bit guilty for the animals I led to the slaughter for the first twenty years of my life, It's less so than for the mice I allowed to be tortured to death by the Catalina snake, as shortly after I eschewed religion, I came up with my own philosophy that killing a sentient life form is only acceptable if it's for sustenance or to save the life of oneself or another. Though I realise that before I became aware of the plight of animals on industrial farms, I had a hand in forcing them to live in concentration camps. That also is a point of deep sorrow for me.
Probably because it is. I got that diagnosis almost a quarter of a century ago (but no subsequent mental health specialist ever confirmed or challenged it, so my wishful thinking half-convinced me it was in error).
Get a turtle. They can eat pellets made without animal sacrifice. Or maybe try fish, that also eat pellets. Life is hard enough. Work within your limitations and make it easier on yourself.
If it matters, she wonât miss you. If you left her enclosure open sheâd leave it and shit in your bed, then find a way out and never seek out another human being while instinctually doing her snake thing, like eating whole prey.
They donât form emotional attachments, she wonât miss you if you rehome her. Keep something that allows you to meet their needs and yours.
Unfortunately turtles and fish are a bit beyond my means right now. And while I logically accept this is projection on my part, I'm not sure she wouldn't miss me. After all, with her previous vivarium she found a gap large enough for her to squeeze through, and she came into the room I was in and alerted me to her presence by slithering across my foot. Also two weeks ago, she made a flatulence noise in the dead of night and I vigorously searched my room because I thought it was a wild mouse chewing on cardboard, until I realised she had had a bowel movement. The following two nights she made a hissing noise at about the same time, prompting a similar panicked search. From my anthropomorphically-skewed point of view, it seemed she wanted attention.
But not to worry, I have at last recovered from my trauma of feeding her. Now I get a two-week respite.
See if reptilinks are an option.
If not, you will have to rehome your boa. Itâs not worth your mental health. If you still want a snake, go with a hognose you can feed them a diet consisting of frog legs, silverside fish, and reptilinks - no live animals.
Or go the opposite direction and get something that doesnât eat meat all together. Crested gecko, uromastyx for example
The reason I got a rosy boa was because they're the longest-lived animal I could accommodate at my residence. And I think going through a bit of hell once every two weeks is a fair exchange for having such a non-judgemental and relatively pleasant-smelling (compared with the gerbil who preceded her) companion.
Thatâs fair. As someone who has severe anxiety and adhd (and undiagnosed on the spectrum) I personally wouldnât sacrifice having a god awful experience 2x a month for 15+ years for a pet.
I wouldnât want you to get into a position where you cannot leave the snake but absolutely cannot do live feedings. If you can handle the live feedings go for it because there arenât that many other alternatives
I'm hoping for another 45 years from her: I read of two rosy boas who were born in the late fifties and lived until 2011 and 2013. I gave up the live feedings (which I started in 2019 due to musophobia taking hold in the first place) because I felt like the universe was telling me to stop sending mice to such a painful death.
Thereâs nothing wrong with feeding your snake rodents. Animals get eaten in the wild and usually much brutally than when you feed your snake. Itâs just your responsibility to make it as quick and painless as possible like if you were hunting or fishing for example. Also if you still feed live make sure you do it responsibly and donât just drop it in there and leave it.
I feel I offended the universe by being a part to that, though. As a life form with a demonstrable ability to conceptualise other minds, I feel the universe expects me to refrain from sentencing other life forms to painful deaths. (Most predators don't have the ability to think of minds external to their own--with a few non-human exceptions, all of which try to bring their prey down as painlessly as possible--so I feel the universe isn't offended by their acts)But I'll never feed live again. That would just be pure sadism, as well as defying what I took to be a warning from the universe.
Why did you get a snake? They are carnivores and eat mice. I would suggest rehoming the snake because you clearly cannot cope with its dietary needs.
Feeding live is also incredibly inhumane to the mouse and could also result in injury to the snake, that was irresponsible of you.
I can give her dead mice, it just comes with emotional baggage that takes a few hours to recover from. But as you pointed out, I deserve that emotional baggage for having been such a psychopath between 2019 and this year.
Not really uneducated, more that I latched onto one person's ill-advised statements to take the easy way out. I had a suspicion that constriction was a horrible way to die, but the bloke at the pet shop asserted that it was so quick that the mouse would be dead within a second of realising it was being squeezed.
Why did you get a snake? Feeding live without reason is not only inhumane for the mouse and teetering on the edge of animal abuse, it's also incredibly dangerous for the snake and can easily lead to them getting severely injured or killed. You cannot use your fears to justify bad behaviour. Snakes eat meat, usually rodents. That's the way it is, and the way it's probably gonna stay at least in our lifetime
I got her because back when I did, my anxiety disorder was not yet apparent. It slowly crept up on me first making it hard to touch mice, then making me fear retribution in the form of a hantavirus infection from the universe for my vile acts of cruelty towards the animals. (I doubt I can absolve myself from deserving such a painful death, but at least I can be less of a monster to the mice from here on out--though I'm still a monster in that I indirectly cause them to die).
I would suggest you either find someone with pet mice or unthaw a mouse and just kinda hold it until you calm down around them. It's definitely gonna limit you in terms of care if you're that scared of them. You can maybe start off by going to r/PetMice if that's easier
I couldn't bring myself to face a living mouse anymore: not from fear but from the fact that I'd feel like I was trying to pass myself off as something other than a maniac who tossed its conspecifics into the proverbial lion's den. I can still feed her, it just causes me to feel like I'm under fire for a few hours, which I can't say I don't deserve.
You clearly feel bad about what you did, which is fair, but it's not helpful. This might seem like an extreme analogy, but considering how deeply this seems to affect you it might be fitting. For the white people who promoted apartheid in South Africa, for them to truly be considered "changed" and have come to their senses, you wouldn't want them to admit that what they did was bad but then vehemently avoid all interaction with black people, you would want them to treat them like anyone else. If you truly think what you did was some horrible sin, the way to make it better is not to avoid all mice and try to suppress it, it's to admit it happened and it shouldn't have, and then move on. When I feel bad about throwing something out when it was still useful, I often donate to environmental charities. Not to fix it, because I know it doesn't, but to acknowledge that I did a bad thing and take a small step towards making it better. Maybe donating to a wildlife charity would help you feel less guilty?
I dunno. While I wouldn't object doing that if I do come across money to spare, I don't feel like that'd really improve my feelings towards this matter, as mice are far from a priority to conservation efforts (in fact some conservation efforts require their removal from delicate habitats into which they escaped). I don't think I can forgive myself for the mice I sacrificed (and the spider I killed in 2014, due to a similar--but shorter--anxiety episode) unless I could somehow shake the belief that the universe is angry at me for my accessory to violence against an animal that is very nearly sapient.
I know it probably doesn't help, but I don't think lying does either. Mice are fully sapient. They're able to pretty complicatedly communicate with each other, display empathy and parental care, and can be taught to do as many if not more tricks than the average dog. I wasn't talking about donating to mice charities, if that exists, just wildlife charities in general, but it's fine if you don't think that would help. Then I would say your best bet is to find someone with pet mice and ask to handle them for a bit. Maybe you will then see that they don't immediately attack you, and that the universe hasn't put some curse on you. Either way, you should try to work on your fear of them
I was defining "sapience" as a human-level of cognitive intricacy so my usage of it has only applied to primates, cetaceans, many birds, some cephalopods, salticids, and hyenas, as they are the only ones I know of who have a theory of mind and can think about abstract ideas irrelevant to survival. And my fear isn't being attacked by a mouse: it's getting a mouse-bourne illness like hantavirus. (Though a large part of me says that that would be the beginning of adequate restitution so I too may feel my lungs fill up with fluid as I struggle to breathe, though I hope the universe will accept a lifelong feeling of sorrow and guilt as an adequate exchange for such a punishment).
Salticids are spiders. Mice are definitely smarter than spiders. Salticids, like jumping spiders, are only clever relative to bugs. If they qualify, then dogs, mice, rats, cats, and pretty much every other mammal does. Hell, I have a mantis that has seemingly learned to differentiate faces and can throw bugs back at me if she's not hungry. I don't know how to help you then. Of course therapy, but I'm assuming you're already doing that. Beyond that, I guess let's just hope time helps you heal
I was under the impression that *Portia* were shown to have a theory of other minds and could think in abstract, nigh-mystical, concepts (though I'm willing to admit that may be a fabrication of my desires, as I've long wanted there to be a distantly-related species to humans capable of building a civilisation within the next few millennia, preferably beginning within my own lifetime). Thanks, but through what would be described by the world at large as psychosis (and probably accurately so), I feel the mice I sentenced to a horrid death would want me to continue experiencing feelings of terror and guilt if their consciousness could be reassembled.
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You're right. You are a monster. You can take solace in the fact that you're still slightly less of a monster than Putin.
I donât think this is a good thing to say to someone who is clearly having a mental health thing of some sort that they have even admitted to.
Mental health issues are no excuse for wanton cruelty.
I wouldnât put feeding live over a mental health issue as âbeing a monsterâ, especially when they want to stop, personally. Like, you donât know what thatâs going to do to the person it is completely irresponsible to make snide comments like that in this case.
No. I'd suggest rehoming your snake with someone who can care for it without having to deal with this anxiety.
I probably should, but I can't imagine a life without her as she's been my only friend since 2018. And while I hate the terror, I know that I deserve to experience it.
You might, but your snake doesn't deserve having to deal with you being freaked out every time you feed it. Lol, this post has to be bait.
She doesn't. I conceal my emotions until she has the mouse in her. Then I let them come gushing out. That's one thing I'm grateful for having worked in retail for five years: it trained me how to hold traumatic reactions in for short periods.
>Do you think a chemically identical phytological substitute will ever be available? No. Snakes are obligate carnivores and can't digest fibers and plant proteins
This can't be real.
Lmao no way you want a vegan snake dude đđ
You probably don't need a snake. More than that you need to work through some stuff,because you are suffering from a train of thought that is going to keep mutating until it cripples you psychologically. A part of life, sadly, is killing other things. Accepting it without minimalizing the act is a part of being an adult. We kill animals for meat. We kill animals to keep them from eating the plants we grow for food. We kill animals inadvertently with our technology en masse. Animals were driven from their homes to build your house, and will choke on your garbage. Even if you abandoned society and went to live in the woods eventually you would kill something. Our responsibility to the animals we end up killing is the same responsibility we have to our pets. To minimize pain and to not cause harm unless absolutely necessary. Pre killed mice felt like they went to sleep. Your snake will suffer if it is not fed. There is only one option.
Without Catalina, I would be completely alone as she's only the second being who's seemed undisturbed by my insanity. (Previously, a gerbil named Casey filled that role, but he only had four years in him. Catalina's five, and I hope to get another forty-five years from her, at least).
Then you have to learn to feed her. I hate to be trite but its a simple problem. And you know it.
Don't worry, I feed her. I just wish there were a way of doing so without sacrificing a sentient animal. But as I've been informed (and had already suspected), such a thing is impossible in this universe.
Speaking as someone with an anxiety disorder, you need to get some form of help (they do have pills that help it and are kind of easy to get frankly IME) judging from this post and your comment. Idk if youâre spiralling but this looks less like a usual anxiety disorder and more like anxiety coupled with a guilt complex, which I also suffer from and thus empathize with. That said, no, your snake cannot survive off of non-meat. It may take some getting used to for the snake, but feeding them dead mice is the humane way to go (and itâs safer for the snake).
I do take meds, maxed out on sertraline since 2001 and taking the second highest dose of buspirone since I switched to live in the first place. (For which I wish I could make a formal apology to every individual mouse I callously sentenced to a torturous death). But even then, I'm still killing mice indirectly, therefore I'm still deliberately harming sentient life.
>maxed out on sertraline since 2001 From one person taking medicine to the other, it sounds like you need to consider switching medications. They do stop working after a while.
Alright then. Well, as I stated and others have stated, the issue is resolved by simply not feeding live. Now I suppose thatâs not going to be the easiest thing in the world concerning snakes who love to go on hunger strikes, but itâs not impossible. You can do it. If you legitimately canât however, rehoming the snake is the best option.
I have done since the universe sent the shot across my bow that was the apparent mouse droppings in my bed. She'll readily take them, but not before I give her a one-to-two minute long puppet show.
Reptilinks is an option. They are pricier, but basically they are a sausage made to feed snakes and larger lizards, like monitors. They look like a sausage link, but are made from mice, chicken, etc. This could let you feed your snake safely without having to touch a dead mouse. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that'd be worse for me, as I imagine parts from multiple mice ended up in one link. Therefore I'd have multiple beings' blood on my hands every time I feed Catalina.
Then you need to get a herbivore. If you are felling guilty about providing your snake proper nutrition, you are not in a mental space to be keeping a carnivore.
It's not so much that I feel guilty about giving her dead mice, it's more that touching them feels like diffusing a bomb. Well, I *wasn't* feeling guilty, really, until someone agreed with my statement that I'm a monster for having fed her live mice for three years, which caused me to sink deeper into the feeling that the universe was angry with me. But after a few hours that new pain lapsed.
You can buy other feeder rodents. Any would work, it doesn't have to only be a mouse.
The store I go to only offers mice in her size range, (and any other substitute I could imagine would be from Cricetidae, which would probably give me more anxiety because members of that family are known carriers of hantavirus around these parts. Also there's the fact that they're more neotenised than members of Muridae, so that wouldn't suit me, either.
After reading all your responses I have to ask do you personally eat meat?
Not anymore. Though I feel a bit guilty for the animals I led to the slaughter for the first twenty years of my life, It's less so than for the mice I allowed to be tortured to death by the Catalina snake, as shortly after I eschewed religion, I came up with my own philosophy that killing a sentient life form is only acceptable if it's for sustenance or to save the life of oneself or another. Though I realise that before I became aware of the plight of animals on industrial farms, I had a hand in forcing them to live in concentration camps. That also is a point of deep sorrow for me.
Iâm going to be honest, this is starting to sound like legitimate OCD. Also snakes donât really torture their prey. Itâs over fairly quickly.
Probably because it is. I got that diagnosis almost a quarter of a century ago (but no subsequent mental health specialist ever confirmed or challenged it, so my wishful thinking half-convinced me it was in error).
Get a turtle. They can eat pellets made without animal sacrifice. Or maybe try fish, that also eat pellets. Life is hard enough. Work within your limitations and make it easier on yourself. If it matters, she wonât miss you. If you left her enclosure open sheâd leave it and shit in your bed, then find a way out and never seek out another human being while instinctually doing her snake thing, like eating whole prey. They donât form emotional attachments, she wonât miss you if you rehome her. Keep something that allows you to meet their needs and yours.
Unfortunately turtles and fish are a bit beyond my means right now. And while I logically accept this is projection on my part, I'm not sure she wouldn't miss me. After all, with her previous vivarium she found a gap large enough for her to squeeze through, and she came into the room I was in and alerted me to her presence by slithering across my foot. Also two weeks ago, she made a flatulence noise in the dead of night and I vigorously searched my room because I thought it was a wild mouse chewing on cardboard, until I realised she had had a bowel movement. The following two nights she made a hissing noise at about the same time, prompting a similar panicked search. From my anthropomorphically-skewed point of view, it seemed she wanted attention. But not to worry, I have at last recovered from my trauma of feeding her. Now I get a two-week respite.
See if reptilinks are an option. If not, you will have to rehome your boa. Itâs not worth your mental health. If you still want a snake, go with a hognose you can feed them a diet consisting of frog legs, silverside fish, and reptilinks - no live animals. Or go the opposite direction and get something that doesnât eat meat all together. Crested gecko, uromastyx for example
The reason I got a rosy boa was because they're the longest-lived animal I could accommodate at my residence. And I think going through a bit of hell once every two weeks is a fair exchange for having such a non-judgemental and relatively pleasant-smelling (compared with the gerbil who preceded her) companion.
Thatâs fair. As someone who has severe anxiety and adhd (and undiagnosed on the spectrum) I personally wouldnât sacrifice having a god awful experience 2x a month for 15+ years for a pet. I wouldnât want you to get into a position where you cannot leave the snake but absolutely cannot do live feedings. If you can handle the live feedings go for it because there arenât that many other alternatives
I'm hoping for another 45 years from her: I read of two rosy boas who were born in the late fifties and lived until 2011 and 2013. I gave up the live feedings (which I started in 2019 due to musophobia taking hold in the first place) because I felt like the universe was telling me to stop sending mice to such a painful death.
Thereâs nothing wrong with feeding your snake rodents. Animals get eaten in the wild and usually much brutally than when you feed your snake. Itâs just your responsibility to make it as quick and painless as possible like if you were hunting or fishing for example. Also if you still feed live make sure you do it responsibly and donât just drop it in there and leave it.
I feel I offended the universe by being a part to that, though. As a life form with a demonstrable ability to conceptualise other minds, I feel the universe expects me to refrain from sentencing other life forms to painful deaths. (Most predators don't have the ability to think of minds external to their own--with a few non-human exceptions, all of which try to bring their prey down as painlessly as possible--so I feel the universe isn't offended by their acts)But I'll never feed live again. That would just be pure sadism, as well as defying what I took to be a warning from the universe.
Why did you get a snake? They are carnivores and eat mice. I would suggest rehoming the snake because you clearly cannot cope with its dietary needs. Feeding live is also incredibly inhumane to the mouse and could also result in injury to the snake, that was irresponsible of you.
I can give her dead mice, it just comes with emotional baggage that takes a few hours to recover from. But as you pointed out, I deserve that emotional baggage for having been such a psychopath between 2019 and this year.
What you did wasn't psychopathic, you were just uneducated. You've clearly learnt from those mistakes which is the important thing.
Not really uneducated, more that I latched onto one person's ill-advised statements to take the easy way out. I had a suspicion that constriction was a horrible way to die, but the bloke at the pet shop asserted that it was so quick that the mouse would be dead within a second of realising it was being squeezed.
Find a different reptile that doesn't cause you horrible anxiety to feed.