# Mice Feeding



## PiranhaMike661

Ok, so I fed my rbps their first small hopper (feeder mouse) and as soon as I hit rec. on my camera, it says "battery low" and shut off. WTF!!! That sucked. Anyway, I've never seen them so agressive toward live food and they seemed to freakin love it! It was gone within seconds....absolutely nothing left. I know the pros and cons of feeding live fish, but can anybody post some opinions/or factual info about the pros and cons of feeding them feeder mice. And how often is too often?


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## MPG

Pros:

Uhhh, fun to watch
Protein

Cons:

If the piranha don't get him fast enough, he drowns.
Lots more small bones for the piranhas to deal with
nasty to clean up
Girls won't watch


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## Dolphinswin

the only pro is its fun to watch... if your sick minded. Cons mouse often drowns as piranhas are pussys. But i could care less if you feed mouse, Ive done it, and failed before. Your fish wont always go get him


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## Inflade

i am not against it. in the wild piranha eat bone, its good for them. more natural. may i suggest you feeding thawed fuzzys?

most ps can eat em in 2 bites. easier to clean


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## Sacrifice

Dolphinswin said:


> the only pro is its fun to watch... if your sick minded. Cons mouse often drowns as piranhas are pussys. But i could care less if you feed mouse, Ive done it, and failed before. Your fish wont always go get him


I don't believe that you have to be a sick minded person to enjoy watching that.

These are my opinions of course:

Pros:
*Good protein
*The bones add a little something that they don't normally get in the way of nutrients, or so I've heard
*Adds variety to their diet
*And yes it can be entertaining to watch, to me this is no different then killing goldfish.

Cons:
*If he's not finished off quickly it's wounds could leak all kinds of nasty and ruin your water params
*My biggest fear is that he puts up a fight and claws an eye out or gives the Ps some nasty wounds
*And the 3rd con is that you have to listen to people whine about "oh that poor little mouse, you must be a sick individual" when you tell someone about it.

IMO, I may or may never try this with my next group of pygos but I'm beginning to think that I won't share it with the world, lol. Over the years I've learned that sometimes its just better to keep your mouth shut, lol.

Too bad you're video camera was dead, because according to oh Dolphin I'm a sick minded person because I would've enjoyed your little vid.







The vids that do get me a little are the ones where ppl try to feed giant feeders and the Ps never seem to finish it off very quickly.


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## PiranhaMike661

Sacrifice said:


> i am not against it. in the wild piranha eat bone, its good for them. more natural. may i suggest you feeding thawed fuzzys?
> 
> most ps can eat em in 2 bites. easier to clean


Thanks for the suggestion...I will definitely check it out. I think Petsmart sells the frozen mice.


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## Grosse Gurke

Well....Count me on the "If I was going to feed a mouse it certainly wouldnt be a live mouse because it makes me uneasy to see any animal suffer....even a mouse." side of this argument. If you feel there are benefits in feeding mice....you can get frozen feeder mice which will eliminate any of the negatives from live feeding. If you feel the need to see an animal suffer....then I guess dropping a land mammal into a tank of water that has fish picking at it from under the water is probably right up your alley. To me...it is much different then feeding properly sized feeder fish.


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## PiranhaMike661

Thanks for the info!


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## the_w8

I will never feed live again. Don't like the mess and I also feel bad later on. I don't even like putting in feeder fish, but thats just me. There's much better things out there to feed your P's and if you feel like feeding them a mamal, go with a frozen already dead pinky mouse or something.


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## impalass

Imo mammals are higher up on the evolutionary scale than fish/reptiles and I find using them as feeders personally distasteful, even with reptiles as natural as that is, but thats just me.
I would never call anybody names for choosing to feed mice to their Ps, there are more eloquent ways to make a point as already demonstrated by others.


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## PiranhaMike661

It's cool, I'm not offended....the thing about these forums is that for every post about feeding live, whether it be fish or mammals, there's always somebody who disagrees...kinda expected it when I dropped this post. I was just curious as to what the pros and cons were and thanks everybody for your input. I'll post a video of the next feeding....whether it be live or frozen, I'm not quite sure yet.


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## Sanjo Eel

The only issue for me is the mess a mouse makes in the tank, but feeding fish can be messy too.

There's nothing sick about eating another animal or watching another animal eat. Go visit a slaughterhouse if you need a reminder about the nature of being a meat eater, or go hunting and clean and butcher your own meat. Most people couldn't do it but will gladly eat a steak.
Hypocrites.


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## Piranha_man

IMO there's a vast difference between killing something in order to eat it... and considering it "_entertainment_" to watch an animal needlessly suffer.


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## Sanjo Eel

Mice are cannibals just like piranha. They will eat each other and their babies if they are hungry.
How is feeding a live mouse to fish any worse than what they will do to themselves? 
Most any mouse in the wild will meet it's demise in a similarly morbid fashion, right? Whether by an owl, snake, cat, largemouth bass, or piranha. It's food and it is meant to be eaten and enjoyed.

LOL BTW I am not saying people who won't feed live food are hypocrites, I just don't see what the big deal is that's all.


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## Piranha_man

I hear ya... and I don't make nearly the big deal about it that I used to.
We're not all going to see everything exactly the same way.


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## Sanjo Eel

Right on P-man.


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## marilynmonroe

I don't see a problem with this, in the wild they would eat live animal's...


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## CLUSTER ONE

Grosse Gurke said:


> Well....Count me on the "If I was going to feed a mouse it certainly wouldnt be a live mouse because it makes me uneasy to see any animal suffer....even a mouse." side of this argument. If you feel there are benefits in feeding mice....you can get frozen feeder mice which will eliminate any of the negatives from live feeding. If you feel the need to see an animal suffer....then I guess dropping a land mammal into a tank of water that has fish picking at it from under the water is probably right up your alley. To me...it is much different then feeding properly sized feeder fish.


I agree completly. I know p's eat meat, but theres a differnce in having some reds slowly rip apart a 10" goldfish for their owner's entertainment while claiming "well they have to eat" and feeding them smaller feeders that are gone in seconds.

The reality of eating meat is other animals must die to provide food, but if another animal must die i think the least we can do is to try and make it humane. If your feeding feeders all im saying is feed something they can easily handle. Too often you see feeders still alive bitten in half floating at the top of the tank waiting to die.


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## Sacrifice

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Well....Count me on the "If I was going to feed a mouse it certainly wouldnt be a live mouse because it makes me uneasy to see any animal suffer....even a mouse." side of this argument. If you feel there are benefits in feeding mice....you can get frozen feeder mice which will eliminate any of the negatives from live feeding. If you feel the need to see an animal suffer....then I guess dropping a land mammal into a tank of water that has fish picking at it from under the water is probably right up your alley. To me...it is much different then feeding properly sized feeder fish.


I agree completly. I know p's eat meat, but theres a differnce in having some reds slowly rip apart a 10" goldfish for their owner's entertainment while claiming "well they have to eat" and feeding them smaller feeders that are gone in seconds.

The reality of eating meat is other animals must die to provide food, but if another animal must die i think the least we can do is to try and make it humane. If your feeding feeders all im saying is feed something they can easily handle. *Too often you see feeders still alive bitten in half floating at the top of the tank waiting to die.*
[/quote]

I agree 100%


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## FEEFA

I say that if you can stomache it and its over quickly without the poor thing drowning then go to town.

I personally wouldnt just beacause I hear that its messy and I cant stomache it


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## PiranhaMike661

Well like I said in previous posts....it was definitely over in seconds...and nothing left over. I'll try a frozen though this weekend.


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## Piranha_man

How'd the frozen mouse thing go?
Any hairy mess to clean up?


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## PiranhaMike661

Havent tried it yet.....Petsmart was out of the smalls. I didn't wanna throw something in that they were just gonna make a mess out of. These hoppers are really small and leave no mess behind. As soon as Petsmart gets some small frozen one in, I'll let ya know!


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