Feeding gators live animals.....

Just to be clear, I don't object to ALL live feeding. It was unusual for the rat to be alive for more than 30 seconds after it hit the water (if it even made it that far). There were probably 5 or 6 adult alligators (the keeper said they were between 20 and 60 years old) in the enclosure, and their interest was immediately piqued by the sound of the stick being taken out of the tube for the rat to be dropped in. It was pretty much chomp, chomp, swallow. I'm sure it was less stressful/painful than a glue trap or poison, and I would think would be somewhat similar to death by barn cat or terrier, minus the ability to escape.

I had more of an issue with the spirit in which it was done than the action itself. There was other live prey fed as normal meals--live ducks according to the keeper-that I could never do, I love ducks!

If they're just hanging out at the end of the tube waiting for whatever drops in, it doesn't seem like it adds much enrichment to their day.

Exactly. I'm more on board with people tossing flighty rabbits and pheasants to big cats than this. This would seem to be quite nasty for the (live) rat without providing any benefit over thawed one.

me too especially fried w/a good thai curry sauce.
i understand & in a perfect world the crocs would get regular large meals, but I suspect this is just a business decision to keep attendance & finances up in a crappy economy.
seriously who wouldn't pay a buck to get to hand a snow leopard (or tiger, hyena, wolf etc) a big haunch of deer, goat or horse? i would & I'd go to the zoo alot more often if this was the case.

Oh I did enjoy feeding the raw meat. There was one particular gator that was pretty on the ball with the meat catching, and I ended up feeding him two baggies of meat. If DH hadn't cut me off I would have probably bought another bag. I have a pic of him if I can figure out how to get it from my phone to the forum.

I think it's kind of wrong that people want to drop a small animal into a larger animals mouth for fun.

I wouldn't have a problem if feeding time consisted of letting animals go in the cage and the animal actually caught it's own food but it just seems a little weird to want to see an animal die by shoving it down a tube to it's death.

I personally wouldnt pay for it. But I understand the "fun" factore for the animals.

My turtle would happily eat turtle pellets all day long. But I do always keep a school of 20 something fish in his tank for him to eat and chase down. No they dont stand much of a chance with him. They are just a added enrichment for him to enjoy. Not like I can take him on a walk or god a swim in the lake lol. So his source of fun comes with the unfortunate death of others. The fish are well looked after, food for them, and a few good hiding places in between rocks and plants and 100gallon tank to swim in until they get eaten