Forgive a potentially stupid question - but what exactly is the frozen alternative? Is it not still another animal? Why is better for somebody in a big stinky pet store to smack an animal's head & put it in the freezer, than it is for the snake owner?
How does one convince a snake to eat an already-deceased prey, anyhow? I thought that they only went after moving stuff.
Just playing devil's advocate. I don't actually recommend kittens as snake food. I'm just trying to figure out why the alternatives would be any better.
The frozen alternative is either rats or mice. These are acceptable snake food since they lack what is known as the cute factor. Kittens are perceived as cute, cuddly, and playful balls of fluff. Therefore, they shouldn't be eaten. Rats and mice are seen as pests that carry disease and live in dirty places like sewers. That means they make good food.
Getting a snake to eat previously frozen food is an easy process in principle but not in practice. You thaw out the food and use long tweezers to move the rodent around and catch the snakes attention. Sounds easy right? Try getting a snake not raised on frozen to do it.
As for using other animals aside from rats and mice as food consider this. An adult Burmese Python can commonly be 20 feet long and weigh about 200 pounds. Needless to say, it would take a lot of frozen rats to satisfy this snakes appetite.
Do I think that standard pet snakes such as Ball Pythons should be fed things other than mice and rats? Since this is all they need to survive, no. But keeping some of the larger types means that you may need to upgrade to larger food.