Food

[Shrimply]

I am going to start off telling you just how greedy Granite is. Every time I feed her I take her out of hiding and place her in front of the food in her tank. Well today I hadn't even layed her down before she struck at the food. Also I have only tong fed her once but she can really strike she has more power behind her than any of the ones i feed at the reptile shop. She even strikes at food which is just lying on the ground. I am pretty sure she isn't hungry just really greedy.

Also I have been really against doing this but I wanted your opinion on feeding mice caught in the house.
I have always worried about passing on mites or internal diseases but i was thinking if I froze it all first it should prevent all those problems and as long as i was 100% sure there was no poison about there is not any other reason they would not be fine. This question came about because the person owning the big farmhouse close to my house offered me the mice they catch. He also keeps chickens and says if I ever want day old chicks he can leave an egg under the hen.
I am really not very sure about this but it would save me a bit of money. I want your opinion as I am not willing to risk my pets health and probably won't do it anyway but wondered what you thought.

[John Pilling]

I wouldn't, simpley because frozzen mice/rats/chicks/rabbits ect are fed a specilist diet specificley for the reptile market, which contains added vitamins and minerals ad other things which add to the end result of what snakes and other reptiles need.

[lee]

if you thinking of doing that why not buy live mice and breed them?
wild mice you don't know what they are eating but breeding your own you know exactly what they are eating
be a few pounds to set up but the results would be good in the long run
lee

[Vicki]

Breeding them will save you loads of money if you can handle the killing part. Im a bit of a wimp when it comes to stuff like that and get too attached.

I wouldnt feed ones caught in the house though as like said before you dont know what they have eated. They could have munched a lod of poison before coming into youre house. And yes disease, parasites etc is also a risk

[Shrimply]

Thanks for the info as i said I didn't think it was that great an idea but was just wondering. And at the end of the day my snake did survive for 3 months on them and i can't imagine shop bought ones would have given him the growth spurt that the variety in the wild gave him.

As for keeping live mice i probably have everything I need to breed them but I don't think I could handle the killing and even a pair would produce more mice than I would ever need for my two snakes. Although I imagine it would be much better for your snake as you know exactly what you are feeding the mice. Just out of interest does anybody on here breed their own?

For just now I will stick to bought ones. Much safer. ;D

[Shrimply]

Learn't a valuable lesson today, don't put the dish down in the tank and then lower the fuzzie onto it. Luckily she didn't get my hand. You know that story about the exploding snake I think it probably had a mind like Granite. I seriously think if I put a full grown mouse in her tank she would try and eat it.

[sparkle**]

Hey shrimpy! My buddys like that. Its like he knows when its feeding days as hes out as soon as you open the viv! and he dosn't even go off food when he's sheading! like Rafa does

[meths]

My gran has a farm, they catch 3 or 4 mice a week, i was wondering the same thing, for when Frankie is a little larger. I sort of decided against it, as you cant tell what diet a wild mouse has had, probably ll diseased slugs and things like that, so i think i'm going to stick to specially bred ones.

[angie]

what would your opinion of buying hampsters/gerbils that have been bread as pets to feed to the snakes? i live in a very small and small-minded town in west wales, and food is quite hard to come by!

[John Pilling]

If they were breed as snake food and humainley killed this would be ok (not throwing them against a wall for example). If you could afford it a co2 chamber would be the best way to do it, but to make it worth while you would need at least a hundred mice to make it worth the cost of making a co2 chamber.

[Shrimply]

I believe that hamsters, gerbils and young rats contain much more fat than mice which can be bad for snakes try to get hold of some mice.

Good to see you got here.

[angie]

yeah thanks for the tip shrimply! much nicer and more friendly site! also advice seems to be much better! great range of ifo! cheers again, speak soon

[ellie]

Hey, Ive got a georges Anerythristic corn called Onyx who is about a year old, he is absolutely stunning, sadly i have no pickies of him but will try and post some on here some day! i recently bought some stuff called Nutrobal its a high potency calcium balancer and multivitamin suppliment for reptiles. it says to only slightly put a tiny bit on the pinkie, do any of you use it if so is it any good as it does say if you accidently exceed stated dose could prove fatal : ( but i want to keep him healthy with vitamins etc, so can i possibly have some info on this, and what do you all use? By the way Granite is so pretty shrimply, Onyx would be head over heels lol! Cheers peepz, Ellie

[ellie]

Oh and whats the issue with the sock thing? is putting a sock in the viv nice for the snake lol ? (sorry i forgot to add this into my post ^^^^^^)

[John Pilling]

Nutribac is excellant stuff, used mainley for pregnant snakes and snakes that have been off feeding and has just restarted, or after a health problem.

But you can add it into the meal (by dipping just the head in nutribac) say every 4 feeds, this will help give the snake some minerals of which calcium is the main 1 (thats why it's goot for gravid(pregnant) snakes).

As to the sock thing, never tryed it, but i have tryed a tee-shirt worn for 2 days, and that worked really well, so i think the effect's would be similar.

[Amber]

Nutribal is mainly for lizards, you really don't need to be feeding it to your snake.

[John Pilling]

Sorry i misread it, nutrabal is for lizzards and nutribac (available from Kathy Love) is the snake suppliment.