Healthiest Food Item?

**Python-Lover4lyf** · 17-Jun-12, 03:19 PM

I've just been wondering ... what's the healthiest food item for my bredli when he becomes the right size a week old quail, a weiner rat, an adult mouse or a baby guinea pig?

Thanks guys

**cheekabee** · 17-Jun-12, 03:51 PM

Probably quail as they have the best ratio of protein and fat out of the food items that you have listed.

**wokka** · 17-Jun-12, 04:18 PM

The problem is that no-one seems to start with what is the optimen nutitional value of food items for reptiles at a particular time of the year to achieve a certian goal. Many keepers extrapolate from what is good for humans which is not logically necessarily going to be best for snakes . Just because fat is considered bad and protein good for humans, it doesn't necessarily translate to reptiles which are cold-blooded opportunistic feeders with a seasonally variable metabolism, which should logically have different requirements at different times throughout the metabolic cycle.

**K3nny** · 17-Jun-12, 04:43 PM

agreed, with any living organism, unless you are a highly specialized feeder, there is no such thing as a single magic bullet that determines long life and perfect health 100%. Personally i'd go with a variety, but then again thats just my personal opinion, as far as i know there's barely any issue with feeding your pet exclusively on an appropriate food item.

**Python-Lover4lyf** · 18-Jun-12, 07:12 PM

*sigh* what im asking is what is the best solid food item to feed, say .. 2 months at a time ...

... yes in will be switching it up between but i prefer to have one solid food item that i mainly feed and also is there any stand out negatives of the list of food items?

**Raymonde** · 18-Jun-12, 08:44 PM

I made a thread on the nutritional value of different food items a while ago after i found this paper on it.

to summarize in relation to you question, i wouldn't feed guinea pigs very often as they have very high fat content, there isn't really that much difference between adult mice and weiner rats (see the other thread post #5 for detailed post on the differences between mice and rats), and quails appear to have higher percentage of protein than the rodents. I think it would be ok to feed quails, mice or rats for 2 months at a time, although i have heard it said by someone that quails should be only be fed occasionally but i don't know if that is true or not.

Honestly, as long as your not power feeding (can be bad for some breeds of snakes) and your feeding whole animal prey (internal organs contain important vitamins, etc) i don't think you can really mess it up too bad....

End of the debate: studies on the nutritional value of food for snakes

extra note: it does also depend on what type of snake you are talking about, as someone else mentioned, some fat is certainly good but there are some snakes (woma and black-headed python) which can easily get too much fat (fatty liver disease) when fed on a high fat diet of mammals as oppose to a diet of reptiles which is what they eat in the wild.

**Python-Lover4lyf** · 19-Jun-12, 04:30 PM

Thanks that was the sort of answer i was looking for

**Mr.James** · 19-Jun-12, 05:16 PM

As an adult bredli, rats with the occasional quail or small rabbit.

**ghosts** · 19-Jun-12, 05:40 PM

Many people feed just rats or mice and there snakes live a long healthy happy life. I have had friends change food items because it's "healthier" and all it's done is turn the snake into a pain in the butt to feed.

**leamos** · 19-Jun-12, 06:22 PM

I feed mainly rats to my snakes with a quail or chicken every 4th or 5th feed not for nutritional reasons but mainly just to give them some variety. That and chickens are cheap as chips and helps keep feeding cost down a bit, I've also found day old chicks are great for clearing out constipated juv/subadults. Can't wait till I move to a bit of acreage in a few months and will have the room to breed as many rats, quails and chickens as I could ever want or need

**Snowman** · 19-Jun-12, 06:42 PM

most people tend to keep their Woma's and BHP's on the cuddly side. They eat a lot of reptiles in the wild which are high in protein and low in fat like birds. I feed mine rats, but only up to juvie rats as I find the others have to much fat. I mix it up with chickens at well. I know a guy who feeds his BHP's fish...