Feeding Snakes Chicken Legs

[Bluetongue1]

Using body parts as a staple would definitely require supplementation with a complete mineral and vitamin mix for reptiles. How much and how often I would not have a clue but it will no dout be on the label. The only other thing to watch out for is that they are still passing wastes and their body is geared for and will develop problems if it doesn’t happen with some measure of regularity. As for using parts to supplement the diet, given the excess of nutrients taken in by captive reptiles, I do not see any problem. The only question is, how often?

FYI
If you have the time and the interest, here is thumbnail sketch of that nutrition underlying the post...

Skin feathers and fur are called roughage. Roughage cannot be digested and therefore must be passed as wastes. Thick pieces of bone are often not fully digested as it takes too long and there will already be more than enough bone digested. This, mucous and a small amount of dead cells combine with the roughage to produce digestive wastes. As these waste pass through the large intestine, bacteria living in then produce vitamin K, which is absorbed through the intestinal walls. So the elimination of some digestive wastes is required to maintain the health of your animal in the long term.

The liver, the largest of the body organs, contains fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and a significant range of minerals. Water soluble vitamins and a variety of minerals are found within different cells, body fluid and the blood stream. So a diet (whether captive or wild) of whole vertebrates, irrespective of whether it is mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian, will contain all the necessary nutrients. There is no dietary need to alter the feed animal. While the relative amounts of the nutrients may vary a bit, given the total mass a snake will consume compared to its own mass, it will get sufficient of each irrespective. The only precaution would be to not feed fatty food to fat intolerant species.

Proteins are broken down by digestion into their “building block” chemicals called amino acids, so they can be absorbed into the body. There are only 20 different types but they can be put together to make all the different proteins in all the different living things on earth. 9 of the amino acids must be present in the diet of animals. These are called the essential amino acids. The other 11 can be made by making changes to another amino acid. Animal meat invariably contains all 9 essential amino acids. Vegetable protein does not and so a variety of vegetable matter is required in the diet.
Amino acids are used to make structural, enzymes, hormones, antibodies and a few other things. What is left over from making these things is converted into carbohydrate and used as a source of energy. In this conversion, the amino group is removed from the molecules and gotten rid of as urea, uric acid and/or urates – the white stuff on the end of the food wastes.

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

has any one tryed chicken eggs? lol

I have not tried eggs as a food source for snakes, but have heard of people feeding them with success, just as would happen in the wild. But once again would not make up a full diet.

Cheers
Ian

 

[Snotty]

Personally I am all for increasing variety in captive diets - within reason at least. Snakes in the wild as far as I know do not live on lab rats and mice kept in a box and grown on dog food. If it is lean and clean and the animal obviously goes for it then it should be beneficial. A cultured rat or mouse is really quite different to a wild one, the fat content is generally way higher and the bone density far lower.

The only thing to beware of is the fat (Hepatic lipidosis) but that is unfortunately common enough in many captive reptiles anyway.

 

[Bluetongue1]

Sorry Snotty but I have to disagree. Dogs and cats in the wild do not get their meals out of a packet or a can. Neither would most aviary birds in the wild get sunflower and others seeds that are commonly found in commercial seed mixes. If you had to emulate wild diets, you would be stuffed trying to keep Black-headed Pythons. Their measured diet consists of over 90% reptiles.

It is not about what they eat in the wild. It is about what they need to eat to be healthy. Where the staple food item contains all the required nutrients, variety is NOT required to maintain nutritional based health. This has been shown to be he case with rodent or bird based diets. Introducing variety is a personal preference but by no means necessary.

The amount of fat present in feeder animals raised for reptile consumption is dependent on a number of factors. Their diet, their activity levels, their sex and their age. The only real concern is with rats of around 200g and up. Depending on diet and activity levels, these jumbo sided rats may or may not have excessive fat stores in their bodies. Fat intolerant species, in particular BHPs and to a lesser degree Womas, can develop a fatal condition commonly referred to as “fatty liver disease” as a result of excessive amounts of fat in the diet. This is not the same condition (Hepatic lipidosis) that you have mentioned.

Blue