Chicken necks and Drumsticks....

[cris]

Just because the necks have no guts doesnt mean they have no nutritional value. I feed my snakes a combination of rats and chicken necks(mainly).

Just got to get over that cute factor too. I find that last one too hard to get over everytime. Next time I tell myself.......

They tend to lose the cute factor after being headshot IMO, rats are just as cute anyway and more of them would need to be killed for the same size meal.

 

[Earthling]

They tend to lose the cute factor after being headshot IMO, rats are just as cute anyway and more of them would need to be killed for the same size meal.

Head shoot Joeys:shock:? Im guessing you mean the roo doe head shooting? Their just meat now. I was talking joeys hard to kill and bring home. I can kill them...cause you have too....but cant bring myself to bringing one home for snake food.....next time....such a waste to leave them for fox food. Most at the moment are at the 5" long nose to vent stage and still hairless...poor wee buggers.

 

[cris]

Oh i thought you meant bigger ones(its not like me to read something wrong lol). Still i dont see it being any worse than using pinky rodents, killing them isnt a plesant job either, but a snake has to eat.

 

[The Devil]

(Gillsy.... As already mentioned great for a treat, no nutritional value in them. )

That's an interesting statement, am I to understand that the lean meat on a c/drumstick has no nutritional value.
Further the large bone in a d/stick is of no value and the bone morrow is nothing but jellied water.

That being the case most of my snakes should not be growing and breeding.

A friend of mine has a BHP about 6 y.o. that has NEVER had anything but chicken, big snake and looks great.

 

[LennytheGecko]

Just wondering if u could suppliment the chick necks and drumsticks with vit + min? Mayeb some gound grains or something similar to mimic what would be in the stomach of a snakes natural prey. and maybe some chicken liver/heart/kidney all pumped inside teh drumstick or neck.....Chicken, to me, would be an excellent food for any animal, being a nice gentle food on the stomach and full of protien(to help u grow nice and strong) Have always given dogs and cats chicken frames..... and ducks eat chicken too, mostly KFC thou

 

[snakecharma]

hey there all

i have all my adults BHP's and Woma's eating drumsticks except 1 annoying male woma who likes his rats too much lol. And for the rest of my collection i have most of my jungles onto chicken wing drumsticks (get a ful chicken wing and break it into 3 parts) my bredli's are all on the middle wing section and alot of my yearlings will down the occasional wing tip as its nice and small.

I agree that its probably not an all round meal thus why i still feed rodents every 2nd-3rd feed but am looking into injecting the chicken parts with some vitamins such as rep cals hertivite to add some extra goodies for my snakey friends

cheerz

 

[cris]

You can supplement them by making a cut to form a little pocket or simply put stuff under the skin on the drum sticks.

If you are having trouble getting them to take necks/legs, make sure they are warmed up and just dip the end of it in some rat blood, guts or whatever and they should eat it. The rat can then be fed to the snake aswell.

 

[mrmikk]

Necks and drumsticks are at least better for bhps than useing the day old chicks the yolks in the chicks makes for stinking running poo.

How true!

 

[crush the turtle]

were do u buy chicken necks from?

 

[Tatelina]

I was thinking the same thing...
Personally I wouldn't jepordise (sp?) the health of my animals to save money.

One of the reasons for feeding whole rodents to pythons is that it is a complete and balanced meal.

I would not underestimate the value of the gut content when you are feeding whole animals. If you feed just bone and muscle protein (and some fat too I suspect, despite removing skins) this could be deleterious to the long term health of the animal.

 

[Dan19]

I was desperate for food one time so i just went and got a bucket of kfc's non-spicy chicken, they loved it!!

 

[ihaveherps]

I dont agree that the chicken has no nutritional value, but no-one in their right mind would argue that a chicken neck or drumstick has anywhere the nutritional value of a full carcass, be it bird or rodent.

 

[mcloughlin2]

Franklins, woolworths and most butchers sell chicken necks.

 

[Helikaon]

yeah nah i cant imagine id ever feed chicken bits, just seems wrong that you are feeding a snake a part of an animal that the snake couldn't consume whole hence the calcium on the bones may be too difficult to consume or the jaggard vertebrae may irritate if not cut the digestive wall. as read in a kids post a while back when he thought feeding chicken necks was fine till the vertebrae got stuck in his snake. i can see why people would turn to these for snakes that need a lean diet but i can assure you there are several essential amino acids that they would not get from just a drumstick. it seem if cost of food is that much of an object why own so many snakes. one of the reasons snakes don't need uv is because they eat entire animals. but yes i would suggest if you decide to go down this path to also mix it up with rats or another similar food stuff. because i simply dont care if it seems to work it is not best practice so in my opinion should not be described as if it is.

 

[Jason2]

I've not heard the bit about snakes not needing UV because they eat entire animals.
I figured it might have had something to do with the fact that pythons spend most of their day out of the sun, hiding from predators ect.

I guess it possible for a chicken neck bone to get caught in a snakes throat but then again how many people remove the teeth and toe nails from rats before feeding.

Helikon...if you think that pythons can't eat whole chickens, chooks ect maybe you should talk to people who live on farms.

 

[Nikki.]

Do you reckon i could feed Pretzel my 11month Bredli (almost his birthday soon!!) with a chicken wing or drumstuck? i agree , you could be saving heaps of money if you buy rats or mice from the petshop

 

[ishka]

I think when it comes to feeding reptiles it is no different to feeding humans (apart from our tastes being a little different). I don't doubt that chicken (necks or drummies) doesn't fill all the nutritional requirements of the snake but i don't think that matters as long as you look at the over all diet and they are not eating the chicken solely. When we eat, we do not expect to fulfil our dietary requirements in one meal but instead fulfil those needs with the different things we eat over a period of time.

Basically what I am trying to say is that although necks and drummies won't fulfil all of a snakes dietary requirements there is no reason why they can't be used as part of a balanced diet because like humans i don't believe that they need to get all the nutrition they need out of every single meal.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers,
Ishka

 

[ishka]

it seem if cost of food is that much of an object why own so many snakes.

I don't think anyone here is saying that they don't want to fork out the money for food but at the end of the day if you can cut down food costs without adversely effecting your collection... why not do it?

 

[mcloughlin2]

I think that if the cost of food is that big a deal, you should not be keeping a snake, or in that case many snakes. Too often do you read on here about how expensive it is to feed snakes and how they want cheaper alternatives. However before you buy your snake you should have already checked to see how much food will cost ~.

I think majority of people have come to the conclusion that chicken necks and drumsticks are not good as a staple food diet. Every so often yeah they would be fine but on a regular basis your snakes will be missing out on many important vitamens and minerals. The diet will need to have a variety of things so they can fulfill whatever dietry requirements they have. So lets remember whats best for your snake - not whats going to save you the most money.

Sam.

 

[Meechee]

Would you have to make sure they were organic? What would the growth hormones and chemicals do to your snake?