Feeding Snakes drumsticks, chicken necks, etc

[Sdaji]

This topic comes up a fair bit and it's a pretty typical case of everyone having a firm belief without any empirical evidence, so I'm doing some preliminary trials.

For those unfamiliar with the debate, most people assume that snakes which naturally eat whole animals need to do so in captivity in order to be healthy. The reasoning is that they need all the goodies in the organs, with muscle, bone, fat, skin and fur not being enough on their own. People sometimes use chicken wings or necks as supplementary feeds to save money or to fill in when rodents are out of supply, and many people believe this is unhealthy.

If anyone has already done any experimenting, please get in touch to prevent me from reinventing the wheel! I have snakes currently gobbling down tails, legs, meat, etc and in a year or so I should have some worthwhile data (or sooner if things turn sour!).

Please note that feeding a snake half a dozen 'meat and bone' meals doesn't prove anything at all. Doing it for a year or so means something, and having a snake grow from baby to adult exclusively on meat and bone is what we need to try.

Cheers

Sdaji

 

[pythons73]

That will defianately be interesting to no,good luck with what you find out.

 

[mckellar007]

what type of snakes are you using?
will be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[MrMertens]

Good luck! Better you than me but it would be very interesting to see how things pan out in a year?

Are you using more than one species?

 

[Sdaji]

I'm using Death Adders for the pilot experiment. Without preliminary results it didn't seem worth using a large number of animals/species. If they go well I'll probably try it with Children's Pythons and maybe a Water Python, and I'll also try a few variations on the diet. I presume someone else must have tried this already, my guess is that it goes badly and people don't report their failures. I may well be the hundredth person to try, but even if that's so I'll be the first to report the failure if no one else does it within a year or two.

 

[DDALDD]

Will look forward to the results.

 

[cement]

I am one of your half a dozen people. Nothing to prove except that the Bhps like chicken and will eat it when rats not available or money either.
It does them no harm from what I can gather from my limited feedouts.

 

[Sdaji]

Yeah, I've given snakes a few meals of raw meat in a row just for the novelty. It never did them any noticable harm at all. About ten years ago I routinely gave them chunks of lean meat with their rodents. I figured that they'd be getting all the goodies they needed plus a triple dose of the best stuff. I never had any problems and have always wondered if they really did need all the offal. I haven't bothered feeding meat for many years now. I'm sure they'd be calcium deficient without bones, and I'd be surprised if the fat isn't important. As I said, I have a few nutritional ideas which I'll test if the pilot experiment is a success.

 

[solar 17]

Bhp's and chicken drumsticks

Hi there.MAYBE l can speed this debate up a bit...[approx.] 5 years ago l purchased a yearling female bhp off a guy who said [after l paid for her] she ONLY eats one week old chickens, well the novelty wore off these real quick[ living in an inner suburb]so l tried her on a small drumstick BINGO!!!! well for the last 41/2 years [SHE WILL NOT EAT RATS] all she has eaten is chicken drumsticks [with one MYADEC multi-vitamin capsule placed in the flesh via a knife cut]........well for the last 2 years she has produced 8 hatchies each year and is gravid again....and she is so shiney she looks like she has been dipped in clear oil.....cheers solar 17

 

[Sdaji]

Well! That makes me optimistic about getting positive results.

Skin off or skin on?

 

[nuthn2do]

This is a disturbing moment.

 

[solar 17]

Chicken 4 snakes

The skin.....70-80% off......cheers solar 17..ps B 4 anyone gives me a serve this BHP WILL NOT eat rats in any shape or form and trust me l am the 1st to admitt l am a bit over the top with my feeding regimes but thats me and thats it.......

 

[missllama]

i havent done any experimenting or tests because my snakes wont eat chicken necks
tried and they wont take em one bit it once and then let go thats it

would love to see what results someone has had if they have experimented over a period of time tho

great thread sdaji

 

[itbites]

Just a question...maybe stupid but are these
just your every day supermarket drumsticks?
If so I question the chemicals etc
that get pumped into these kinds of meats...
I never eat supermarket meat for that reason.
Interesting experiment all the same.

 

[Pythonking]

hehe solar if you want I have some quails you can try out on her, i had a simular experience with my female woma who won't touch rats no matter how hungry she is, I got onto day old chickens which my girl tok to very well but after some consultation with my vet decided that it wasn't the best idea to be just feeding day old chickens so followed my nose to quails and now all she gets is quails.

 

[Sdaji]

Thanks, Baden. We can joke around, but if anyone wants to make your life difficult because you're feeding drumsticks to your snake you can politely tell them you've been keeping snakes for longer than they have and recommend that they direct all further questions to the nearest rock or brick wall

itbites: At the moment I'm using bits of rats and mice, but will probably move on to beef or chicken. It's illegal to use nasty chemicals in the meat, but of course that doesn't always stop them. Maybe I'll use road kill. I pass a lot of road kill on my adventures and one fresh kangaroo would feed quite a few Death Adders!

Oh, yeah, scavenging native road kill is illegal. I'll use road killed cats, foxes, rabbits and deer (actually, since I pass enough of them, I probably will use the legal stuff).

 

[itbites]

LMAO...ok then

 

[caustichumor]

I remember watching a doco on the BTS in Guam, and some had actually started foraging in the rubbish bins, they had footage of one actually eating a cooked sausage. (they may not eat chicken legs in the wild, but they don't often have access to them either) Are you going to try differant meats on differant animals? red meat, poultry ect?

 

[solar 17]

I knew i knew

Itbites...whether it was a poor choice of words or not l don,t know.....but this isn,t wasn,t and never will be an " EXPERIMENT" this bhp WILL NOT eat anything else and yes the drumsticks are free-range as l dodge salt additives.......cheers solar 17

 

[itbites]

Soz darlz my question & statement was directed at Sdaji's "experiment"
I am sure you know exactly what your doing