Wild Geckos

[Josh_the_Newb]

Hi all,

I was just out having a smoke, looking up to the underside of my veranda at some geckos. I then thought to myself, Buddy could eat one of them. So I decided to hopp online and ask the question. Is it safe to feed my pet snake wild animals? And if it is, does anyone know if small lizards or geckos are in a Stimpson pythons normal diet?

Any feedback is welcome. But I really want to know if anyone has tried it, or if there are any risks involved (such as diseases).

Thanks, looking forward to an interesting discussion,

Josh

 

[MrBredli]

Not safe at all, those geckos will be full of worms and other nasties.

 

[Josh_the_Newb]

ok thanks Mrbredli, that convinces me not to go there

 

[Glider]

Your python would probably love to eat an asian house gecko, however there are two main problems with it. Firstly the wild geckos may be carrying worms or parasites that are easily passed to your snake, and secondly it is illegal to feed your snake live (as well as wild caught) food items unless there is a dire need to.

 

[Josh_the_Newb]

thnkas Glider, I didnt realise it was illegal to feed wild caught animals to my snake.

 

[cris]

I feed them to my outside animals(the monitors find them in the avairy anyway) and i also feed them to my treesnakes after freezing them for atleast a month, i believe 6 weeks is ideal but dont accurately record it so roughly over a month is good enough for me. My sandswimmers would probably get some too as i have fluon around the top of the tank they are in and it makes it hard for geckos to escape.

Its perfectly legal to feed your animals AHG's, but its illegal and stupid(due to parasite risks) to feed them live if they dont need live food. Burtons legless lizards for example need live lizards so live AHG's are an excellent food for them and it saves using native lizards.

 

[reece89]

good point cris i just learnt something thanks for the info

 

[cris]

Also they are collected from areas where insect sprays etc. arnt used as the chemicals could build up in them over time.

 

[nuthn2do]

Mmmm i have had to put one of these on licence a couple of years ago in NSW, are what you call AHG's up there in bananaland actually H.frenatus or something different?

 

[cris]

Yeah they are H.frenatus but in QLD they consider them to be exotic, whether they are native or not is debatable but they sure arnt native here in Brisbane.

 

[nuthn2do]

H.frenatus are on the NSW reptile keepers list with all other natives. I did question it at the time but ................. just gotta wonder :shock: