• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Any treats to feed besides birds?

Corny Noob

Corny Noob

Proud Momma
I've never seen it mentioned before but I was wondering if there are any other snake "treats" aside from chicks quails or their respective eggs?

:shrugs:
 
I don't believe it's to customary (nor necessary) to give snakes treats as you would a dog or cat. I do know that I feed my Sinaloan Milk and MBK """treats""" when infertile eggs (slugs) come along, or when I have non-feeding hatchlings. Other than that, none of my snakes (corns, boas, etc.) get treats.

D80
 
Well I know it's not like supplying treats for dogs, cats, birds or even small rodents. I guess with all of my other pets I'm just so used to feeding a varied diet and I'm just wondering if there's anything else to offer to switch it up.
 
I stand corrected but I don't think that corns should EVER be fed eggs of any kind...I am not sure about the birds but I am sure there was a topic a while ago where eggs were mentioned to cause serious internal damage in corns!!!!

Personally, my snakes are super happy as they are getting their mice. I have given the bigger one pinks as "snacks" but that's only because I had too many and had to get rid of them.
 
You could give it the rat sized equivalent of the current mouse size it is eatting. You could also try giving it several smaller than normal mice. 1 hopper to 4-5 pinkies or 2-4 fuzzies depending on size.

Quail eggs or chicks should be ok for an adult cornsnake. Kathy Love has posted several times about this recently in fact so if you advanced search, you wont have any trouble. It wont hurt an adult but she says that their poo for the next week or two is extremely foul.
 
Well the reason I said "aside from birds" is if you couldn't tell from my signature I have 22 birds, and frankly have a bit of a problem with feeding it baby birds, for some reason baby mice not so much.
And I only plan on feeding it rats of any kind if it gets large enough >_> I love rats too much too. If corns got too big to eat just lots of mice I wouldn't be able to get one, damn moral dilemmas :/
 
We were overrun with zebra finches so we feed our adults them, well, at least until one slept with Konig and then bullied him out of his hide.

As a "treat" we will go to the pet store and buy two green anoles ($15) and as you can see it is a very expensive treat.

We got day old chicks and small quails from RodentPro and we switch up feeding the adults mice, chicks and quails. Gaia, the baby, is still on pinkies.
 
I would be cautious about giving a corn a food item that I wasn't prepared to provide them regularly. You never know if the snake will develop an exclusive preference for the "treat" and refuse everything else. I think the risk is small, but I don't dismiss it. I'd like to feed my corns a live mouse once in a while for exercise and variety, but I've never wanted to risk getting one "hooked".

I've fed my kings culled hatchling corns. I was a little afraid of that too, but most of my kings have excellent feeding response, and I had no problems.
 
Corny Noob said:
Well the reason I said "aside from birds" is if you couldn't tell from my signature I have 22 birds, and frankly have a bit of a problem with feeding it baby birds, for some reason baby mice not so much.
And I only plan on feeding it rats of any kind if it gets large enough >_> I love rats too much too. If corns got too big to eat just lots of mice I wouldn't be able to get one, damn moral dilemmas :/
Click to expand...

It depends on the moral dilemmas. Snakes normally eat mice, rats and other "vermin" in the wild. If they didn't we would be hip deep in them. So keeping snakes healthy means you feed them what they would normally eat in the wild. The moral dilemma is no longer there if you buy from say someone like RodentPro (I am not advertising for them, I've had good experience with them) who treats the food stock as humanly as possible. Also, look at RodentPro because they also carry other food items, rabbits and guienie pigs, if I remember correctly. (Excuse the spelling)
 
Roy Munson said:
I would be cautious about giving a corn a food item that I wasn't prepared to provide them regularly. You never know if the snake will develop an exclusive preference for the "treat" and refuse everything else. I think the risk is small, but I don't dismiss it. I'd like to feed my corns a live mouse once in a while for exercise and variety, but I've never wanted to risk getting one "hooked".

I've fed my kings culled hatchling corns. I was a little afraid of that too, but most of my kings have excellent feeding response, and I had no problems.
Click to expand...

I was aware of that when we feed the anoles to them. We were told they might not want anything else but they were okay. It was Smokey we had a problem with for a while. My husband feed chicks two feedings in a row and when he feed mice, Smokey didn't want it. So Smokey got offered a mouse at every feeding until he took it; now, we do three feedings of mice then one feeding of chick or quail. No more fussyness.

We're having the same problem with Lizzy. The prior owner gave her lettuce and we are feeding her greens like turnip, kale and collards. She doesn't want them, she wants lettuce even though it is not good for her. Now, at least, she eats a little of the greens because she knows she is not going to get lettuce. Animals will not starve if they don't get what they want - sooner or later hunger wins out and they will eat what is offered. All our animals have enough weigh on them that they won't suffer if they go on a hunger strike because they are not getting what they want. (They are worse than kids.)

:crazy02:
 
suecornish said:
It depends on the moral dilemmas. Snakes normally eat mice, rats and other "vermin" in the wild. If they didn't we would be hip deep in them. So keeping snakes healthy means you feed them what they would normally eat in the wild. The moral dilemma is no longer there if you buy from say someone like RodentPro (I am not advertising for them, I've had good experience with them) who treats the food stock as humanly as possible. Also, look at RodentPro because they also carry other food items, rabbits and guienie pigs, if I remember correctly. (Excuse the spelling)
Click to expand...

Well I mean I know if my snake gets big enough rats might be a necessity, but I'm ok with this because I know starting with pinks and working up gives me time to do that.
I am not going to hold nature against a creature, it is my on moral dilemmas in not being able to feed birds to a snake.

And about the zebra finches...I used to have zebra finches ;-;
 
Zebra finches are the rabbits of the bird community. We are getting rid of all our birds except the love birds. Since we got Lizzy, between her, the dogs and the snakes we just can't keep up with the birds.

Check RodentPro. Once your snakes get big enough I think they might be able to handle newborn rabbits and guenie pigs. But only you can tell if they will be able to handle these.

I could not see feeding the snakes nothing but mice all the time. They don't eat the same thing all the time in the wild and I know I get bored eating the same thing all the time (except for M&Ms, 3 Musketters and Kisses).

I'm in a dilemma now as to whether I should move Gaia up to fuzzies or just keep feeding her 3-4 pinkies every week. I look at her and think her head is too small for anything else but I know she needs to graduate to bigger food.

I just don't want to lose my baby :cry: . She's growing up. (It's a mothering thing, I guess.)
:crazy02:
 
The whole "eatting the same thing everyday" was the reason I asked. Cause I know I'd be bored eatting the same thing ever meal as well.
But yeah when we had zebra finches our female died cause the boy mated her to death, they really are like bunnies o_o
 
zebra finches=breeding machines! I used to keep them, and thought about them as an additional food source for the snakes, but since adopting the cat decided against it.
 
As soon as i learn how, i'll scan the photo we have of the male finch in Konig's hide. It's a bit fuzzy because we took it through the glass but it is really funny to see a bird nesting down on top of and with a snake.

:crazy02: :crazy02: :crazy02:
 
Judging by the feeding response around here, I really don't think snakes mind having mice all the time.

Personally, I'm not sure why you want to offer 'treats'. Your snake isn't going to feel a sense of appreciation or gratitude (if anything, they'll congratulate themselves on a hunt well done). If you have nutritional reasons, there's a couple options, like adding grape seed extract to the water.
 
I was going to mention anoles the other day but figured ignorance is bliss in this case. There is another problem with anoles besides the snake wanting to exclusively feed on them. Snakes and lizards are both reptiles and many pet shop anoles are wild caught. There is an increased chance of introducing internal parasites to your snake by feeding wild caught anoles.
 
I have seen the larger pet stores selling both the green and brown anoles in FL and I always wonder how they sell when you often pass them on the sidewalk on the way into the store.
 
Corny Noob said:
The whole "eatting the same thing everyday" was the reason I asked. Cause I know I'd be bored eatting the same thing ever meal as well.
Click to expand...
This is one thing I wish people would stop doing is Humanizing their snakes. They do not care and will eat the same food every week. Some snakes will have a preference on some food items as stated. I have a gopher who preferres Mice over Rats but that is about it. My corns relish and eat their mice right on up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top