Calcium Supplement for F/T?

[BugAyedBradshaw]

I did some searching on the forums, and found a few answers to the general question "do I need to add a calcium supplement with my snake's meals?" (to which the answer was "you don't need to, but it won't hurt"), but none that meet my exact needs....you'll see in a moment:

I was talking to a worker at PetSmart, who owns corns and a BP, and I was just picking her brain on information that maybe she would have wanted to know when she first starting owning snakes. She asked what substrate I am using and a few other things, making sure I was meeting the correct, basic needs for my snake.

Then she asked if I was feeding F/T. I said yes. She then said that the freezing process depletes some of the calcium from the feeders, and recommended that once ever 2 or 3 feedings, sprinkle a very small amount of Rep-Cal calcium and vit. D powder on the feeder.

Does the freezing process cause calcium loss from the feeder? And if so, should I use the recommended supplement?

Thanks guys!

[Buzzard]

Supplements are NOT necessary for corns. The freezing process will NOT remove calcium - the calcium is in the bones of the prey item and/or in the milk ingested by a pinky and/or weanling prey item. The nutritional value could possibly decrease with freezing time (just like in some foods you loose enzymes and nutritional value with processing) but unless you remove the bones from the prey item the calcium should still be available. Nutritional content is most important (especially calcium) in breeding females for egg production - they loose calcium due to egg deposition. Most breeders will lean towards supplementing with rat pinkies and/or increase feedings to help with any possible loss of nutrition (calcium) at this time. Sounds like the PetSmart worker is trying to sell you the supplement -they are also the ones that say that overhead lighting is necessary for corns :)

Most breeders and zoological facilities choose F/T because it typically removes any possibility of parasites and is typically much safer than a live version of a prey item.

[BugAyedBradshaw]

Ok, that makes sense. So that being said about calcium specifically, is there ANY supplementation you would recommend?

[Shiari]

I have 7 year old corn snake that has been on F/T her whole life without supplements. She's going strong and doing well.

[Chip]

I am calcium/D3 supplementing some babies and not others this year for the heck of it. I figured since pinks are so low in bone, that it could only help. Thus far, no noticeable difference visually or on the scales, but I'd imagine such a difference would be subtle.

[jovamabob]

I think it is mainly a preference thing.

I personally supplement when a snake is ill, shedding, seeming to have a growth spurt or breeding. I use a multivitamin/mineral/amino acids supplement called reptavite. In my opinion although it isn't essential - the animal will grow fine without it - it is beneficial when feeding f/t rodents that have been mass produced and when an animal may be rapidly using up certain nutrients.

Although the body naturally contains things like calcium, there are some vitamins, minerals and amino acids that can only be gotten through diet or exposure to sunlight. In the wild a snake wouldn't eat just mice, so would get all its dietary needs catered to through a massively varied diet. Mass produced feeder mice do not get an amazing diet and are very overbred, purely because they are a product born to die - why should the company bother giving them an expensive perfect diet when they'll be culled next month? The diet provided is usually the most basic possible, is not balanced well enough and they're often underfed. Juvenile mice in particular only get what nutrition their mothers milk provides and if the mother has a bad diet, they get an even worse one!

I supplement every few meals to make up for those essential vitamins and minerals that may be lost through the rodents diet, breeding or freezing. Some vitamins and minerals are lost through freezing - everyone knows fresh vegetables are better nutrition wise than frozen vegetables. That difference won't kill anyone or do that much harm, if any, but i personally prefer to correct it.

If i was to breed my own feeder mice, or was sure the source of the mice had good husbandry i wouldn't supplement. My own bred mice i could gut load and be sure what nutrition was going into my snake. I can't gut load mass produced mice so i supplement.

Supplements can be over done and some are dangerous in excess, such as vitamin A toxicity. I rarely supplement 2 feeds in a row, i keep an eye on the faeces and if they look unusual or the urates are harder i lay off the supplements and go back to basics.

Like a lot of husbandry issues, it largely depends on your personal view.