what to eat??

[little twiglet]

I have a baby corn he eats well but i was wondering if i should start to vary his diet or will pinkies surfice for the rest of his baby life.
My brother said i should only vary his diet if he becomes fussy over eating pinkies and try anoles but i have heard they can be infested with parasites and pass on germs to snakes.
I no that in the wild corns eat a varyied diet of birds lizards and rodents and sometimes even eggs so what should i do

And if i do decide to feed any thing different do any of the english members have any ideas where i can gey varied food???

[HomeBreeder]

as your baby gets older, you'll want to feed it progressively older rodents, but rat and gerbil pups, or weenling mice are all good food for a corn snake for it's entire life - a perfectly well rounded diet of whole mammal.

Feather isn't known to be a required part of a corn snake diet :)

And yes, you are right that anoles are more likely to make your snake sick than happy. Basically, once you have a corn snake eating f/t mice there's no reason to ever change - I think it's only asking for trouble. Snakes don't have the finely developed palettes that we monkeys have, and there is no evidence I know of that a varried diet has any beneficial value whatsoever.

Mice are extrtemely nutritious when you eat the whole thing.

^Curtis

[little twiglet]

Thankyou so my brother was right!! We wont tell him that! the other thing is supliments?? only when breeding or on a rota? little unsure?

[Rachel]

I feed my youngest, and occasionally the older two a cacium supplement. You can get it from most pet shops its called NuroBal or something similar. You just dust it on the pinks that are being fed. I do this because pinks dont have great bone development and therefore little calcium is digested by the snake. Its not an essential supplemant but I do it to encourage healthy bone growth.
PS, corns are known to eat small birds, I saw one eating a sparrow type bird on dicovery this morning!

[bmm]

Corns and any snake would take the opportunity to eat a small bird in the wild.

But in captivity such a feeding would be questionable at best in my opinion. Not only can the bird carry many diseases itself, but there is no reason to fed a well established (eating) cornsnake anything but rodents, ever. You also risk the snake eating a bird or egg or anole and never ever accpeting a rodent again which can be a huge pain in the ass.

Birds also cause runny smelly poop in most snakes.

bmm