Feeding variety

When I was first researching getting a snake I looked first into Green Snakes, who eat mainly insects (crickets as their primary food source). I read over and over again that these snakes would benefit from and appreciate having a meal-worm or other randomly appropriated insect on occasion.

My question is this, will this hold true for baby corns? My May '08 RO is currently 16 grams (on 2 pink every 5 days atm) so a cricket or beetle would be a noticeable addition to his meal say once every 3 feedings.

Figured I'd ask since one of my new roommates has a lizard and keeps a supply of crickets anyway.

A baby corn might survive on a diet of crickets at Petco, but it is definitely not recommended. Corns, in the wild, would start out eating anole hatchlings, but these are not recommended as a treat, either, for two reasons: they carry parasites and once your snake gets a taste for lizard it may be difficult to switch back to mice.

Corns don't actually need variety. They do just fine on rodents all their life - they have all the right nutrients. Introducing variety would really be for your benefit, not theirs.

When older, you could offer the odd chick if you wanted to. Unfortunately, these tend to act like reptile Draino and you can look forward to some of the smelliest poop ever! As they're not really necessary, I;d only offer them if I really couldn't find mice in my usual stores.

Hamsters or small rats could be an alternative to the standard mice for an adult Corn, but hamsters are pretty pricey in comparison. If your guy gets a taste for them, it could be an expensive habit.

Agree with Nanci that crickets are a mistake. I can't see how beetles would offer much nutritional value, as they're mostly a hard, indigestible carapace. I'd avoid both.