Just a thought about different foods

[KristyS]

I was just reading a post about feeding your corns different types of food and an idea came to my mind. It may be a bad one but I was j/w.

Has anyone tried offering peices of raw beef, chicken or anything like that to their snake? :rolleyes: I was thinking that it might help out problem feeders to start eating and what not.

just thinking out loud

:cool:

Kristy:)

[limey]

its possible that some will take chicken and beef pieces - although if its a picky eater i dont think it would work (but theres no harm in trying) I think the other problem with chick and beef etc is there is very little in the way of nutrition (ie vits/minerals and calcuim/d3) so even if a picky eater started eating it you'd need to get it to pinks etc as soon as possible.

I do know a long time ago (were talking 1980s) there was a big trend of force feeding animals (herps) wiht beef coated in egg (i was only 4 then dont know why i remeber) but thats died out or at least i think it has. I cant honestly remeber any of the animals fed this way recovering or start eating etc either.

You could take it one step futher though and go down the road of senting a pinky wiht the meat ........................

[13mur 6]

Beef is very difficult to digest, I'll get that off right now. It takes a bit for beef to go bad, just a testament of how difficult it is to break it down, so would be a bad choice to feed to a problem feeder and could make matters worse.

Chicken is a better alternative, and since corns do eat fowl out in the wild once in a while, they may take to it better than they take to mice. However, Salmonella could be a problem, since a weak snake won't have the ability to control salmonella population in the gut, and it may end up being a bacterial bloom.

Although a little difficult to obtain, fresh mouse placentas have worked wonderfully for me to get a problem eater to eat (tons of vitamins and easy to digest, what more could you ask for?). Getting one is the tricky part, you need a mouse that's in labor, and you need to wait for it, but multiple placentas should come out during the entirety of the mouse's labor (just don't bug her too much or she'll stress and die on you). Just go in with a pair of tongs or chopsticks and nab one before she eats it.

Another thing that's worked are mouse livers. Mice have biggish livers, just make an incision in the stomach, and you'll see the big maroon thing, cut it out neat as you can and in one piece. Has a very similar effect to the placentas and more food. This needs to be fresh from a fresh killed mouse, as old livers tend to have a bit of decay and lack the slippery smoothness and the smell required for a good feeding response.

-Lemur 6

[drizzt_19]

I just got two of problem feeders to eat their first meal and it was chicken flavored sausages from gerber baby foods...

13mur6,

Thanks for the great info...I'll have to try that on my next problem feeder...

[KristyS]

Thanks 13mur 6 and everybody! I was just curious as to how the corn snakes digestive system would react if you gave them another food item... say beef. And thanks to you guys I got my answer! That was very helpful info and I'll have to save that if worse comes to worse for my little guy.
Hope not though!

Kristy:)