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Feeders besides rodents?

moorbs1

moorbs1

New member
I know corn snakes eat things besides mice and rats in the wild. I was wondering if it were possible to feed them green anoles or love birds or something?
 
moorbs1 said:
I know corn snakes eat things besides mice and rats in the wild. I was wondering if it were possible to feed them green anoles or love birds or something?
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Why would you want to feed your snake a love bird?? that is a very expensive meal for a snake. The price of 1 love bird could buy you 400 pinkies or a few hundred mice. They do sell day old baby chicks for adult snakes.
 
wild caught anoles often have parasites, besides that they are safe to feed and alot of people feed adult corns 1 day old chicks.
 
My bad, I was thinking of a bird that i saw in the pet store for really cheap, not a love bird. It might seem mean of me but I thought it would be cool to see my corn take down a bird that has the ability to fly. Also, the anoles I thought would make some variety in his diet.
 
moorbs1 said:
My bad, I was thinking of a bird that i saw in the pet store for really cheap, not a love bird. It might seem mean of me but I thought it would be cool to see my corn take down a bird that has the ability to fly. Also, the anoles I thought would make some variety in his diet.
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So you think it would look cool, but is that really a good reason to do it? From what you've said I've now got visions of a canary or finch panicking and fluttering as the snake is hunting it. As well as the consideration of distress for the bird, what if it tries to defend itself and pecks at the corn's eyes?
You can get frozen quail from rodentpro, and f/t dayold chicks are ok for large corns (I usually cut the feet off as they are hard for the corn to digest)
 
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diamondlil said:
So you think it would look cool, but is that really a good reason to do it? From what you've said I've now got visions of a canary or finch panicking and fluttering as the snake is hunting it. As well as the consideration of distress for the bird, what if it tries to defend itself and pecks at the corn's eyes?
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Yep. And corn snakes can't boast 100% strike accuracy either. I also have visions of a corn with a swollen and bloodied nose from smashing repeatedly into a viv wall. The whole "they do it in nature" argument falls apart once you throw predator and prey into a small box.
 
If I were you, I'd stick with frozen/thawed prey items.

Many people will strongly advise that you feed frozen/thawed or prekilled prey items. Your prey item is not going to just sit there and let the snake eat it. The prey can fight for itself (and even win), which I'm sure you don't want. Also, the freezing process kills any parasites/worms/bacteria/etc on and in the prey item, meaning those things won't be able to feast on your snake.
 
There's also the possibility that if you start feeding your snake anoles, which are apparently it's natural prey, it will never go back to eating mice or rats.
 
diamondlil said:
From what you've said I've now got visions of a canary or finch panicking and fluttering as the snake is hunting it.
Click to expand...

We have feed our adults 1-day old chicks and 1-wk old quails. We also thinned out our zebra finch colony but stopped. Konig, our King who is blind in one eye could not catch his food one night. We left the bird in there with him and the next day they both were sleeping together in the hide. :crazy02: As I didn't want Konig to be teased by other snakes for sleep with his food (it's bad enough these kids play with their food) we switched to the frozen chicks and quail.
 
I feed my adult female "mexicana" day active lizards that have been frozen for at least a month. It does provide variety, most importantly it helps these more sensitive species of female produce better as well as recover from breeding activities. They do not get them year round, only right before and after brumation up to egg laying time. I am prepared to feed lizards indefinitely if I must, but do not plan to. I do not reccomend feeding live or frozen thawed lizards to corn snakes, corns produce just fine in captivity with out them, some mexicana species are believed to have better fertility rates when fed lizards.
 
How old and what's the size of your corn anyway? Are you having problems feeding it? Or are you looking to get a better feeding responce?
 
Lennycorn said:
How old and what's the size of your corn anyway? Are you having problems feeding it? Or are you looking to get a better feeding responce?
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He is a five year old, five foot okatee. One reason I thought to feed him something besides mice was to vary what he eats and possible increase the amount of nutrients he takes in. I haven't had problems feeding him at all. I usually just feed him one mouse a week. Any more than that and he will show no interest in eating it.
 
"He is a five year old, five foot okatee."

Well being that size and age, do you want him to increase in size???
And if he shows no intrest in eatting more than once a week, which could span to 10 -14 day for that age, want to risk a feed responce?

But back to your question..
"I was wondering if it were possible to feed them green anoles or love birds or something?"
Yes but… Should you change your feeding routine?
No , I wouldn’t risk it.
 
We alternate our feedings. Two feeding mice, one feeding chick, two feedings mice, one feeding quail, two feeding mice. I read that chicks help with their scales and shedding. Maybe something in the feathers. I was also told that if you feed them too many anolies they don't want to eat anything else. I only feed them store bought anolies (at $7 a head) as a very, very, very special treat.

The baby, Gaia, gets 2 pinkies every 5 days.
 
I am using chicks for the first time this year so as to streeeeetch the money a bit.

Poo smells worse, but hey! $o.12 per week for that many oz of food. . . c'mon.

We also figured out you can really help the digestion issues by using side cut pliers [diags] to take off the feet so it's both easier to swallow AND pass.

Plus this year I added gerbils, siamese hamsters and natal rats to the feeder repertoire ; ]

chow all 'round!
 
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