mouse hormones and their effect on your snake?

[princess]

I've often wondered if there's any problem in feeding male snakes mainly female mice or female snakes mainly male mice.


The reason I ask is that I understand that the hormones we (as humans) eat in our food can have an effect on our endocrine system and in some (excessive intake) cases cause imbalances in your sex hormones, but I was wondering if this is true of snakes as well.

If so, could it affect breeding interest/performance/productivity???


Food for thought!

 

[SnakeAround]

I just don't see how hormones that come in through our stomach, can influence our own hormones. I don't think they are resistant to digestial juices and I also think hormones of different animals (including us human beings) are not compatible, hence don't influence each others systems.... but that's just something that seems logical to me, not something I say to know in any way..

 

[princess]

I just don't see how hormones that come in through our stomach, can influence our own hormones. ..

If that's the case then how on earth would the oral contraceptive pill work?

 

[marty.warwick]

I think it's a really interesting idea actually, Like if you fed a male corn entirely with male mice all the time would he have an increase in testosterone and be more of a man? *Tim Taylor grunt* LOL

 

[Cycal]

Interesting... i have read that red meat can have a effect on human male sex performance. Perhaps to much estrogen in the meat?

 

[princess]

Yep, I've heard about the estrogen in beef problem too and the growth hormone issues with all meat (I still eat meat though!!)

I am the lucky *cough* owner of a pituitary macro adenoma, so I've read-up a fair bit on the endocrine and its dramas.

 

[zwyatt]

That is an interesting question. I'm not certain how much of an affect it would have if it does have an affect.

Hormones are certainly compatible. The same hormones found in mice such as oxytocin, vasopressin, testosterone...are found in humans for instance. I don't know to what extent hormones are subject to digestion. Certain hormones are made of peptides and others are made of cholesterol. Peptide hormones might have less effects as they may be more prone to being broken down into their constituent amino acids. I'm not sure how readily cholesterol is broken down and exactly what it is broken down into.

I also wonder how much hormone one mouse can provide. If a diet consisted mainly of certain parts of the body (the brain for example) where one type of hormone or another was more abundant it might make more of a difference.

Although, this all is contingent upon knowing how well ingested hormones are able to be used by our own body, or that of a snake.

I'll have to snoop around, because I am sure there are articles that have dealt with this or similar things.

 

[Bobo's Mama]

:eek1: That is an AWESOME question, Princess. I can't even begin to imagine the answer though, but now you've really got me wondering.

 

[SnakeAround]

Silly me replied before thinking.... of course at least some hormones do pass the stomach without being broken down.....

 

[PnyKlr]

I do believe this is one reason (theory) that girls are maturing at an earlier age. A nurse I spoke with said that girls begin menstrating at about 105 lbs (give or take about 5), and that girls may be maturing earlier due to the increased hormone levels in the beef that they eat.

Certainly makes you think...