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Never feed Wild Caught

Jessicat

Jessicat

All Pied Everything
It seems that it is a general consensus among us that feeder rodents are the way to go. I've never really seen any huge debate about it on the forum and hadn't encountered anyone who disagreed.. until now.

I just want to post something that happened to a friend of mine as a warning to anyone who is thinking wild caught mice might make a good free meal for your snake.

I have a friend who became a snake owner around a year ago. He is kind of one of those "one with the earth" guys and enjoys hunting and trapping things. He adamantly voiced his opinion about feeding wild caught mice to me, and that was, "well snakes in the wild eat them, so why not?! It's natural."

I tried to advise him against it, but he did not listen.

His snake ended up with a respiratory infection. He was treating it and thought she was getting better, but he found her dead recently. I just saw him yesterday and he told me the story.

Also keep in mind this was a full grown mature snake, not an iffy baby.

Please keep this person's experience in mind if you're thinking of catching your own mice to feed to your snakes. WC mice can contain parasites and can be lethal to your snakes!

Honestly, this is the only story I've ever heard of anyone feeding wild caught. If you have your own stories feel free to share. I just figured this is an important piece of information that every snake keeper should know.. with evidence to back it up.

Rest in Peace Dorthy (his snake)
 
I'm not seeing the correlation here. Upper respiratory infection = parasites from mouse? Was it a lung worm or fluke? Did he have the snake necropsied? What were his temps? Did he have the snake near a window/other source of draft?
 
That was my question too. While I don't doubt feeding wild prey has its issues, I can't see the connection here.
 
ok. At least I wasn't the only one wondering how an RI was caused by something from a wild caught mouse. I mean I wouldn't feed a snake of mine a wild caught mouse under any circumstances. Just for the risk of having to deal with parasites in general-deadly or not.
 
although i agree that an ri has nothing to do with parasites...the snake could have been poisoned by pesticides or any number of things the feeder item could have eaten or come in contact with. captive bred animals dont have the antibodies or abilities to fight off the same types of parasites and other substances they may encounter, that their wild couterparts are born with.
 
rickmoss95 said:
although i agree that an ri has nothing to do with parasites...the snake could have been poisoned by pesticides or any number of things the feeder item could have eaten or come in contact with. captive bred animals dont have the antibodies or abilities to fight off the same types of parasites and other substances they may encounter, that their wild couterparts are born with.
Click to expand...

No arguements there. That is some of the reason I would never do it. But just trying to see the connection in the original post
 
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