Food items you cannot feed a ball python.

Sorry for the weird title. I know that ball pythons eat mice/rats and I'm NOT preparing to feed fruits and vegetables to the ball python.

My question is, is there anything that you cannot feed the mice that will be fed to the pythons? I want to "gut-load" the critters with all kinds of goodies left from the kitchen to boost their nutritional value, aka celery, and other veggie and fruit scraps (maybe honey/bee pollen too?).

If it ain't broke,

I feed my rats all kinds of fruits , veggies, cereal, and breads! Fat rats = Happy Snakes

Interesting question!

Gut loading is not as necessary with rodents as it is with insects. As long as you are feeding the rodents a good, complete, balanced diet, they make a good, complete, balanced diet for the BPs. At least as far as anyone knows. I don't know how scientifically it has been studied; I believe not really very much. But you don't hear about rodent-eating snakes with nutritional deficiencies like you do with certain species of lizards, so it must be a pretty good diet even if it isn't perfect. As John1982 said, if it ain't broke...

There are rumors that red food coloring (such as in some dog foods) should not be fed to rodents that will be fed to snakes. I have wondered if that one is tied to the ancient red food coloring rumor that has to do with a certain red food coloring that is no longer in use, but I avoid it just to be safe. I don't actually feed any dog food to my rats at all, but I did feed small amounts as a sort of supplement when I had mice. Then I decided it was foolish because the lab block was a complete diet, and any decent quality dog food was much more expensive. I can't think of anything else I've ever heard of that should not be fed to feeder rats due to it potentially harming the snakes.

Also, some people have concern that if the rodents are housed on phenol-containing bedding, that eating the rodent could possibly have enough phenols on it/in it to harm the snake. I know LOTS of feeder rodents, and even snakes, have been kept on pine shavings over the years, and it seems to work with no obvious ill effects. I would avoid cedar which contains a much higher level of phenols.

In general, if humans can eat it and it is good for them, then rats can eat it and it is good for them. There are some exceptions, so you might want to google it. The only issue is that the odds of you being able to make a diet that is as good as the good brands of lab blocks is kind of slim. Those are formulated to be a complete and balanced diet without any additional supplements needed. So my advice would be to keep that a very high % of your rats' diet. However, my opinion is that even if I end up slightly degrading the quality of the diet, the rats just ENJOY some variety, which is good for them too. Plus it keeps my costs down a little to give them leftovers.

One final thing that comes to mind is that you should avoid feeding off any rodents that have recently been medicated or had any sort of mite treatment or anything like that.

A good, balanced diet is essential for healthy rodents, and there is nothing wrong at all with a healthy "gut load" meal before offering them to your snakes. :) I prefer feeding healthy, happy rodents to my reptiles, and many staff members actually share tortoise food extras (leafy greens, veggies, the occasional fruit) as well as our own lunches with the rodents from time to time.

At worst, it doesn't hurt, and at best, you do slightly boost the nutritional content of your rodents.

I don't think there is anything you need to worry about feeding the rodents that wouldn't be okay for your reptiles. Arsenic, maybe, but I don't think the mice would do too well if you fed them that anyway. ;)

-Jen

Table scraps, no meat, and a balanced rodent diet is perfect!


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There is no need. You don't want to increase the fat ratio as we typically feed juvenile rodents which are already bordering on too high fat content. If you are doing it for the snake you're wasting your time. If you're doing it for the rat, just keep the treats low fat and don't feed meat.

Thanks everyone : )

Looks like I'll be tossing some clean veggie scraps in there every now and then :P Might as well let them eat it, it'd be a waste otherwise!

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Originally Posted by creatism

Table scraps, no meat, and a balanced rodent diet is perfect!


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Why no meat? Rats love scraps of chicken, scrambled eggs, and I hear steak (though I won't share mine with the rats). I feed eggs and chicken/turkey/ham scraps to my pregnant and nursing rats occasionally for a bit extra protein.

I would suggest contacting one of the veterns of the board....Doolittle comes to mind. Rumor has it she breeds her own rats and snakes that are on a doolittlerat diet grow and thrive very well.