feeding question?? plese respond

Eat one of the sausages, than ask yourself, "is this what i want to do"

= )

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Originally Posted by exoticz

I've Talked To 2 Breeders In My Area And I've Done A Little Research On The Snake Sausgaes And I've Asked My Local Pet Store Who Caries Them And All It Is, Is That It Is Processed Mice Rapped Up In The Sausage Skin.

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I doubt that you'd be able to get a ball python to recognize it as prey. If you care about providing the best care possible to a future pet, and don't want to watch it die a slow and painful death of starvation because you can only feed it an unnatural food item, don't get a ball python, or any other snake that eats rodents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by exoticz

this whole post was a huge mistake and im sorry but i will not follow your opinion on the snake sauages and the reviews that you had i was just at the pet store and the guy there owns 1 boa constrictor and 1 ball python he feeds both of his snakes these and has had them for years and im going to trust his experince opinion. im not trying to be rude because i want to feed it rodents but it is my mother that will not agree unless i absoulutly have to. a little help on how to convince her would be much appreciated. lol

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OK, so why did you ask, if you're not going to follow our advice.

This guy has ONE ball python and ONE boa constrictor vs. the members here who have 10, 20 up to 1000 ball pythons each trying to advise you - but your pet store guy knows better?

I'm sorry, but there comes a time when you have to put the welfare of the animal before your desires. You are obviously a young person (since you live at home) and it's often hard to put things off, when we want instant gratification.

You want a ball python so badly, that you're willing to believe a pet shop worker with just two snakes, over the experience of members here who collectively have worked with hundreds if not thousands of these animals that tell you it's a bad idea.

Bottom line, if you can't feed rodents, you should wait until you are an adult and have your own home before you get a carnivorous snake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by borat1

Eat one of the sausages, than ask yourself, "is this what i want to do"

= )

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I eat sausage all the time. Mind you its made of deer, elk, moose, cow, or pig but thats the type of animals I eat. Now if I did eat mice or rat. I'd probably eat a rat sausage too. :sabduel:

Here's a thought if you really really have to have a BP and really really have to feed it sausages. Why not go to the pet store or where ever you're going to buy the snake from and ask that the next feeding session it be fed a sausage and if you can witness 2 feeding sessions where it eats these sausage things well then you might be in the clear.

Cause like I said earlier nobody truly knows what a BP needs nutritional wise so with people saying that it will suffer a slow death could be wrong.

What the true problem is will the snake eat it. BP's can be picky eaters and many times people on this forum have there snakes go off feeding only to have to try everything they can to get them back on. eg. Mice, rats, varying the size, F/T and live, a gerbil, maybe even a african soft furred rat.

So if you only have one option of sausages what will you do if the BP won't take it?

hmmm... i'm pondering here folks. since ball pythons don't see their prey they instead see the heat signature... and sometimes mistake us for prey when they are hungry and we are scented with prey items...

wouldn't it merely be a matter of scent?

IF the sausage smells like rats or mice (depending on what the snake eats) then, in theory wouldn't the snake strike and eat?

we do the "i'm alive eat me" dance with f/t so why not the same dance with a sausage???

i'm done pondering... need coffee...

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

we do the "i'm alive eat me" dance with f/t so why not the same dance with a sausage???

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I feed F/T as well but no dance and my BPs all strike, constrict, and swallow. So I agree if its warm and smells like a rat he might take it. Might need the dance may not.

Hi,


It only took us about 6 weeks to use up the sausages we had (monitors eat a fair bit :) ) but we certainly didn't see any bad effects.

I'm not aware of any long term studies of them but if they trully are minced up whole mice then there shouldn't be any nutritional problems with them I'd have thought. We did notice the lack of hair in the stools but it's not a particularly important point ( I think - feel free to correct me ). I would also check out the packet for "addatives". I think I'll try and find a decent nutritional/ ingredient list for these things is I get time later.

It's been a long time so I can't remember what the sausage "skins" are - if it has an unusual odour it may be one of the reasons they were refused maybe? :confused:

If the snake he plans on buying can be persuaded to eat them, demonstrably, before he buys it then it might work out ok. I was just not convinced that will be likely ( there's always the 1%'ers ). It does complicate/ reduce the buying procedure a little though and when the snake gets big enough for small rats it could be horrendously expensive to feed.


Someone somewhere must have tried these things and posted results of long term use by now. With any luck it can be found to answer the intresting points raised so far in this thread.


dr del

imo, predators should eat what they are designed for!:snake:


anyone that has given a baby it's first meal can tell you that rodents are on the menu!! :rat:

leave the jimmy dean and johnsonville's to us. :tongue2: :chew: :hungry:


vaughn

Hi again,


Managed to find a little info about the sausages on the web but nothing scientific.

firstly a link to the product page on the manufacturers site (which is down for redesigning - made this a lil tricky :twisted: );

http://www.t-rexproducts.com/Dynamic...70201&series=1

the ingredients list is of particular interest - according to a forum thread linked later it contains every mouse part apart from fur and intestines but I have no idea if ash is good or bad.

Ingredients:
Meat & Meat Derivatives

And here is the link to the product they recomend to try and persuade reluctant feeders to eat them ( we never tried this in the shop so no clue);

http://www.t-rexproducts.com/Dynamic...80400&series=1

Ingredients:
Distilled Water, nature identical mouse flavor, potassium, sodium benzoate

I'm wondering if anyone has ever used this for anything in the past? reluctant feeders etc.

And three forum threads on Cathy Loves site, they were the best I could find but I trust her opinion and she would probably have noted any long term ill-effects in her book. One of the threads refers to liver damage but (my interpretation) this seems unproven and less worrying than the skin of the sausage being less digestible than I expected.

Here are the links to the forum threads (in no particular order);

[mods please remove these if it is not allowed ]

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14298

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sho...steak+sausages

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sho...steak+sausages


And finally I had a heck of a time finding them for sale anywhere but this page might give you an idea of the prices - the rat pack contains 2 and costs $9.99!!!!! :eek: add in the mouse scent and these things arent cheap.

http://www.reptilesource.com/?frozen...eak%20Sausages

[again if this isn't allowed could a kind mod please delete? - I figured since they didnt have any it probably didn't count as advertising for them :cool: ]


Hope this helps answer a few questions.


dr del