Vet-Recommended "Shake N'Bake-like" Reptile Vitamins for BP?

We took our BP to the vet today and he recommended we supplement her diet by coating herp vitamins onto the prey item.....

He said he puts the powder on F/T rat pinkies in a ziplock bag and shake n' bakes them before offering the prey item to the snake.

I wondered what the BP.net community had to say about this....does anyone do this? If so what brands do u use? has anyone even tired this? Is it necessary? Is it benficial at all for the snake? Since BPs can be picky eater would this screw up her feeding response?

Some other details.....

We have been feeding F/T two medium mice a week to Morty for the past four weeks.......before that we used 1 medium mouse, before that mouse fuzzies.

Since we got her on the 31st of March she has gone from 124 grams to 338 grams as of today 9/2. That's an average of 42.8 grams a month. She has never refused a prey item for us.

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

He said he puts the powder on F/T rat pinkies in a ziplock bag and shake n' bakes them before offering the prey item to the snake.

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Wha??? :confuzd:

Sounds to me like your vet is trying to sell you some "snake oil." :rolleyes: There's simply no need to provide supplements of any sort for a healthy BP...or any healthy snake, for that matter.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

Wha??? :confuzd:

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He doesnt actually bake them....but coats the prey items similiar to how you coat a piece of chicken with "shake n'bake" mix.....hope that makes sense now.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Sounds to me like your vet is trying to sell you some "snake oil." :rolleyes: There's simply no need to provide supplements of any sort for a healthy BP...or any healthy snake, for that matter.

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But that's the werid thing.....he didnt carry them in his practice.....so I see no nefarious reason why he would recommend it.

Maybe he owns stock in Pet-Co? lol!

Thanks for the input though!

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

But that's the werid thing.....he didnt carry them in his practice.....so I see no nefarious reason why he would recommend it.

Thanks for the input though!

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Alrighty then....not nefarious...but merely misinformed, I guess. We do live in a society where nothing ever seems good enough, and man must strive to "improve" even the most tiny details...even things that don't need our input at all. (Or maybe most especially things that don't need our input. :rolleyes: )

Anyhow...that's my opinion on it.

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Originally Posted by JLC

Alrighty then....not nefarious...but merely misinformed, I guess. We do live in a society where nothing ever seems good enough, and man must strive to "improve" even the most tiny details...even things that don't need our input at all. (Or maybe most especially things that don't need our input. :rolleyes: )

Anyhow...that's my opinion on it.

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I was very skeptical of the whole idea as well.....because I worried it would impact feeding response.....some of his other comments also made me skeptical......

he also seemed to be under the impression that we should be providing UV light.

When I mentioned to him that I read that was uneccessary, he said that "yes that's true that the pendullum has shifted to the view that was unecessary...but he said it couldnt hurt.....he mentioned that the need for active Vitamin D synthesis (I know this is true for us humans). He also mentioned a herpetologist for Univ of Cali at Berkley (cant remember the name?)

So this is why I asked about the community thoughts about it....I had doubts about a couple of his recomendations

Reptiles that eat nutrient deficient food items like crickets, mealworms (or crocodilians that are only fed horsemeat) etc, may need supplements added to their diet depending on what gutloading is done beforehand. Snakes, and other reptiles that eat whole prey items do not need these supplements. They get everything they need from rats/mice, as most vertebrate prey items include all necessary vitamins and minerals. Your Doc probably doesn't specialize in exotics, and just lumped snakes into the wrong group. Personally, I would find a new Vet.

-Evan

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

he also seemed to be under the impression that we should be providing UV light.

When I mentioned to him that I read that was uneccessary, he said that "yes that's true that the pendullum has shifted to the view that was unecessary...but he said it couldnt hurt.....he mentioned that the need for active Vitamin D synthesis (I know this is true for us).

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Does he think that all reptiles are diurnal insectivorous lizards? :confused:

-Evan

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Originally Posted by Evan Jamison

Reptiles that eat nutrient deficient food items like crickets, mealworms (or crocodilians that are only fed horsemeat) etc, may need supplements added to their diet depending on what gutloading is done beforehand. Snakes, and other reptiles that eat whole prey items do not need these supplements. They get everything they need from rats/mice, as most vertebrate prey items include all necessary vitamins and minerals. Your Doc probably doesn't specialize in exotics, and just lumped snakes into the wrong group. Personally, I would find a new Vet.

-Evan

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Thanks for your opinion......he is that practice's "herp vet". I havent decided yet if we'll keep them. We found him through....http://www.herpvetconnection.com/penn.shtml.

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Originally Posted by Mendel's Balls

does anyone do this?

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No, no one.

-adam

It seems odd that you need vitamins, when there has been no study (as far as I know) of the nutritional requirements of ball pythons. How can you say you need more of certain vitamins, if you don't know what are the basic necessary baselines?

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

It seems odd that you need vitamins, when there has been no study (as far as I know) of the nutritional requirements of ball pythons. How can you say you need more of certain vitamins, if you don't know what are the basic necessary baselines?

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:colbert2:

As long as the whole prey item you offer is of a good quality then the snake will get all it needs from that source. Nature intended snakes to get what they need from that prey item with no need for vitamin suppliments that I've ever heard of. We had an excellent, experienced herp vet in northern Michigan and I feel confident that if vitamins were required for snakes, I'd have heard about it from Dr. Pam (she was a stickler for people keeping herps very responsibly or not at all LOL).

This is a big problem out there. General hobbiest like us have more knowledge about captive care for a specific reptile than a vet. When being taught in school, do you really think that they would cover all different types of reptiles, how to house, care, and treat them? LOL....they would be in school forever ;) However, they do get the 'general' reptile care and treatment schooling......what is that saying?...."a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" ;) My only problem with some vets is that since they have been schooled in the care of animals.....they automatically think they are right in all situations.....even though they have no practical experience caring for the reptiles...so all they are doing is regurging what they read in a book or what their professor told them in school....

The key if finding a general vet that is open to discussion and learning......or finding a great reptile vet.....and there are still GREAT reptile vets out there too :)

I don't think you need to use it; I guess he is talking about that Reptical stuff.. I used it in the past to shake the crickets in, that I fed to various frogs; it basically acted as a preventative measure for metabolic bone disease; this can cause a frog to become deformed or even die due to calcium deficiency.
Seeing that wild BPs eat whole rodents, as do our domestics, I think it is unnecessary to powder their food; bones of the rats should be enough for that calcium need. And since your girl is feeding/doing so well, Mendel, I would not change a thing; good job!