Reptile Sausages

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/zoological/home.html

Has anyone tried these with their BPs? Also does any one have nutrition facts for rats/mice or ASF rats so that I can compare.

You can get the nutritional info on mice and rats here:

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

I have not tried the sausages due largely to the fact that even if it works magically, I feel that it lacks in style.

Aside from snake sausages seeming strange, I am finding enough trouble introducing f/t rats (with only occasional success) that I cant imagine a snake voluntarily consuming a snake sausage. Are they designed for force feeding?

Quote:

---

INGREDIENT LISTING
Beef, Beef Hearts, Beet Pulp, Tricalcium Phosphate, Ground Flaxseed Meal, Sodium Chloride, Collagen, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2 Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin A and D-3 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Biotin), Minerals (Iron Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite.

---

I ... am at a loss for words. Dont doctors want us to not eat red meat because of the detrimental effects... wow

HUmans and reptiles have a great deal of difference in what they need.
Humans are omnivores, and need a balanced diet. Snakes are carnivores, and they eat only meat(with the exception of the small amount of vegetive matter in the prey's gut).
Just like your dog, or cat, your diet has little to nothing to do with theirs.
That said, I'd ten times rather feed my snakes the natural prey of rodents, rather than a made diet. I'm sure that it's formulated to have everything a reptile would need nutrionally, but I can be sure that my snakes do very well on a rodent diet.
I bet my cornsnake would eat them though, it eats ANYthing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

HUmans and reptiles have a great deal of difference in what they need.
Humans are omnivores, and need a balanced diet. Snakes are carnivores, and they eat only meat(with the exception of the small amount of vegetive matter in the prey's gut).
Just like your dog, or cat, your diet has little to nothing to do with theirs.

---

:gj:

No, I have never tried it, and never will. My snakes love their home-made rats just fine! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

No, I have never tried it, and never will. My snakes love their home-made rats just fine! :D

---

Thas not very open minded. Progress is only achieved through trial and error.

haha but to your cause, It is a very strange idea!

I dont see how feeding cow to a ball python is really beneficial... Even if they do get it all hammered out, it's a hot dog!

Never have never will, I raise my own feeders and have no need for alternative.

While some snakes and other reptiles (monitors etc) might take those, it is very very unlikely that a BP will.

I would agree that feeding rodents and natural prey is better but I can't. The reason I can't agree that feeding a supplement like this is wrong is because I feed my cresties repashey super food which is a complete supplement powder replacement meal mixed with water. No insect required and as of recently they've pretty much stopped eating crickets on their own. The meal replacement has all their required nutrient's they required just like the sausage and is much better for them than baby that most people used to feed.

So I'd like to say that I would never feed a snake a sausage but I can't

LOL, snake sausage....

Anways, I know of one guy that keeps garter snakes and he feeds them a diet of fish cubes that have been supplemented with different things. I think he uses trout or tuna, and blends it all with some other stuff, and freezes the cubes. He thaws it out and plops it in their bowl and they readily eat it. I just dont see for BP's in particular doing well on this diet when they are so dependent on smell and picky.

wow...i dont even have any words for that.

Well when i first wanted to get a snake my mom freaked out about feeding it rats and mice...i think it was designed for people that want a snake but don't want to feed it live or keep frozen rodents in their freezer...and i think t-rex makes them, or atleast when i was looking around for it that's who was making it...i think it might be beneficial in some circumstances e.g. a snake that's having trouble eating, the sausages are linked so if you had to force feed it would take them all 2 or 3 of them down at one time instead of having to force feed it 2 or three different prey items.

just my .02...

im trying to get my snakes switched over to twinkies and Peeps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bobsean

Thas not very open minded. Progress is only achieved through trial and error.

haha but to your cause, It is a very strange idea!

---

How is feeding a snake an artificial food progress? When their perfect food (rodents) is readily available?

What long time trial tests have been done on the health benefits and risks of this product? Seeing as ball pythons have been thriving for thousands of years on rodents, what is there to improve on?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

How is feeding a snake an artificial food progress? When their perfect food (rodents) is readily available?

What long time trial tests have been done on the health benefits and risks of this product? Seeing as ball pythons have been thriving for thousands of years on rodents, what is there to improve on?

---

nice point

I noticed beet pulp as the fourth item by weight.. Beep pulp, if im not mistaken, is high in sugar, and rats/mice, are not. How can that be considered good?

I didn't read through all the info on the page, main reason I am sick as a dog and feel like I got hit by a freight train.

Anyway, my first question would be

Have they done a LONG term study on this? IF so HOW long? Reptiles can live a very long time if properly cared for. I don't see how taking away their natural prey items which they have thrived off of for God only knows how long, and giving them, well, sausage if thats what you want to call it.

Take Repashy's diet for example, it was created not only to take the guess work out of supplementing but to provide healthy food. Tested on many generations of Rhacs, who have proved that they can thrive on it vs. baby food or other fruits.

I just want to know how long this has been tested? Can it exactly match the nutritional value of their natural prey? If not what ill effects will it have on the animal? Future offspring?

Seems like adding in things that they wouldn't necessarily need.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

How is feeding a snake an artificial food progress? When their perfect food (rodents) is readily available?

What long time trial tests have been done on the health benefits and risks of this product? Seeing as ball pythons have been thriving for thousands of years on rodents, what is there to improve on?

---

LOL Robin I didn't read your post first. Seems like we both have the same questions!

Feeding a snake artificial food is progress the same way that feeding your rats Hikari diet is progress, the same way that feeding your dog a high quality dog food is progress.
The artificial food can be formulated to be sure that each sausage has exactly what a snake needs, rather than trusting that each rat will have it all.
Rats can be raised on lousy diets of cheap dog food, will they have all the nutrition that your snake needs? Why do we try to find people who raise the rats on good diets? Because we want the snake to have all the good nutrients it needs.
I'm pretty sure that I will always prefer to feed rats from a good rat supplier rather than snake sausages. But as a product, they are not necasarily bad. How many years has the gecko diet been tested? When it first came out, how many people looked at it and said "Never! I'll feed MY geckos insects!"
It might die out, and it might catch on. Who knows? In ten years, you could have the majority of snake breeders touting snake sausages and denouncing that "old" way of using rodents.
You have to admit, a snake sausage will NEVER bite your snake! LOL. Unless.. it's a zombie sausage...
I'll continue to feed rodents, but I will also keep an open mind about them and watch tos ee what happens. There's a lot of people who love snakes, but can't stand to kill a rodent for them. If the sausages work, and the snakes are healthy and will eat them, it might make more people own reptiles, which means a larger base of owners that can support reptile interests.

Hi,

Just thought I'd point out snake sausages have been around for over a decade already.

It has been that long since I tried them but we had very little luck persuading the range of animals we had in the shop at the time they were food at all.

They are designed mainly for people who don't want to feed rodents rather than for the snake as far as I can see. As for being easy to chain feed then yes there is that but I never found it all that difficult to chain feed in the first place.

From my dim recollection of the last time we discussed this there was also some suspicion over the sausage "skin" - Something about it being hard to digest iirc.


dr del

I sent them an e-mail asking the same things you guys were and here's what he said:

Dear Rick,
Ball pythons are one of the most difficult snakes to take to our sausage. As I am sure you know, they can be picky feeders at best.
We have a test group of 60 ball pythons that we have been feeding for two years. Of the group about 80% of the snakes eat the Natural Balance sausage. Some snakes ate it initially; others needed it to be scented. Once eating scented sausage they quickly switched to unscented. All of the test group have been doing well on the sausage for over two years. As there is little roughage the stools are smaller, but as it has all the vitamins and minerals it is better that feeding whole prey.
If you have any questions please call me @ 805-379-3141.
Regards, Jim Brockett

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RGreen454ss

I sent them an e-mail asking the same things you guys were and here's what he said:

Dear Rick,
Ball pythons are one of the most difficult snakes to take to our sausage. As I am sure you know, they can be picky feeders at best.
We have a test group of 60 ball pythons that we have been feeding for two years. Of the group about 80% of the snakes eat the Natural Balance sausage. Some snakes ate it initially; others needed it to be scented. Once eating scented sausage they quickly switched to unscented. All of the test group have been doing well on the sausage for over two years. As there is little roughage the stools are smaller, but as it has all the vitamins and minerals it is better that feeding whole prey.
If you have any questions please call me @ 805-379-3141.
Regards, Jim Brockett

---

well yes, but cigarette companies say that cigarettes dont cause cancer, so take it how you will

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RGreen454ss

I sent them an e-mail asking the same things you guys were and here's what he said:

Dear Rick,
Ball pythons are one of the most difficult snakes to take to our sausage. As I am sure you know, they can be picky feeders at best.
We have a test group of 60 ball pythons that we have been feeding for two years. Of the group about 80% of the snakes eat the Natural Balance sausage. Some snakes ate it initially; others needed it to be scented. Once eating scented sausage they quickly switched to unscented. All of the test group have been doing well on the sausage for over two years. As there is little roughage the stools are smaller, but as it has all the vitamins and minerals it is better that feeding whole prey.
If you have any questions please call me @ 805-379-3141.
Regards, Jim Brockett

---

Now that's interesting. I, too, am a big fan of the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" philosophy... but, still...

I remember reading about these sausages when I first got into snakes a couple years ago. Never really had any desire to try them, though I don't really like rodents much. I just think it's cool the things they come up with nowadays.

I agree with Wolfy... just because I don't feed them now doesn't mean I won't in the future. Just depends on how things go, I guess.