What kind of meats can snakes eat?

[Lirenn]

I must first say that this is ONLY a point of curiosity. I am not getting any wild ideas about my girl's future feedings.

One of my employees asked me what my snake eats and what snakes eat in general. For whatever reason, it made me wonder if snakes could eat the same kind of meats we do.

So ... can you feed a snake a steak?

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[Lirenn]

Dangit, just scrolled down and saw a similar question.

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[Kcl]

Are you asking for snakes in general or a specific species? Some are more specialized than others. Ball pythons in specific appear to be more opportunists that have had a whole lot of different mammals and birds identified in wild specimens' stomach contents. Their criteria is likely to be is it a mammal or a bird, can I catch it, and can I fit it in my mouth.

[savora]

Snakes can eat the same meat that humans eat. Heck, feeding chicks is common among snakekeepers and everyone knows that humans eat a sinful amount of chicken.

The issue with feeding snakes a "steak," or a cut of beef, is that it's a human-focused cut of beef; meaning that it's void of all the vitamins and nutrients contained in organs and bone matter. This is a common problem for people who want to feed their garter snakes cuts of fish fillet: they have to supplement the missing nutrients, or also feed whole prey.

Snakes are programmed to need the entire body of the feed; brain tissue, liver, fat, bones, and all. Humans are terrible at digesting meat in general, when compared to snakes. The good thing about that is that we can beat any snake in a veggie-eating contest.

[Craiga 01453]

Snake diets in the wild vary by species, but the staples are rodents, mammals, birds, reptiles and eggs.

As for what can they eat that we can buy for ourselves at our local grocery store...meat, eggs. But should They? NO

[Zincubus]

I've heard of people feeding whole chickens ( thawed from a supermarket) for the occasional meal ..

I thought it a bur extravagant but then realised that whole chickens were 2 for £5 at Tesco and I'd been paying £3.50 for a damn rat !!


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[Kcl]

I feed my ball python chicks sometimes - he got one last feeding. They're a bit cheaper than the rats from the guy I buy them from. I don't buy them for the sake of being cheaper, but because male ball pythons especially have been shown to eat birds in the wild, so I feel ok giving him one occasionally for variety.

Grocery store meats aside from often not being a whole item, which leaves nutritional deficiencies, are often injected with saline solutions. Fine for humans, can kill a snake - it's proportionally way way more salt and they have a harder time getting rid of it. When I get fish filets from the store for my garters as part of their diet (they also get worms, pinkies, and whole silversides), it's necessary to not only choose the right type of fish, but look at the ingredients closely for dyes, salts, etc.

OP - Check out some videos of egg-eating snakes. The egg-eating specialists will crack the egg in their throats - it's very cool looking.

[Lirenn]

So much awesome info. Thanks guys.

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[Craiga 01453]

OP - Check out some videos of egg-eating snakes. The egg-eating specialists will crack the egg in their throats - it's very cool looking.

I second this: very cool indeed

[asplundii]

As has been noted, it depends on the species.

I have a variety of species that are specialist feeders: blackhead, bredli, hognose, grey-band, chondro, and egg-eater. All but the last can be maintained on rodent only diets if done properly but I have found that they do better when offered something closer to their typical prey items. To these ends I have moved to using ReptiLinks of one type or other for most of them, but I will occasionally cycle a rodent or a chick in now and then. For the egg-eater I just buy a pack of quail eggs at the Asian market and drop a few in every couple weeks from May-October.

I know some keepers that have fed their blackheads chicken legs or wings from the store. Or whole fish picked up from a monger. I also know some GBK keepers that keep colonies of mourning geckos and only use those to feed their animals. I have also heard of people collecting frogs/toads for their hognose but I do not advocate doing that given the high likelihood of picking up parasites. But you might be able to get away with frog legs from the store.