Varied diet or "treats" for snakes?

[Gocntry]

Quick question....

I have 4 BP's, 1 Boa Constrictor, and 1 Corn Snake, they all eat F/T rats no issues, except the Corn he's on F/T mice

Should I vary their diet by offering a F/T chick once a month or so? Any reason to do this?

Or is that asking for trouble and screwing up their diet, and making them fussy eaters?

Right now I've never had one refuse a meal don't want to mess that up.

Any reason to add any kind of vitamin or supplement to the food they eat now?

Just wondering before I place my next order for rats/mice.

Thanks for any input.

[bcr229]

The ball pythons likely won't eat chicks so keep them on rats.

The corn and boa can have appropriately-sized fowl or rabbits, if you can find stillborn kits for the corn or culls from a free-range meat breeding chicken program for the boa.

On a whim I did offer one of my ball pythons a f/t chick and he took it, but he was a rescue and was way underweight when I got him, so he'd hit anything that moved.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Depends on the species, BP are finicky so the likelyhood of them taking something other than rat is pretty low, additionally already being picky you do not want to jinx yourself by getting them imprinted on something else if they did take it, especially something that does not contain adequate calcium amount compared to rats.

[GoingPostal]

Don't feed them anything you aren't willing to feed for life and you want to feed a similar sized prey item, a chick isn't really a meal. I feed mostly rats but also offer rabbits, quail, chickens, guinea pigs and piglets when I have them to my snakes. Most of them are short tails or boas and will eat anything. My ball pythons has eaten other rodents and quail before. It's not necessary to vary and some snakes will just refuse unfamiliar prey. I have other animals eating feeders so nothing ever goes to waste here and I have a supply at hand.

[Bogertophis]

Back when I kept BPs, I had a house-full of snakes (no exaggeration) & raised rats, mice & hamsters. Since I always had feeders of all sizes & types, I did vary it
up sometimes, & & think for the most part that's beneficial (or at least more like what happens in nature). BPs LOVE hamsters, but unless you want yours to insist
on them from now on, offering these other items really is asking for trouble, at least with BPs. Now I wouldn't hesitate to do this with most rat snakes or bull/gopher
snakes...they aren't as finicky as BPs & do appear to enjoy some variety. (same for rattlesnakes they'll take variety in stride) BPs are challenging enough already.

I've not fed chicks but have often seen keepers mention that the snakes eating them tend to have more watery stools, so there's that too. It may also take some
getting used to, just like when you change the brand of dog-food you give your dog...snakes have enzymes that excel at digesting their usual diet & may take some
time to adjust.

Basically, I'd stick to their regular diets. Adding vitamins or other supplements should not be necessary unless you're breeding (maybe not even then) and
as long as the rodents are fed properly (coming from a reliable supplier...not someone just out to make a buck by feeding the cheapest foods possible.)

[Cheesenugget]

I feed a variety of feeders to my woma and kings. My woma would eat a meal of a rat fuzzy + large mouse or large mouse + 1-day old chuckling. For the chickling, I alternate every other feeding or 3rd feeding. For the rat fuzzies before I ran out, I would offer every meal. Same for my kings. There was a study done on nutrition between chickling and rodents, and they concluded that it was about the same. I need to find that link, I just read that like a week ago. The poop was no different though, but I was not feeding chicks every week.

I don't do that with my ball python or my boa. By mistake, I offered a rat to my boa who never takes rats, and he took it (yay). But that was a mistake and I would not play around with that as Dumerils boa can be picky eaters as well. He is now on rats and it is staying that way.

[EL-Ziggy]

All but one of my snakes eats a varied diet. I don't keep BPs anymore though. It sounds like they're more likely to imprint on certain prey items so it may not be worth it.

[Gocntry]

Thanks for all the replies,


Looks like the BP's stay on what they eat now, I've read enough threads here about them not eating I'm not going to screw up

what's been working so far.



@Bogertophis - I used Big Cheese Factory earlier this year, But have switched to Perfect Prey, being they are in Florida, shipping to me takes 1 less day

and their product looks good to me. So hopefully that is considered a reliable supplier

[Starscream]

I've personally fed my female ball python with rats, quail, chicks, and mice on a rotating schedule without any issues, but I also don't feed as often as every week. She was pretty into the birds -- quail are hard to source around here though, so we're back to a strictly rodent diet for a while.

[Zincubus]

Our store sells XL mice at around £1.50 each ... for the same price they sell 15 chicks!!


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