Vine Snake Question

[AEnimaDrummer98]

Hi I was wondering can I feed my vinesnake a diet of only different types of live fish? The geckos and anoles are expensive. Is there any way to gut load fish to have nutritional value to allow it to be its main source of food? Thanks

[anthonym]

I've kept a vine snake for close to a year now. Unfortunately all I've ever fed him are anoles, so I can't really answer your question regarding fish. I tried to give him some goldfish once before, but he never did take them. There is a place you can order frozen anoles for $1 each in quantities of 100. PM me if that fits in your budget. I will say though, they are really fun to watch home in on their prey and shoot across their enclosure silently like a heat seeking missile; they rarely miss. Really great display animals too.

Here's a few pics of mine

[Skiploder]

Hi I was wondering can I feed my vinesnake a diet of only different types of live fish? The geckos and anoles are expensive. Is there any way to gut load fish to have nutritional value to allow it to be its main source of food? Thanks

While I have never kept ahaetulla, I have kept other species that are part-time piscivores.

It's imperative that if you provide a diet of feeder fish, you buy fish that do not contain thiaminase. Without going into a bunch of nerd talk, feeding prey items that contain thiaminase can result in dangeourlsy low levels of vitamin B1.

Smelt, goldfish and rosy red minnows all contain relatively high levels of thiaminase. There is a comprehensive list out there of fish that are safe to use as feeders, I just don't have the link anymore.

As far as "safe" live feeder fish go, guppies, mollies and platys are considered safe in regards to thiaminase. With regards to the diseases they carry, well.............feeder fish in fish stores are not usually kept in the best conditions........................