Different Food ??

[stuka1166]

Can a BP be fed other "critters" then rodents i.e a lizard ??

[Rob]

No.
But wait behold the power of snake sausage! Lol :p

[mackynz]

Not as far as I know, they eat rodents in the wild. Plus rodents are cheap and easy to prep, why are you looking for another food source?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

They do not need variety.

Would they take it, maybe but not likely.

What you need to think of is if they do will they imprint on the prey item and if so can you provide them with the said prey item weekly?

In that case what happen if you have to re-home your animal?

BP are known to be picky feeders as it is, so offering alternative prey is really not such a great idea with BP.

Now other snakes it's different.

[stuka1166]

Merely a curiosity...Thanks for the input !!

[Slim]

I've done some experimentation with Frosted Mini Wheats. It did not go well The sugar makes them really hyper!

[mackynz]

I've done some experimentation with Frosted Mini Wheats. It did not go well The sugar makes them really hyper!

Not sure if serious....

Wouldn't think gluten would go well in their diet.

[Slim]

Not sure if serious....

Very sure it's not.

And, I feed Gluten Free rats. I pay extra for them at my LPS.

[LLLReptile]

Very sure it's not.

And, I feed Gluten Free rats. I pay extra for them at my LPS.

LOL.

I would like to preface this by saying that I feed rodents exclusively and that is also what I recommend...
But for a topic of discussion, this is actually kind of interesting. Wild ball pythons are found with birds and various species of mammals in their stomachs. A quick search for "Python regius stomach contents" on scholar.google comes up with this article:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...50009809386744

Which makes a... okay, the conclusion might be reaching a bit, but it does point out the variety of animals found in the stomachs of wild snakes. Different species of animals eat different things, contain different trace minerals and different ratios of all the little nitty gritty things that make up a creature. What WOULD happen if we fed our ball pythons a more varied diet? Is it a failure of us as keepers that we have such difficulties getting them to feed on different prey items?

Again, I'd like to caution that at this time I don't feel there's adequate information to suggest we should deviate from a feeding pattern that clearly works (rat/mouse based diet), but I do think it's an interesting thing to think about... What do we really know about the effects of narrowing down the diet of animals that feed on a variety of things in the wild? This is something that applies to more than just ball pythons - what about other species of snakes, especially those that feed opportunistically on ANYTHING, like kingsnakes?

Food for thought.

-Jen