Posted by:
amarilrose
at Tue Feb 20 10:07:00 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by amarilrose ]
I know I'm coming into this thread late in the game... but DON'T do the calcium thing!
I read through the entire thread to this point, and couldn't hold myself back here. Given the humidity that was described in the original post, I suspect that the problem is not humidity, but rather nutrition. In that much, I can agree with jfrreptile.
I DON'T however think that you should automatically increase the feeding rate or the amount fed to your snake, or to mess with calcium supplementation. I have no idea what about shedding issues would lead someone to believe that your snake does not have enough calcium. Lizards run into a lot of issues with metabolic bone disease because of insufficient calcium or vitamin D, but snakes don't as a general rule.
What I think you SHOULD do is look at the rodents you are using as feeders and try to evaluate their nutritive value. That means, if you are feeding several adult mice to a large snake, maybe rats would be better from a nutritional standpoint - less hair and mature bone (which are largely undigestible, or at least require more effort to digest) for the weight. Also, what the rodents are being fed makes a HUGE difference in their nutritive value to the snake. Some people who breed rodents for feeders will only feed their rodents CHEAP dog food and leftovers. Make sure the rodents you feed your snake are in the peak of health before they are euthanized (best if they are fed a lab diet, perhaps supplemented with fresh fruits or vegetables), and you should see a big difference.
The important thing is to change the nutritive value of the feeder rodent through general husbandry (whether you breed your own or buy them from someone else), and not by injecting or dusting any vitamin supplements into or onto the prey item after the fact.
I hope you see this, and I hope this helps.
~Rebecca ----- 0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney) 1.2 Ball Pythons
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
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