Kingsnake.com - Herpforum - RE: Awesome coral, but...

Posted by: Upscale at Mon May 25 21:41:56 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Upscale ]

I put this post together a long time ago, but it is worth repeating here in this topic.

I have been keeping a coral snake for over one year now without feeding it any natural food items in an ongoing experiment. All meals have been an artificial mixture by tube feeding. I have experimented with this a few times before with mixed results. I thought I�d share my recipe as this could be useful for some hard to maintain, acclimate or start snakes. I have been getting normal sheds and the snake seems to be thriving. All signs of a decent mix.

I use Gerber meat baby foods, alternating between Veal, Turkey and Lamb. I use to mix all three together, but my results improved by alternating them.

To one 2.5 oz jar I add one heaping baby-food spoon amount of buttermilk powder, one heaping baby food spoon of Rep Cal Ultra fine calcium, one dropper full squirt of baby vitamins, and enough Pediatric electrolyte to make the mix easy to squirt though a catheter tube with a syringe. I mix it all with a really small whisk in a drill, using it like your mom�s mixer for cake mix.

Here�s pictures of each product I robbed off the web-

Gerber 2nd Foods Beef & Beef Gravy Baby Food 2.5 oz.
Generic picture of the Beef, but I usually use Veal, Lamb or Turkey flavor.

Rep Cal Ultrafine Calcium with D3
100% natural Oyster Shell phosphorous-free calcium carbonate with added Vitamin D3 to aid in the absorption of calcium.

SACO Buttermilk Powder
A Cultured Blend of Sweet Cream Churned Buttermilk, Sweet Dairy Whey, and Lactic Acid.

Enfamil Poly-Vi-Sol Multivitamin Supplement Drops 1.69oz.
Has an eye dropper-like bottle cap for easy dispensing.

Walgreens Pediatric Electrolyte Oral Maintenance Solution, Unflavored
Probably ends up being about five tablespoons, I just wing it with this ingredient.

Gerber baby spoons
Soft bite infant spoons, silicone coating
Maybe too much information, but somebody would probably want to know�

You might think a coral would be too delicate or suffer from the stress of the procedure, but so far that has not been proved to be the case.

Some pictures of the guinea pig, err, I mean coral snake�

My advice is keep corals with access to very damp or downright wet tub of sphagnum at all times. They do not get blister disease. Dry will kill them. Easy with the Rep cal, you do not want to make cement mix, again, you will kill them. For very long term use, I would add some probiotic, but this is proven to be o.k. for fifteen months as is. Best of luck with the little gem.

Hope this is useful to somebody!