Posted by:
Rtdunham
at Thu Oct 6 10:10:54 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Rtdunham ]
I randomly spot-check animals in my collection each year and i'm always surprised to find one or two with an internal parasite of some kind or another. (these are all captive bred animals). It's clear some are being vectored in the the food items. So an animal can be "clean" from the wild influences, and still have parasites introduced in captivity.
It also seems more likely the vectors would be live rodents rather than frozen/thawed. Apart from that difference, what do you see as the advantage of feeding live? I always figure that in addition to the risk of disease/parasites, a live rodent of the wrong size (like mice of hopper to adult size) can harm a snake if all goes wrong, but a frozen/thawed rodent of the same body mass can't. So I feed as many of mine as possible on frozen.
terry
>>It depends. (The correct answer to most questions.)
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>>Under "optimal" conditions, Kings can live 30 years. 25 or so is relatively easy with good care. One specimen that seems to be the current record holder that lived just over 33.
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>>But this all presumes that your snake has no parasites leftover from the wild days.
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>>Assuming that there are no parasite problems, and that the snake lived 5 years of less in the wild before capture, and that your friends had it 5-10 years after capture, I'd say that your snake will likely live about 10 more years.
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>>But - many individuals defy the rules. Don't give it tap water, instead give it distilled or filtered water, feed live food and exercise out-of-cage often and yours could break the longevity record...
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RE: This May Help - Rtdunham, Thu Oct 6 10:10:54 2005