Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been reading the recent posts about colour feeding with interest and was thinking about it, I don't doubt that colour feeding can artificially enhance colour temporarily but the idea does sit a little uneasy with me. We don't honestly know how the snakes will react to this food be it artificial carotene or natural, not all animals' bodies react to compounds in the same way for example a few years ago I was shown a snake that had had some mites, the owner kept some birds and small furries aswell and had put some anti mite spray (meant for the birds etc) on the back of the snake thinking if it was safe for the others then.... anyway where ever the liquid had touched the snakes scales they had started peeling away and crusting up, it took fully four sheds before they went back to normal and the mites were still there! (out of interest the active ingredient I can't remember right now but it did begin with L) plus I work in medical research and we have a little saying that in a large enough quantity any compound can be a poison.

My last thought was would you feel cheated if you bought a snake, or indeed some offspring from parents, that looked stunning due to colour feeding but after a few sheds lost that individual colour?

no matter what artificial color enhancer you fed a animal of any species, it sure wouldn't transpire to breeding and offspring's. RIGHT !We used the carotene color enhancers on our species of canaries ( which was the very first usage of color enhancers in animals ) and finches. My did they look pretty but without the continued usage, they faded in time. You are right about the use to display/sale. We used it as a selling point but was honest about it so as the customer never came back and said why their bird was no longer as colorful as it was or ours. I could very possibly see the same scenario on a color enhanced reptile by artificial means if sold and the buyer wasn';t told. Now if one wants to do these for their own personal enjoyment.......
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Hey old guy (wait a minute – I’m 1 year older than you – Strike that.)
Hey young guy,
Did you see where the farmer who owns the chicken farm that is next to the Knoxville Zoo fed his hens a variety of color enhancers?
They laid a variety of colored eggs, all on the same morning!
The yard rooster looked at this that morning, jumped over the fence, and kicked the heck out of the male peacock.....

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Regards, Bill McGighan

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA i know that wasnt meant for me but boy was that funny!!!

~kin

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude)
1. unknown hypo? normal? (Romeo)
.1 Miami Phase (Emily)
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury)
1. Classic het Hypo, Anery, poss het Amel (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy [Emilys babies])
.1 Amel (Pepperoni)
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss het Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Classic het Hypo, Stripe (Gracie Lou)

Rats:
1.1 Black rats (Cecily, Willard)

Cal Kings:
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Skunky, Dweezil)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LEOPARD GECKOS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Normal het Midnight Blizzard (Mr. Spot)
.1 Blizzard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLE~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)

You misunderstood what I was saying about the offspring, what i meant was that would you feel conned if you had been shown some adults that were stunning due to colour feeding and you had then gone on to buy some of their offspring, because you'd seen how colourful the parents were. Only to have them grow up to be average? It should go without saying that the point here is that the seller had not mentioned the colour feeding.

Of course they aren't going to pass on the colour to the offspring from colour feeding, that is completely obvious.

But how many people pay extra for young dull gray jungle carpet pythons (for example) on the strength of what the parents looked like?