Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After a couple of weeks of force feeding, worming, and pre shed soaking the little guy is eating on his own and displaying that getula vigor.

Question:

Have any of you used some of the commonly available reptile supplements (such as reptocal)? If so, have you noticed any real weight or health gains in your animals? Have you suffered any negative effects?

Thanks in advance

No negative affects in my experience. I have a few old kings that are still kicking that have had supplements for years. I used bird vitamins (liquid) for years.

I was told my Sinaloan milks that had been given multivitamins (including A and D) had extremely bright red color, even when their parents (not in my collection) were not exemplary at all. Maybe the vitamin A? Can't really say. I parted with those babies so I don't know how they ended up.

As mentioned before, I've heard of some bad stories with "preventative" worming. I would take caution against doing that on new snakes, as it may be more stressful than doing nothing (unless of course the snake is truly in need.)

Keep saving the little buggers. BTW, I've got to get pics of the latest rescue. It is amazing how some really great animals with a low price tag end up in some pet stores.

Mark,

Thanks for the post. I can't wait to see the pics.

I only wormed this snake because I felt (given the circumstances)an infestation was assured. I have had good luck with rid-worm on imported ball pythons, and figured since the snake was on death's door anyway that it was worth a shot. I don't intend to worm again now that he is eating on his own. BTW, after I wormed and force fed once, the resulting stool was red. Could this have been from a parasite infestation, or simply leftover mouse that the snake was too weak to digest properly?

I wonder if a product like reptocal, which is high in calcium, benefits hatchling snakes. The bones in pinkie mice are not well developed. Do you think calcium supplements aid in the already rapid growth of hatchlings?

I am certainly not an authority on snake internals. I think the best answer will come from analyzing what your type of kingsnake would feed on in the wild as a hatchling (i.e. lizards) and then compare the calcium content of lizards vs pinkies.

On the other hand, many thousands of hatchling kings, milks, corns, etc have been raised to healthy adulthood with no supplements and a diet of soley pinks as hatchlings. So we know pinks alone are a pretty good food source just by practice.

I have heard some theorize that female snakes of species that would normally eat lots of lizard prey in the wild (like mtn kings) do benefit from calcium supplements if being bred. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but one breeder claims he has had better results doing so.

This is a great question for some of the more biology/physiology minded folks on these forums.

I think it is great that your snake is eating now.

I wouldn't worry about supplements. Calcium is found in the blood too, not just the bones, and good quality pinkies still have their bellies full of milk.

Bloody stools probably means your snake had hookworms or some other blood-sucking nematode and the medicine worked in killing them. Almost every herp I've ever treated for hookworms had very bloody stools the first day or two following treatment, and some of them had heavy enough loads that I could see worms being pooped out as well. Hookworms by themselves usually don't cause any outward symptoms. They usually only become debilitating when there's a secondary parasite infection going on, so you might want to get your snake checked to see if it's got anything the worm treatment isn't effective against.
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chickabowwow

Thanks for the info. I checked your site, I see you know what you are talking about.

Thanks again

By the way....

The main ingredient in Tetra RidWorm is thaibendazole. I did some research and found that thiabendazole is produced by Merck under the brand name Mintezol®.

Do you have any experience in using this? Tetra stopped making it a few years ago. I emailed the company to inquire as to why. A representative wrote me back stating that there was a lack of interest in the product.

I am curious as to whether this is actually the case, or if there were complaints due to fatalities caused by the administration of incorrect dosages or otherwise. Is it safe?

Sorry, I don't have any experience with thiabendazole, so I don't know if there are any side effects. As far as I know, when there are problems with dewormers, it's because the worm infestation is so heavy, all the dead worms cause internal blockage or toxic shock syndrome due to decomposition.

Fenbendazole (Panacur or SafeGuard) is a more popular choice for herpers. I also like pyrantel pamoate but Panacur seems to taste better to the animals. Both have pretty high safety margins. These are only dewormers though. There are other types of parasites that would require different medications for treatment.
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chickabowwow