Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Please advise me if feeding meat is ok instead of mice

i just got a calif king snake yesterday and got this great ideal to bypass the whole mice feeding bit i went to the store bought some thin sliced meat that i ended up forgetting at the check out as i gathered my other food stuffs because of the clerks outstanding beauty and me trying to get to know her so when i got home went to the nearby grocery store again to get some more meat i then brought it home didnt wash it but cut up some small pieces went outside got one of my pet rats and had him walk on it for me then put him back stuck the meat on a chopstick and wriggle it and lo and behold he ate all 6 little pieces and he is still alive this morning...i think he would of eaten more but was worryed about over feeding which leads to another ? can i over feed it? I dont even think i need to use the rat tp scent it as it probaly will eat it without the scent. i hesitate asking petstores as there answer could be biased, wanting me to buy fuzzy's. Also another ? can i add other creatures to his 30 gallon tank like a lizard, spider etc i found a caterpillar this morning and stuck him in there with a leaf maybe it will transform in front of my eyes...what about adding the next black widow i find outside? That may kill Heart which is my snakes new name. they kill rattlesnakes so maybe it can handle the poison from a spider if that should happen but i dont want to gamble with this 4 foot snake i cherish thanks

wow... I just simple dont know where to start.....

I have no idea if beef will hurt your snake. However, snakes get more then meat from a mouse. Snakes digest everything in the mouse. I know snakes need calium and the mouse bones provide that. That is why mice are good for your snake and not just meat. As for the other stuff, it is your snake do what you want.

Fatman608 gave you good advice concerning feed for your snake. The snake NEEDS the whole creature, not just the muscle tissue. As for the other stuff, lizards will likely disappear. You've already mentioned that kingsnakes kill other snakes. They'll kill and eat lizards too. (That's kind of an assumption on my part. I don't own kings.) The caterpillars, spiders, etc, just don't belong in the enclosure with your snake. You said that you cherish your snake. Don't introduce anything that could bring with it parasites or diseases, or in the case of black widows, venom that just might kill your snake. Again, I don't own kings, so I don't know about their susceptibility to rattlesnake venom, but a black widow doesn't have rattlesnake venom. It has black widow venom. Different animal, different defense mechanism. To be honest, I currently have (actually my son currently has) a black widow in a peanut butter jar that we feed crickets to. We've had the black widow for over a year now. Pretty amazing creature. I guess I don't have to tell you how careful you have to be with ANY venomous animal! If I was you, I'd remove the caterpillar and put it in a jar. Lizards go in a seperate enclosure too. Black widows are probably best left alone, but certainly don't belong in with other pets.

My 2 cents (ok, maybe 3 cents)
Steve

Until a cow is is listed as a kingsnakes natural prey iem don't feed it beef. Snakes are best kept alone and not a good community animal. MMMMOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Steve W.