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Have any of you used this or similar products on your Drys or other herps? What were your results? It is hard to find first hand information, so often people just quote what they heard or read. I might try it, depending on your experiences. It seems trace elements and Vitamins might be in order for Drys fed primarily f/t rodents and an occassional fish. I am very concerned about dosage and frequency, and "moderation in all things" probably applies. Contact me off the forum if you prefer. vic.herrick@yahoo.com

I too would be interested in first hand info on this subject. Mostly pertaining to cribos and spilotes
Nate

I have not read the ingredients for a while but the ones that are important for color are as follows and in order most color enhancing to least, Cantaxanthin, Astaxanthin, Beta Catotine and Apo 8 carotenoic acid. Most if not all of these have been synthesized by Roch. The problem is that the Cantaxanthin targets skin color while the others target flesh and organs other than Beta Carotine that is not color stable in the host. In nature these carotenoids are combined with other carotenoids such as a carrot having over 400 carotenoids . I am now using whole foods if you want orange color only use Cantaxanthin if you want yellow use Apo8. If you want orange or red to show through from the flesh such as albino or to target ovaries use Astaxanthin. Beta Carotine is a short term colorant but I am not sure about how much carrot to give a snake!

So to answer your question yes it should work.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Sigthunter, you said you are now using only whole foods...please elaborate. Could this be as easy as feeding to or placing pieces of carrot or other carotene rich foods inside prey i.e. rodents? The lizard folks take this "gut loading" seriously, perhaps it applies to Drys. Will a snake digest shreds of carrot? Maybe strips of salmon? Anyone have an opinion/answer? Thanks!

I was wondering about feeding strips of fish and salmon especially. would sockeye effect them more then say coho?

I can only guess that sockeye would have more carotene as it is primarily a plankton/krill feeder and thus eats a lot of carotene rich invertebrates. Hence the name "red salmon". Coho can also be very red fleshed, but varies depending on diet. We often catch salmon early in the season with light orange flesh, then it becomes intense red later, said to be because they switched to krill. We should not get too carried away with salmon however, it is high fat. What says the Sighthunter and the rest of the brethren? whole foods? Sweet Potato and carrots gut loaded into rodents? Or nekton rep-color?

Wow...I can see how you stay busy, that sounds pretty involved but thorough. I wonder if Drys would eat crayfish on their own (whole, live or fresh dead)? I t sounds weird, but surely some populations would encounter them in the wild. Thank you for this information, you have me thinking about nutrition and I will make some conservative experiments.

Everything I use is high in the carotenoids that impact color in the wild. Yoke from hatchling birds, as most color causing carotenoids are from insects or aquatic insects (crayfish etc)so birds eat insects and it consentrates in the ovaries hence yoke. Carrots are an afterthought as a wild mouse would have some undigested greens................
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

I use a combination the primary source is wild freshwater crayfish, dehydrated, (no salt as in shrimp or lobster), second is dehydrated range chicken egg yoke (dehydrated), third is dehydrated diferential grasshopper and some dehydrated carrot powder all put into gel caps and inserted into deadf mice.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."