I recently watched a video on ball pythons. The guy stated that feeding your ball python F/T for too long can be harmful to your snake. He states that the freezing procedure kills a very important B vitamin and if you do feed F/T then on occasion you need to feed live. Has anyone ever heard this or is this guy full of it! Might be a neat discussion.
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Is feeding F/T bad for snakes????
mandk
Mar 22, 2008 02:19 PM
Replies (3)
brhaco
Mar 22, 2008 03:31 PM
NO.
Longer answer: I myself, and many I know of, have kept and bred individual snakes of many species literally for years feeding nothing but frozen/thawed rodents. So if there is an effect, it's an extremely subtle one...
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG
The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....
j3nnay
Mar 23, 2008 01:07 AM
What B vitamin was he talking about?
I couldn't find any reputable sources (i.e. college, government, or research websites) that said freezing destroys a significant amount of B vitamins in rodents.
I also couldn't find any reputable sources that said anything about the importance of B vitamins in snake diets. Most I could find was that in garter snakes you need to be careful about feeding exclusively fish because that will lead to a vitamin B1 deficiency.
If it really worries you, a light dusting of frozen prey with a nice multivitamin solves the problem.
Ta dah!
~jenny
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"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words."
- Anna Sewell (1820-1878)
darkbloodwyvern
Mar 23, 2008 08:24 PM
The only semi reputable info I have heard is that breeders prefer live prey over FT because it intices the snake to eat better, and it seems to improve muscle tone for breeding females. I assume this is because they have to vigorously chase and strangle it.
However, most small scale breeders that feed FT usually like to replicate "the hunt" and have their snakes chase down their Ft by using tongs/hemostadts to make the prey "run away" so the snake has to work for it.
Freezing is also helpful in that it destroys most bacteria and parasites that snakes can catch from their prey. I just treated my male live feeder for tapeworms and i believe roundworms. His girlfriends are both FT and always have clean normal fecal tests. While most common parasites won't kill your snake, they can weaken the immune system or become a problem if your snake gets sick with something else. This is reason enough for me to feed FT!
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http://darkbloodwyvern.deviant.com
