Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a tip from a nice enough guy at one of the shows who told me that Indigos will eat chicken necks and boiled eggs. I have tried the chicken necks and they both love them but I feed rats every other feed. I suppose the bone in the neck will provide some calcium. Has anyone tried the boiled eggs and has anyone had problems feeding these or other non-rat/bird meals in the long term?

I use chicken parts as part of my reptile feeding routine. I don't know about the boiled eggs. Lots of folks also use fish, quail and there's probably other non-rodent food to supplement with.

Doug T

I thought I was on the right track but it's truely good to hear from those experienced. I peal and slice off all the fat possible of course. I use fish when I'm desparate cause of the poop smell and quail are so expensive I haven't tried them. I do like to keep it varied as possible. Thank you Doug

I use chicken wings or necks for my indigos, mussuranas, beaded lizards and black head pythons. They all actually prefer the wings or necks over rodents. It does provide some big bones which I'm assuming gets a little extra calcium, although some sort of vit D3 supplement is probably needed to make the calcium accessible. I haven't had any boas go for the chicken parts.

Doug T

>>I thought I was on the right track but it's truely good to hear from those experienced. I peal and slice off all the fat possible of course. I use fish when I'm desparate cause of the poop smell and quail are so expensive I haven't tried them. I do like to keep it varied as possible. Thank you Doug

I had an old country guy with land near a wildlife refuge tell me the indigos used to eat dog food out of his bowls on his back porch. Buddy.

buddy, apparently it ultimately has the same effect on reptiles. j/k....sort of. now here's a girl who's looking for the real thing!

I only feed my albino eastern/texan cross (that I got for $50 from a guy at a show who was asking $5000!)oranges. Of course, it hasn't eaten since I pit tagged it.

Mike,

Too funny!

Brian

I'm feeling much better about using the chicken parts and will try the wings. I noticed my Beads also were eating some chicken parts and I'm totaly jazzed about that. I just wasn't sure how good it was for them. I'll try almost anything so I won't have to kill the stuff myself.

Be careful! I have seen problems associated with large wing bones in conjunction with typical the drymarchon rapid digestion. Sometimes the larger bones do not digest completely, and sometimes one or both ends will be rather sharp, when they pass through. Imagine swallowing a 16 penny nail, and the resulting possible internal injury. Before giving chicken wings to my snakes, I now smash up the bones in them with a meat tenderizing hammer. This, {hopefully} should iliminate the possibility of internal injury.

I occasionally feed my Florida Indigos fresh quail eggs. They love 'em! One of them cracks them open first,(messy!) the other swallows them whole.I havn't tried chicken eggs though - they are a bit too big for my animals at the moment.

Cheers Mark