Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was close to going out and buying some mice to start breeding,
up until a friend of mine told me that she had fed her snake mice and rats etc. Bred her own mice, and fed her snake a mouse and the snake died due to the health of the mouse or something. Either way it scared the heck out of me and I don't want to breed the mice if I will end of killing my snake somehow.

Is this possible? Is it easily avoided, by proper feeding or something? If I do breed mice. Any suggestions on how to keep them as healthy as possible. Food supplements or something?

All comments will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Shane

I think it is pretty unlikely that the snake died because of the health of the mouse. If you feed you mice radioactive waste or DDT it might be hard on the snake but if the mouse is healthy enough to breath the snake can digest it.

What is more likey to happen is that if your mice are not fed properly then they won't be as benificial to the snake as they may be. Chances of you feeding your mice properly are greater than petco or many other pet shops. Raising better mice is the best reason to raise them.

There are several post below talking about what is good to feed your mice. Lab blocks and or grain mixes are generally thought to be the best. Lots of people feed dog food with good success. Avoid red die in dog food and high fat items.
-----
Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

>>... a friend of mine told me that she had fed her snake mice and rats etc. Bred her own mice, and fed her snake a mouse and the snake died due to the health of the mouse or something ...

That is pure BUNK! Snakes feed on rodents, birds, other reptiles, all kinds of things. Those that live in the wild are no healthier than those bred in captivity. The health of the prey animal makes very little difference to its nutritional value, and the contents of the prey animal's stomach could only be toxic to the snake if they were toxic to the prey itself. There's no way, no way whatsoever, that eating an appropriately sized mouse killed that snake.

I'm constantly reading here about how importaant it is to feed the rodents properly balanced diets, to ensure that the snakes receive balanced diets. Even that allegation may not be correct. The composition of the prey's flesh, bones, and organs, will be almost exactly the same no matter how good or poor its diet may be. About the only thing that may vary, will be the fat level, and possibly to some extent the calcium level. The living body, no matter what the species, has a tendency to extract from the diet whatever components it requires, and to excrete any and all superfluous components as waste. Consequently, all mouse meat will be virtually the same, no matter how well a particular mouse was fed.

The main reason for feeding your rodents a well-balanced diet, is that it is more economical in the long run. Well-fed mice are more productive than improperly fed mice. So, you'll get more pinkies out of them if they're well-fed. So get yourself some mice and/or rats, and take good care of them. Your snake will do as well eating them as he'll do eating any din-din's that you may purchase from any other source.
.

-----
tricia

I have had people tell me that they have had snakes drop dead the day after being fed and they invariably blame the health of the prey item. A couple things that I thought of was.......were the mice recently treated for external parasites....and would this kill a snake?? and INVARIABLY the prey was fed LIVE. I wonder how much truth there is to the idea that a live prey, swallowed 'not quite dead' did internal damage on the way down. Necropsies would be the way to go.
-----
Sonya

I really doubt the mouse killed the snake because it itself wasn't healthy. Unless your friend fed the mice rat poison inorder to kill it before feeding it to the snake. That is more likely to kill the snake than anything. Also, without knowing just how your friend cared for her snake, hard to say if hte snake was on it's deathbed to begin with.

Another possibility could be the mouse was way to large though most snakes would not eat something way to large for it.

With so many people here breeding their own mice and rats for food for their snakes, haven't heard anybody saying or wondering if what they fed their snake killed them.