Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone, I'm new to to this site.
I was just wondering if snakes would be healthier with a more balanced and varied diet. I figure in the wild they eat all sorts of foods, like small mammals, insects, eggs, birds, etc. So, instead of feeding them, say, lab mice all the time, should they maybe be (i)supplemented(/i), not fed entirely or even mostly, with the occasional egg or bird or fish or something? Because I've always been interested in snakes and hope to get maybe a California King or a Great Basin Gopher someday, and I want them to be healthy and happy.

Most are perfectly healthy with one food item. I actually have trouble getting some of my snakes to accept other food items, which can be as insignificant as say...a different colored mouse than they are used to or replacing a rat with a mouse. In many cases, captive snakes can become easily imprinted on what food is. I suppose it is because their food is just tossed on them once a week or so, and they have no reason to be oportunistic and eat whatever they find. But as I said, it seems many captive snakes are easily imprinted. Whether prey moves or not, color, smell, shape, etc. That is why you shouldn't feed live mice as the snake will get used to live mice and will have to be fed live rodents its whole life(unless a nice amount of time is devoted to switching it back of course). It is the same principle with other food items. If you feed eggs, what if the snake becomes imprinted with them and refuses other foods? I doubt a diet of all eggs, especially most of the eggs you could get commercially, would be a good diet. But then again, a little variety here and there wouldn't hurt. But as you can see with other snakes, your snake will be perfectly healthy on a diet of strictly rodents. There are of course notable exceptions as some snakes will eat anything you toss in the cage, but I personally just stick with the rodents. Easy to obtain, feed, and pretty cheap. And they are just as healthy as any other food (provided they had a good diet before being euthanized).
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Andy Maddox
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

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As Andy said, your snake will in fact be healthy with just rodents. Part of the reason for this, is that when you feed whole organisms such as mice, your snake is getting variety in terms of bone, internal organs, etc.
Some of the folks on these forums do, in fact, "mix it up" a bit by feeding a small chick now and then, and those folks seem to think it a good idea. I have heard that eggs can cause some pretty runny, smelly stool.
Rest assured that you can maintain a healthy snake on a diet of rodents. Some of the larger snakes will go from mice to rats and then maybe even rabbits.
Good for you, by the way, to be asking such questions before getting a snake. The more you know............ Duffy