Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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What is that a chicken.How big of a lump does that put in your snake, got any after eating shots?

my goodness~ how does it seem to like chickens? I'll feed bunnies on occasion but never tried fowl..
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

I bought a bunch of chicks from a local Feed and Seed. They were BIG chicks, however, and though they seemed way too big for this one snake, I put a live one in her cage. She went nuts, clobbered the thing and, after what seemed like hours, she finally got it down. I thought she was going to split open.

I met a vendor at Daytona a couple of years ago who said he feeds his boids chicks every once in a while to "clean them out"??). Chicks don't process quite as cleanly as rodents...lots more smell and mess.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1

Blood pythons are very much into chicks. Aren't we all? In fact if you can't get a Blood to eat, as a last resort, always try chicks. They must eat a lot of fowl in the wild as this is one of the oldest 'blood tricks' there is. I've heard, although have not tried, that dipping the heads of the rodents in canned chicken broth works well. No chance of Solomenella that way. I have a friend that had a blood once that would only eat dead chicks. The only way to get rodents in this animal was to feed him a dead chick, then feed him another dead chick & tie rodents to the chick with fishing line ! He ate the whole thing; the dead chick, and 3-4 appropriate sized rats, one right after the other, as if it was one food item ! He'd pass the fishing line. He eventually progressed to the kind of string they use for stiches in humans that gets absorbed into the body. Interesting. I still like my chicks alive though.
Paul Edwards

Paul,
I tried the chicken soup thing about 10 years ago on several pythons and had very little luck with it. Others I have spoken with have had similar results. Chicks are definitely far superior to the soup dip. I agree, I think young ground birds are a mainstay in the diet of wild neonate bloods, as they typically hang around small creeks and waterways. Salmonella is common intestinal fauna in most birds and is rarely a problem when feeding live, fresh killed, or frozen thawed whole chicks, because the numbers of salmonella organisms in healthy birds are in check. Snakes that aren’t immuno-deficient seem to be able to handle moderate levels of salmonella. Raw, store bought chicken, is where you get into problems, because occasionally they show high salmonella counts as an artifact of processing. That was pretty gutsy of your friend to use the fishing line, I’d say luck was with him on that one. The degradable stitching was a great idea. I have heard of cotton string being used as a cheap substitute.

Kelly

It might have been cotton string, I don't remember exactly. The guy was Tom Weidner BTW - you might have met him at a show or something, but I've always heard those guys from Topeka don't get out much !
LOL !
Paul

I was thinking you had been in Topeka before. If you recall, the level of sheer excitement here is about as much as most people can handle. You must remember, the name Topeka translated means "a good place to grow potatoes". Every time I go to another city, it's a real letdown. Except Des Moines, speaking of which, Tom is a great guy. I bought several bloods from him back in the early to mid '80's. He was one of the first to produce them on a regular basis. In fact, the first clutch I produced was from one of those females I purchased from him. Let me know the next time you are in the area.

Kelly

Hey,
I find that with recalcitrant feeders, you can get them to take chick down scented mice or rats from either the forcep or if left in the cage. I found that by placing some chick down around the head of the rat or mouse, from a frozen chick, you can entice a difficult feeder to take a mouse or rat from you. Case in point: I have a wonderful looking Black blood male that has steadfastly refused all offers to feed on frozen thawed rats or mice, but when either of these food items were slightly covered around the head with a few chick down feathers, he immediately took both the mice and Jumbo rat, left in his cage with no resistance what so ever. It is also, an excellent alternative to feeding potentially hazardous salmonella laiden fowl.

- Angel
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Discovered and defeated of your prey, You skulked behind the fence, and sneaked away. --Dryden.

Angel,
The technique you are speaking of does work well. We have used it with two litters of green anacondas and about half will start in this manner. The other half usually require whole chicks, as most newborn greens show little interest in rodents for the first few months. I have never seen a snake acquire salmonella from the use of live or fresh killed chicks. Have you or anyone else here had a different experience? I would be interested to know. I have however, heard of cases acquired from the use of raw, store bought chicken. Thanks,

Kelly

what kind of blood is that in the picture?

is that a sumutrian? sorry for the dumb question, I am new to bloods and plan to buy one in the next 4 years! (but have alot more research to do first)
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1.1 ball pythons (Draco and Naga)
1.0 red tail boa (Malichi)
coming soon (well not that soon...)
?.?.? eyelash Gecko(my g/f fell in love with them)
0.0.1 schneiders skink
1.0 blood python (lestat)

Hey,
If you're referring to the pictures above this post, those are 2 Red bloods, of Northern Sumatran origin most likely.
-Angel
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Discovered and defeated of your prey, You skulked behind the fence, and sneaked away. --Dryden.

Yeah its a 2-3 pnd chicken. Biggest one he ever ate. Sorry I don't have any after pics as he usually goes to his water bowl right after eating and then burrows underneath the mulch. I leave him alone. That one pic w the flash got him stareing at me ,lol.

I feed him chicks all the time. The chicks are usually about half the size of that one in the photo, and he loves em.

Yeah its a 2-3 pnd chicken. Biggest one he ever ate. Sorry I don't have any after pics as he usually goes to his water bowl right after eating and then burrows underneath the mulch. I leave him alone. That one pic w the flash got him stareing at me ,lol.

I feed him chicks all the time. The chicks are usually about half the size of that one in the photo, and he loves em.

i only use newspaper due to the chance of the snake eating some wood chips by accident !!!

Nope never and they love to burrow under the mulch.