Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever fed their burms, or boas squirrels?
Whether or not anyone agrees with the sport, I hunt, and here in Connecticut we have a very long squirrel hunting season, and we have tons of squirrels?
I was thinking about sharing some of the bag with my burms.
They taste like chicken, and I've kinda had it with the damage they're doing around my house.
I use the tails to tie flies, and ask my vet if there is a way to feed them to the snakes safely. I dont think freezing will kill the internal parasites.
Just wondering if anyone else has done this. If I get any info from my vet, ( herp doc...long story ) I will post here.

I would not advise feeding wild animals to your tame burm. Most tame animals dont have the ability to fight off the parasites that would come with the wild animals, especially with them not being from this area of the world.

The money you may save in feeding costs, you would probably end up spending more in anti-parasitics from your vet than would be worth it. Plus the risk that it presents to your snake. The best thing to do is just feed them rodents that have been captively raised.

There is a discussion of this also in the retic forum if you want some other opinions.
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1.0 Albino Green Burm
0.2 Normal Burm
1.1 Java Retic

The parasite thing is what I figured. I'll still discuss it with my vet none the less. We talk about everything else.
I know roundowrms for example can live through all sorts of extremes. Freezing does'nt help.
Not as much meat on a squirrel as a jumbo rat or rabbit, but still thought I'd seek opinions.
I'll check the retic forums.

While I do agree with you, I do know one very prominent herp professor who has been feeding his burms squirrels and chipmunks for years and has never had a problem and his animals are long term, healthy snakes. Just thought I would throw that out. Rob Carmichael, Curator, The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm

I have at times fed my pythons wild animals. Many years ago, I was told by a very knowledgeable veterinarian (who was a boa breeder and very good with exotics of all kinds) that it is acceptable to feed captive snakes wild caught prey. He said that reptiles are not susceptible to mammal diseases. I once had a 16 1/2 foot albino female that was fed a wild caught rat or two when she was a juvenile. I was in college, and the local pet stores couldn't get big rats. She wasn't large enough to eat rabbits yet, so we set out some live traps and caught a couple of big rats in the basement of a nearby fraternity house. We killed the rats and fed them to her dead. She gobbled them right up. No parasites, no sickness, nothing. This wasn't a regular practice, but it worked when domestic rats weren't available.

I also have a 12-foot normal male Burmese that has eaten both rabbits and squirrels from the wild when he was smaller. These were roadkill animals that were in very good shape after their untimely introduction to four-wheeled vehicles. I guess it's been about 4 years since he's eaten anything from the wild, and he experienced no problems at all.

I posted about this maybe a year ago, and got flamed pretty hard for it. I don't make a habit of doing this, and I haven't fed a captive python a wild animal in about 4 years. I have a good supply of domestic rabbits, so it's not necessary.

If you decide to go this route, do not feed a snake anything that has been shot. Even a .22 that passes straight through the animal leaves traces of lead behind, and they'll even digest steel shot if you use a shotgun (so I've been told).

I've also heard of people using wild prey items to stimulate a feeding response in animals that are refusing food. Something about the "wild" smell/taste that is supposed to stimulate feeding.

However, I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this practice. I've done it out of necessity at different times in my herp career, and it's always worked out. If you go this route, proceed cautiously and realize there are risks involved.

RP