Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

A friend of mine is attending massage school and the topic of snakes/mandibles and disclocation of their jaws came up, which led to the following point:

The massage instructor (who can't stand snakes) stated those that are routinely fed frozen food that has been thawed become conditioned to no longer associate feeding with warm prey. Another words, feeding a snake room temperature prey de-conditions them for the feeding response of live, fresh prey.

I always thought the main response is to smell, then via heat.
I told her I'd mention it to the "experts" tonight, thus this posting.

Robert

Well, i've never had much luck feeding a room temperature prey item to a burm. Thawing should be done as rapidly as possible to minimize decomposition before consumption. it would take a long time to thaw a 5 pound rabbit at room temp. I start out with hot water and let them sit in it for a while. i usually reheat the water a couple times and then make sure it's good and hot about 30 minutes before i feed. that way it's nice and warm at feeding time. I use heat lamps on rats if necessary, but water in the bathtub usually works for everything. 90F is optimal.

I doubt that you could condition a hungry burm to NOT eat live or warm prey.

I dont think feeding a snake a room temperature takes away the animal's feeding response. I still think they will happily chomp down on your arm, or anything that moved and smelled like rodent, warm or not. At least, mine do, and I feed them food just slightly warmer than room temperature.
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Randilyn -;,-
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