Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For a wild caught specimen do you recommend keeping it on wild caught prey or switching it to f/t rodents?

Wild caught prey carry parasites. Also, insecticides and pesticides are a factor with wild caught prey. Just safer in my opinion.

No reason to keep it on WC prey unless the snake won't eat anything else (most dont care). Some people think feeding natural prey is "more natural," but the fact is that when a snake is taken out of its natural habitat, then nature's rules no longer apply. Try to get it on f/t mice.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: thekingofproduct
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Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

"Some things will never change. They just stand there looking backwards. Half-unconsious from the pain. They may seem rearranged. In the backwater swirling. There is something that'll never change-The Meat Puppets"

I'm with those two...also have you taken your snake to a doc to get the fecal done to see if there are any parasites in your snake? First off you don't want to possilby give these to any other snakes in your collection, and second i've heard that if you take a wc snake in captivity with parasites while it would be ok in the wild it wil kill it in captivity? i'm not sure on that one but I know you don'tw ant those in your other snakes. Remember, all CB snakes have a very weak immune system compared to that of a wild snake, for the simple reason they have very little need for one. You are keeping your snake in a nearly sterile environment.

But yeah, go to f/t. and order from www.bigcheeserodents.com - their mice cant be beat and their prices are a couple more cents per mouse but they dont rip you off on shipping like some places (which will remain nameless) do.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

Battling ignorance one stupid person at a time.

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat(Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds ("Bill" and "The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo" )

Any snakes I happen to capture I release right away.

It's true about the parasites possibly being fatal in captivity and not in the wild. The reason is the enclosed environment. In the wild when a snake sheds it also sheds it's external parasites and leaves them behind (to collect new ones, but still). In a tank they get in the substrate and such. The poor thing has no way to shake them unless it's keeper does it for them.

I own a couple of wild caught Solomon Island ground boas. The female was already feeding on f/t lab mice. She was the easy one so far as feeding goes - she's a terror to try to handle though. The male didn't acclimate to captivity as well in regards to feeding, though he's never bitten me (wish I could say the same of the female). I eventually had to force feed him after he went for a number of months without feeding and began to lose weight. I tried everything I could think of plus a number of things other keepers & breeders suggested to me to get this guy to feed for me...including wc froglets & toadlets as well as cb geckos & anoles.

What I eventually stumbled across that he would eat willingly is captive bred field mice. My mom had been given a trio of the little critters that'd been caught at work by a coworker 'to feed her daughter's snakes'. I don't usually feed my snakes live prey #1, and won't risk feeding them prey from an unknown source #2. Mom decided to keep them in a tank anyway since they were cute little guys and appeared healthy. Well, when you have multiple mice, odds are you've got both genders. They started breeding and I decided to offer a newborn live pinky to my SIGB - keep in mind that at this point I'd had the snake a year without him once feeding voluntarily. He immediately snatched up the field mouse pinky and sucked it down. Victory! Mom ended up developing a colony of captive field mice fed on a premium diet (a mixture of whole seeds, grains, fruits and veggies) just to keep this one snake in food he would eat. I've had him over two years now and JUST got him switched to f/t prey items...and he ate a couple of his very first lab mice in the past month - albeit grey ones, but it's a start!

So to sum it up, no I don't generally think wc prey is a good thing because of the possibilities of parasites or diseases. However I also believe there are exceptions to every rule, especially when dealing with certain species that are known to be difficult feeders. In my case, we kept the mice for several months before they bred and we were sure of their health by that point. I would never recommend anyone just catch something and feed it to an animal in their collection...but there are certain circumstances where I think there is some merit in trying wc prey items after all other options have been exausted.

Raven