Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive been tube feeding some picky feeders turkey or chicken baby food but I want to add a supplement. Any good choices ? Im thinking some calcium etc...

Keith
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Stop by your local vet and ask for a can of Hills Prebscription Diet a/d. It is made for older dogs and cats and is a complete nutrition for snakes. It is even healthier for baby snakes than pinky mice since it is lower in fat. I mix it with water to a gravy like consistency and divide it into three baby food jars so I can freeze what I am not using. I use a ball tip crop needle for feeding. I have even raised stubborn pyros and greeri to adulthood on the stuff and had them breed. Even though they refused mice they came to know the needle and eagerly opened their mouths for feeding when I grabbed their heads. Sometimes I had to hold them back from swallowing the syringe, lol.

Cool thanks for the info. Im a little scared now that I hear you raised babies to adults tube feeding ! lol I hope mine switch over but being Eastern Kings Im sure they will. Again thanks.

Keith
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I could have probably switched themover earlier (which I eventually did) but, for my own research (I wanted to see just how good the canned food really was nutritionally) I let things go much longer than I normally would have. And I gotta say, I was pretty darned impressed! Nowdays I keep canned food for half starved rattlesnakes held too long by others and then turned over to me but I rarely use it for baby kings. I decided to get rather hardcore and go natural.And it worked for the better. My baby snakes (whether kings or crotes) that don't eat within a month of being hatched or born go straight into a four month hibernation. They always eat when they come outin the spring. The key is not to feed them before putting them in. I have found that prior to their first meal a baby snakes metabolism is ZERO. Once they get that first meal in their system, the metabolism kicks in and they start burning calories. I guess it's natures way of taking care of late in the year offspring.

Great info Richard thanks.

Keith
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also from the vet.

Now if someone could post a good source for plastic feeding tubes. This stuff is a bit granular and the plastic tubes I can get are to snall. Anyone know of where I can get the right size tubes to attach to the syringe?

Good post. That is pretty interesting. Must be a pretty balanced mixture to allow the pyros to grow to be reproductive adults without getting any deficiencies allong the way. Thanks.

Will

Keith have you tried mouse or rat tails? I have used this method on stubborn feeders with great success. The trick is to only put it in a little and let the snake swallow on its own. If they refuse and try to spit it out force it down a little more and try again. The first few times some fight it all the way but they eventually feed on their own. The draw back is they usually seem to take the first few pinks on their own butt first.LOL
Later Jason

Yeah Ive tried that method. When I used it on some Coastal Plains Milks I had a few years ago it worked great but it didnt work at all for my NJ Easterns and it aint workin for the DC's either. These northern type Easterns are way more fussy eaters than the southern ranging Easterns. Once they get going though they are as ravenous as any other Eastern.

Keith
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I've added Nekton Rep and crushed Centrum vitamins into my tube feeding mix before to boost the vitamin/mineral content of the meal. It seemed to work just fine. I always just mix a very small amount because both preparations are pretty potent and could probably screw-up the animal if overdosed.

On a related note, that NC eastern is feeding on small thawed pinkies finally. Thank goodness, as that little SOB would be murder to assist feed. The DC baby is still waiting me out though. Later bud.

Will