Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this to the Feeder Food forum the other day, but haven't received any replies and thought, since the snake I'm feeding to is a Texas rat, that I'd ask for opinions on this group as well.

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I've read differing opinions on whether pinkies should be dusted with a calcium supplement before feeding them to snakes. When I ran across http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/zoo/WholePreyFinal02May29.pdf today, I thought it might clear up the issue of whether pinkies are low in calcium or not. Unfortunately, Table 3 and Table 6 differ greatly in the Ca level of neonatal mice. The first table indicates they have about 40% of the calcium in adult mice on a dry matter basis. The second indicates they have 134% of the calcium of adult mice.

Given that the data seems to be unclear, is there any general consensus on the issue?

deg

I suspect that you didn't get response because of the scientific approach. I have no idea how much calcium is on a baby vs adult mouse. Perhaps the real point is not the gross amount of calcium but whether a pinkie provides the amount of calcium a baby snake needs for proper growth and development. Although some folks probably supplement calcium, I don't know of any and I haven't read articles that advocate it. In the wild, a baby Rat Snake will eat prey that is appropriate to its own size and they seem to thrive.

Well, I guess the fact that most don't seem to supplement calcium is pretty good evidence that baby snakes can be raised without it. Here's a link to one article that mentions that a calcium supplement "might" be needed when feeding only pinkies - http://www.exoticpetvet.net/reptile/snake.html It seems fairly common to supplement calcium when feeding pinkies to lizards. It's likely that the calcium level of pinkies varies depending on the nutrition of the mother mouse, so perhaps it's not an issue with high quality pinkies.

deg

a friend of mine....Goerge Miskimon has used it in the past and it lead to the death to a number of individual snakes.....they actually filled up with calcium deposits and one even bit itself to a painful looking death

it started with some egg shells that looked a little thin.....the supplement was added and the thickness improved the following year.....but after a few years...there were visible deposits and after haveing the snake checked out by a vet after death....this was deemed the cause.....i believe there might be a study being done on this as we speak

snakes get plenty of calcium in their diet as long as they get high quality mice....lizards im not familiar with....

just some food for thought

keith

one of georges creations

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I'm not sure I want popular opinion on my side -- I've noticed those with the most opinions often have the fewest facts.