Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Would any type of snakes eat squirrel meat? (If it were frozen for a month or so to kill parasites, etc.)
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AIM sn: z10silver

.......really.....it's not a whole meal....unless you use the whole squirrel..........and balls aren't usually that big....and yes..I have BIG ones.......

cook it..eat it....soup.....fried...whatever....

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I didn't mean the whole thing at once, I meant if it were cut into pieces small enough for a snake.

-Zach
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AIM sn: z10silver

like I said...NOT a whole complete meal.not a whole animal...meat is not as good as a whole animal....

3 little fuzzy rats is better than one BIG rat for example....

......now go eat squirrel potpie
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YOU chew the meat and would feel a BB (pellet)

balls wouldn't and would swallow them..

use a gun?...use lead shells?....lead poison and brain damage...?

steel shot would help...but then you could break a tooth more easily...

sux......$$$$$$$$$
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Sure wouldn't want any brain damaged snakes, they might not be able to do calculus anymore. Seriously though, I wonder if their stomach acids would be powerful enough to be able to digest enough lead from a pellet to be harmful? Or would it pass through pretty much intact?

Mark

>>YOU chew the meat and would feel a BB (pellet)
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>>balls wouldn't and would swallow them..
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>>use a gun?...use lead shells?....lead poison and brain damage...?
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>>steel shot would help...but then you could break a tooth more easily...
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>>sux......$$$$$$$$$
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HOW the HECK would you ever get a Ball Python to even accept cut up meat as food? They eat whole animals, they wouldn't recognize squirrel chunks as food.

Tooo funny.

they may take it....IF they accept squirrel as food item....whole or part.....

part of a rat would probably be taken..it smells like a rat.....

....example...snakes here that eat only peromyscus or hamsters let's say....I use regular mouse and with as little as a drop of blood sometimes ....the snake will accept the wrong food item...

*(same affect....blood or fecal smell on you hand while opening cage...ouch)......

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another example......baby eastern milksnakes....pinks are too big at time...I cut them up already into a pinky hamburger...placed onto a little lid....they'll eat up the ground meat......*(used scissors)....

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do you eat squirrel pot-pie?..........

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some of my balls are so specific in their food preferences that they probably would run from a squirrel......some run from mice....and or rats.........
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I've seen pythons eat raw chicken legs, so I don't know, they might accept it given the right circumstances. Question is, why would you want to? Can't afford the feeding maintenance of a ball python, you probably can't afford a ball python. Also, I think they've quit using lead in shotgun shells due to humaniacs freaking out about lead poisoning....but, I think the animals would die from the gunshot before the poisoning, what do you think? Back to the squirrels...I saw a TV show a long time ago, and there was a guy that collected road kill squirrels to feed his rattlesnakes. I wonder if the snakes digested the pea gravel and tread marks alright? I guess if you try it, just don't hold the snake when he defecates or you might get shot in the head with a stray pellet! Wear safety glasses!! LOL, See ya!

lead is still used for shot and rifle shells....

lead is not allowed for waterfowl hunting or hunting near certain bodies of water....

due to the fact that if a blind or spot is hunted over heavily...year after year especially...hundreds even tens of thousands of lead pellets drop into the same spots...

then waterfowl feeding by sifting the bottom for food will sift out the lead shots thinking them to be seeds and as a result have alot of lead in their crop.....

pellets in a crop stay there for days and more...acting to grind food like stones and grit......where they put off alot of lead into birds system.......resulting in lead poisoning......

lead poisoning symptoms are acting lethargic...stupid..and then greenish defecates.....

so if you see a groggy dumb looking drunken goose running around the river with a green butt hole..it's not from drinking too much ...it's from eating lead...

as for dying from BB's in the flesh as compared to death from being shot..alot of birds are shot and have pellets stuck into various parts of them...and live......have shot ducks with three types /sizes of pellets in the flesh..........

as for roadkills...yea....friend tells of stories of a man using roadkill woodchucks and stuff...then complaining about captive rats when his animals died......duh.......

have fun...drink lead free gas mixed drinks..........and make squirrel soup while feeding the rats you bought to the snakes............
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well......they can digest bones......

they are SLOW digeters....so the pellet may rest in their gut for up to like? a month until it passes.......

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......you don't like squirrel pot-pie do you.......?
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.......LOL
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Why not feed possum ? you dont have to shoot them just run them down with your car.

I don't understand the sarcastic remarks...sorry if I offended anyone? I asked the post in seriousness as a friend of mine hunts squirrels in his backyard with a pellet gun. I just wanted to see if I could put them to use. I wouldn't use the part that had the pellet in it. Thanks to those who responded seriously.

-Zach
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AIM sn: z10silver

Seriously, just buy rodents. Also, if you have a squirrel season in your state, you could get in trouble killing them out of season. I know a guy that got a visit from DNR for shooting rabbits in his garden with a pellet gun...WHY? Because it wasn't rabbit season! His neighbors turned him in. Oh yeah, whatever you do, never shoot a pig out of season, they always squeal!!! LOL, that one was a joke-get it? See ya

Sorry for the remark,I know it was a legitimate question,I was enjoying all of the responses,and some times take for granted my time and experiance in this.The squirrel meat wont hurt the snake if it will eat it but can not stay on a steady diet of it because snakes eat whole prey items and get the nutrients from bones stomach content and roughage to aid in the digestion process,When a snake eats a rodent,he gets all of the seeds grasses insects and other things the rodent has eaten.Terry

I know I am not being sarcastic at all..this has been all real info for you......

....eat them....

oh...hunts in his yard..by the way....pellet guns for squirrel is probably illegal.......

they are probably hunted out of season......

and they are hunted in a safety zone....

....have fun........eat chicken....
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because they stink and the only thing that eats them is owls,crows,and maybe hawks ???......oh...and real rednecks....*(no.I won't eat them)......

opossum may have the cure/ for rabies preventative.....they can not get it.....
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>>because they stink and the only thing that eats them is owls,crows,and maybe hawks ???......oh...and real rednecks....*(no.I won't eat them)......
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>>opossum may have the cure/ for rabies preventative.....they can not get it.....
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The larger hawks & owls are certainly capable of taking a squirrel down. Owls are not as common for this as hawks due to night (owl) / day (squirrel) timing. A large owl such as great horned owl - now those are useful for reducing the feral cat populations should you get one to move into your neighborhood ... also GHO's can take down small to medium sized skunks.

We regularly feed squirrels to our bald eagle at work. He prefers them over domestic rats - won't touch rats usually. We typically supplement his diet with fresh roadkill (squirrels, rabbits, possums, snakes, etc.) rather than pellet killed wild animals because unless you trust the person with the gun to be using lead free pellets (& not hunting out of season) - you wind up killing the bird due to lead poisoning. It doesn't take much lead at all in a bird's system to kill them.

As for stinks - squirrels don't stink. What stinks is dead fish - especially when an eagle likes his fish to occasionally have been sitting out for a day or so rotting before tearing into it (winter is not so bad, but summer - hold your breath lol).

And no, possums won't have the cure for rabies. They CAN actually contract it, rare, but still possible. The thing with possums - their internal body temperature tends to be *just* low enough to not be hospitable for the virus so it can't take hold before the virus succumbs. Humans and most other mammals - internal body temp is higher and well loved by the virus.
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PHWyvern

>>Would any type of snakes eat squirrel meat? (If it were frozen for a month or so to kill parasites, etc.)
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larger snakes like burmese pythons, boa constrictors (6 feet and bigger) certainly could take them as a whole prey pre-killed item. However, freezing the body for a month doesn't do all that much for killing off all parasites.

My primary concern of using squirrels as a possible food item for a snake housed in a domestic setting (indoors not outside) is the fact that squirrels are prone to mange - which can infect humans and other mammals. I would not want to leave dead squirrels in a snake cage for mange mites to get into the rest of the house.
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PHWyvern

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