Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been curious for some time to know if it would be a good idea to dust mice or rats before you feed a snake with vitamins. I am not talking about every feeding but maybe once every 2-4 weeks, take the mouse/rat and roll it in dust and feed it to the snake. I know they get most of their Vitamins from the rodents and their bones but every other reptile requires vitamin sups. Monitors feed on rodents and get a lot of their calcium and vitamins from their food but people still give them dust. Just wondering if anyone has tried to raise two balls up (one on dust and one not on dust) and see the difference in the growth rates. I know too much of some vitamins can be fatal but all other reptiles in the pet trade seem to use a dust of some type for extra boosts in growth and immunities. Just curious. Thanks

Joe

I would look into a little history on the Diamond pythons if your interested in this. I'm not a big Diamond python keeper or anything, so this info might be a little off, but here's the gist of what I recall about them. It seems that they would reach around 5 years of age and develop tremors. As memory serves, they termed this "DPS" Diamond python syndrome. I believe they started dusting food items with calcium possibly other vitamins as well, and began a more serious winter cycling. This was also a reason they crossed diamonds with regular carpets to keep what they could of the bloodline since they feared the diamonds in captivity would eventually succumb to "DPS". So, maybe if you look into it, you might find some info that interests you. Again, what I just typed might be WAY OFF, it's been a long time since I read anything on diamond pythons, that's why I suggest you look into this, if it interests you. As far as judging the affect by comparing sibling growth rates, I have siblings that are kept in identical conditions and have extremely variable growth rates, so without more detailed research, that would produce limited proof of pos./neg. affects. Hope this gets you headed in the right direction, take care

Paul

Just to hit the obvious answers, as I personally have not studied this:

I would be afraid that the very slow metabolism of these snakes would increase the risk of vitamin toxicity.

"coating" rodents in these vitamins will affect their smell, which may turn off already picky eaters. Maybe injecting into frozen/thawed might work.

good gut-loading should work better, I would think, as the vitamins are already partially synthesized bythe feeder, therefore probably more accessible to the snake's digestion which is probably geared to what it can get from a live prey item, rather than raw forms of the vitamins. again, don't know, just guessing

finally, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

nate.