if you're going to feed an Eastern frozen/thawed toads, freezing should kill any parasites, right? what about any pesticides the toad may have ingested from sprayed bugs? i apologize if this question has already been posted before, but if it has, i haven't seen anything about it. any help/info is appreciated. Kory, maybe you can shed some light on this.
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feeding question
greg woodie
Apr 18, 2005 06:11 PM
Replies (1)
Colchicine
Apr 18, 2005 06:42 PM
As one of the opponents to feeding toads to pet snakes, the bioaccumulation of environmental toxins has definitely been one of the strongest points to the argument. It is almost impossible to get away from man-made herbicides or pesticides. Atrazine is one of the most commonly used herbicides in this country. However it is found with ubiquity in the environment including rainwater, snow layers in the Arctic, and even human breast milk. Unfortunately it also has a strong link to prostate cancer and hermaphroditic mutations in frogs in extremely low concentrations. (On a sidenote, this chemical is banned in seven European countries, but last year the Bush administration decided to let the manufacturer to do its own monitoring for this chemical in our environment). So when you pick up a toad out of the wild to feed to your pet snake, not only do you do not know for sure if it has been exposed to and absorbed some of these chemicals, you absolutely have to assume that it has. Then you have to factor in the bioaccumulation of these toxins in animals as they move farther up the food chain, i.e. your snake.
As far as parasites, Dr. Klingenberg who has done some publications on parasites and reptiles claims that freezing for 30 days will eliminate most parasites. Nevertheless, since hognoses appeared to be quite susceptible to endoparasites, and particularly ones with direct lifecycles, I would encourage you to do a regular deworming (every six to 12 months) just to be sure since parasites can be introduced and any number of innocuous ways.
I hope this has helped Greg, and I hope to see you at the spring meeting!
http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/2005springmeeting.htm
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