Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Normally snakes don't need dietary supplements, but I don't always have complete food animals available, and I'm interested if anyone can shed any light on offering dietary supplements to snakes?

I read (but now cannot find) a post somewhere about feeding snakes gutted animals to reduce the chance of parasites, replacing missing nutrients from the organs with a supplemental capsule inside the body cavity.

I feed my Candoia bibroni bibroni (Fiji boas) with f/t house geckos, (I'm in Fiji and do not have access to "normal" feeder animals) but now they are getting bigger I'm having trouble getting enough, so am supplementing with frozen chicken wings and legs portions to supply extra muscle, skin and bones.

For 2 weeks I was totally out of geckos, so all they got was chicken. I've got geckos again now, but I'm wondering whether, if this happens again, I should supplement the chicken with something?

I have cat and dog vitamin tabs available, and could get a friend in the USA to buy something specific if anyone can suggest something suitable. All I have found on-line so far seems geared to insect-eating lizards.

Thanks for any help!
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Honestly, your best bet is to get larger feeder lizards. Come to think of it, if your snake will take a chicken limb, why wouldn't it take a whole prey item like a rodent?

As for dietary supplements, there are some things to consider. The first thing is to simplify. Realize that dietary imbalances take more than a meal or two to develope; they are chronic problems. So, if the snake is predominately eating lizards, but goes several meals with just chicken parts, then you have little to worry about. The second thing to consider, is that nutritional needs are like a million piece puzzle. We have enough of the picture in place to generalize about your snake's needs, but there is still a good 1/4million pieces to go, thus details are likely to be missed. We know that a whole vertebrate prey item has all the pieces contained withen; even if we don't know what they all are.

I hope this response gets you thinking. With the above in mind, consider, that if you still figure that supplementation is necessary, then choose a good multiple supplement. Prime for birds is considered pretty good; but even good old human multi-vitamins like Centrum will have much of what your snake needs. Whether it has it in the proper ratios, and amounts is another question. If you use such an item, I would grind it up and use it very sparingly to avoid overdosing any particular ingredient.

Good luck with your snake

Ian