Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Out of curiosity.....Has this been done? Seems like it would make sense in the lower states.

I know if I lived in LA I would look for cheap young nutria for my bullsnakes.

This brings back a fond memory. In 1996 in Southwestern Michigan my friend and I (visiting from California) were driving on a county road through corn fields, and we saw what to me looked like a giant gopher way up in a tree. We stopped and my friend, a Michigan native, recognized it as a full grown nutria. We popped it out of the tree with our .22 and took it home and dressed it out and roasted it in the oven. It was really good! It was full of corn from the fields. I suppose smaller ones would make good snake food. The same corn fields were full of black rat snakes.

That's what I was thinking. They are rodents and would have the same relative nutritional value as any other.

That sounds like it would be tasty if it had been eating corn haha. I'm sure the ratsnakes would appreciate finding some nutria pinks.

Considering they are so abundant in Louisiana; I would think that someone would use them as feeders. The adults seem like they would great for the larger constrictors as well.

Nutria
The rules say one must prevent birds from eating the carcasses (maybe if the nutria were poisoned as a means of harvesting them), as all the State wants is the tails. So I see no reason one could not harvest these pest animals for their snakes, sans the use of poisons.
Nutria and Trade
One could freeze and sell the nutria. Traps would have to be used and no poisons could be used.

Wouldn't you worry about diseases or parasites that these nutria may have? Just a thought...
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Teresa
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3.0 Dogs (2.0 Chihuahuas, 1.0 Toy Poodle)
1.5 Cats
1.0 Cockatiel
1.0 Indonesian Blue tongue skink

Ball Pythons
0.1 100% Het Albino (Watsini)
1.0 Pastel (Sweets)
0.1 Spider (Daisy)

That is something I did overlook! Since one cannot bake the nutria before feeding it to one's snakes, like one can do for human consumption, parasites might be a problem. Nutria just eat vegetable matter exclusively, but then so do wild rabbits, and those seem always to have tapeworms.