I know whole prey items contain everything, but…I only use frozen thawed.
I wonder if there may be times something might be useful.
For example, i have some questions in some of the following scenarios-
- other times of stress
- Under calcified eggs for a particular female
- seriously extended fasts
- Only using frozen thawed and having to trust its not been frozen too long.
- medical treatment following illness
- old age
- -reduced immune system during breading for females
- rescues
- any other sub optimal situation
2 Likes
I wouldn’t mess with it unless it was under the guidance of a veterinarian.
This is the sort of thing that requires extensive trials… And usually entails very invasive testing to verify. Like constant blood sampling and biopsy from organs or bone marrow testing.
The only time I might do anything different in my care is in the case of females who have under calcified eggs and only choosing to eat mice over rats. And even then it would just be a light brush of calcium powder on the bottom or a couple drops of liquid calcium in a f/t rodent’s mouth
Any other time it would be with veterinary guidance only. Like your severely emaciated cases or actual diagnosis of some sort of malabsorption issue or organ damage.
It is absolutely possible to overdose on vitamins as well so they shouldn’t just be given willy nilly.
4 Likes
Thanks
But I do get vitaminosis etc, hence me stating ‘sometimes’, im not suggesting willy nilly.
You mention this needing extensive trials, have there been none?
Also alleged specialist vets have given me contradicting advice
2 Likes
In ball pythons? None that I’m aware of.
Regarding the studies…
I just know what happened with dog food when I was a kid. There have been many dogs specifically bred for food trials back years ago. They do the blood tests and some sampling which again can be invasive biopsies…and usually after a certain amount of time they would euthanize them to do full necropsies and study of the food’s effects on growth and live stages and such
Edit: adding spoiler tags cause not everyone wants to know this sorta thing
Edit edit: If you breed your own rodents to feed you want to use a rodent diet. Because then you would be hitting all the checkmarks they need to check the boxes the snake needs.
Some people were just buying cheap dog food for their own feeder rats and using that. So you can see issues with gout, liver or urinary issues is rats that ate it.
3 Likes
Frozen thawed shouldn’t be any different nutritionally than live
4 Likes
Only use vitamin/mineral supplementation strictly under Veterinarian direction for cases where the animal has been diagnosed with something where the supplementation is required. If you feel that your animal has any issue at all it needs to be seen by a Veterinarian specialized in that animal’s care before anything further is done.
This is excluding cases where you have to offer something like calcium carbonate (without D3) to a Bearded Dragon for example, at that point it is a basic care requirement.
The only time I ever use any form of supplementation for Ball Pythons or any snake outside of treating a health issue is after any of my breeding females lay eggs, especially if I notice the eggs are under calcified, thats when I add a light dusting of calcium carbonate to their food a for a few feedings until they get a little bit of weight back.
As for whole frozen-thawed prey items, as long as they are not kept for an extended period of time they have the same nutritional value as live prey. If you do not trust the freshness of frozen prey items then you should probably find a different provider… I would never buy frozen prey items from pet stores if thats any help, I’ve had too many bad experiences in that reguard to say anything positive about it.
Think about this, in terms of us people. As long as a person is eating a well rounded diet and have no diagnosed health issues, they shouldn’t really need any sort of supplements, that goes for snakes who eat whole prey that provides everything they need nutritionally until their next meal.
4 Likes