My dog gets a home cooked food for vet reasons. Had some chicken hearts on the side after getting her food situated and decided to try them out with the SD Retics.
Chicken hearts are on the list as top snack for the moment… Definitely excited by them.
Anyone else have snack size suggestions?
Or any general feeding advice?
Thinking of picking up chicks for a meal in the future for sure now. Might try some other type of mammal with the female since she needs a bit more weight on her. They were both a bit on the skinny side when I got them.
I breed rats at home for my BPs so that’s the majority of what I’ve been giving them. A medium leaves a good belly bulge and I’m trying to find the right schedule for them now that I’ve got them settled and such. I’ve heard anywhere from every 14 days to once a month for their age. (7 years and around 8 ft)
They’re always giving me puppy dog eyes. But I also don’t want my first ones to be fatty Retics. Lol.
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I’ve thought about getting organic sausage casings and just stuffing them with chicken hearts to feed my mainland. I try to feed unconventional things to any of the non-breeder snakes that it makes sense to do it with. Mine wouldn’t take it, but one of my friends retics will eat trout even.
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I debated on giving the female one of the extra chicken thighs I had. I had some leftover chicken liver as well but I really didn’t want to deal with the potential mess. Maybe if I try something similar with sausage casings that would be something different to try. Grind up a nice mix of the leftovers 
I never thought about fish. Lol. Maybe because I was stuck on the semi-arboreal aspect. That would be an interesting experiment one day.
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What fun! My own snakes can be a little finicky about eating so I haven’t tried to give them variety, but having snakes you can offer stuff to must be cool! This is just what I’ve seen or heard other keepers offer for variety:
Quail or hen chicks of the right size would make a good supplemental treat, as might thawed raw supermarket frog legs you can get at some Asian markets.
I’ve heard a guy (Richard Bilbo who keeps a lot of colubrids) say he gives his Eastern Indigos segments of raw turkey neck sometimes, which makes sense since that’s kinda sausagey shaped and would be another bit of variety.
If you contact anyone who breeds rabbits, otherwise healthy stillborns and the ones who don’t make it can happen and they might be willing to sell you those at a low price or free. I’ve heard of snake keepers giving their animals those.
And of course there’s African Soft Furs, which some snake suppliers sell.
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We eat a lot of fish but my friend and I go out sometimes just to stock the freezer for his anaconda. He feeds it primarily fish we catch and freeze for several months. We were messing around in his exhibit room feeding the anaconda and tried trout on his retics and one ate it with no hesitation.
I feed my mainland in a bowl like a lot of people feed indigos. I just put a few large rats, or a couple small chickens in the bowl and he gets to it. The bowl is a shoebox tub and I leave it in the cage. He lays on top of it when he wants to bug me for more food lol.
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That’s adorable… Definitely better than trying to hand or tong feed so much tiny stuff too.
ADHD SIDEBAR: Trout? That’s so awesome! A lot of apex predators are picky eaters, but retics are such fabulous opportunists, like this deadly combo of a coyote and a Bengal tiger!
As someone who also keeps koi, big cichlids, and tropical fish, I know the nutrition that goes into fish - and nutritionally, snakes truly are what they eat. My only thought for your friend is to make sure that fish is only occasionally on the menue and avoid any species with high levels of thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys thiamine (B1).
Even fish-eating snakes like Nerodia that eat fish with high thiaminase levels (like koi and goldfish) can develop neurological issues due to B1 deficiencies. My garters, ribbons, and Nerodia have all safely eaten bass, bluegill, crappie, perch, walleye, salmon, flounder, halibut, catfish, cod, haddock, trout and tilapia, as well as silver side minnows as neonates.
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Can’t ya just supplement the b vitamins
You can, but you also don’t want to over supplement as well. While alot of it is excreted there can still be dangers for too much as well. And it can be difficult to tell because the OD of B vitamins can cause neurological issues as well.
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Sorry I never saw this. We both breed garters so we’re well aware of the thiaminase list (garters.org has a comprehensive list). All the available char species are safe for consumption. Pretty much any fish humans commonly eat as an entree is safe.
His Anacondas have eaten primarily trout with occasional rabbits for 4-5 years now. His water monitor also eats a fair amount of it. My retic ate it once (scented with chicken feathers) and never again after that lol.
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