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Force feeding mix

SCReptiles

SCReptiles

Venomous keeper/breeder
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According to legend (of course he will not confirm) Bill Haast uses a force feeding mix of 1 part Fancy feast cat food, 1 part Gerber stage II turkey/gravy baby food. ½ teaspoon of Duravet, ½ tea spoon of reptical.

I have been using a variation mixing the baby food with the cat food, sometimes mixing in some potted meat and adding reptivite and t-rex bone aid (liquid calcium)

Two questions:

1. Discussed this with Harper at the SC show last month. He mentioned the cat food may have an ingredient that is harmful to snake kidneys. Any have any information on that?

2. It seems that t-rex has discontinued bone aid. I can not find it on the shelf. I only like to use liquid ingredients as the powders make it difficult to squeeze thru the tube. Wal-Mart is now carrying a liquid calcium product call “coral calcium.” It’s liquid calcium derived from ocean corals. Information on the product can be found at http://www.drinkables.com/vsflash/pgs/index.html Anyone see any ingredients that could harmful to snakes if used in a force feeding mix?
 
I believe that most cat food is really high in protein which could cause kidney damage if given over a long duration. A friend of mine used Science Diet A/D with success. This is a post surgical diet that is almost the consistancy of pudding.

To get some of my picky cribo hatchlings started I used a blended mix of pinkies, fish, egg yolk, nutrical and pedialyte.
I didn't add any calcium but this mix was only used short term until I could get them to accept fish scented unscented pinkies.
 
SCReptiles said:
According to legend (of course he will not confirm) Bill Haast uses a force feeding mix of 1 part Fancy feast cat food, 1 part Gerber stage II turkey/gravy baby food. ½ teaspoon of Duravet, ½ tea spoon of reptical.
Click to expand...

The mix I'd heard about from someone who used to work there a good many years ago involved dry dog food kibble soaked with water, blood from a slaughterhouse and ground up "reject" chicks from poultry farmers. Dog kibble formulations are too low in protein for this to be an effective diet for exclusive carnivores like snakes.

Mr. Haast's formulas should not be considered any kind of ideal. One of the more interesting long standing feuds in herp culture originated because Bill Haast managed to kill a huge colony of coral snakes in months with his assist feeding formula that a university had maintained successfully for many years on their more scientific prepared diet. Mr. Haast wouldn't switch and he lost the whole colony. He feeds all of his venom line snakes his home prepared diet, including snakes that would (and should) be eating on their own, and their lifespan on his venom line is not very long compared to other labs. None of the home prepared diets fully meets the nutritional needs of a snake in the long term, though most of them are reasonably fine for short term support through a period of inappetance.



1. Discussed this with Harper at the SC show last month. He mentioned the cat food may have an ingredient that is harmful to snake kidneys. Any have any information on that?
Click to expand...

Yeah. As per Doug Mader's lectures, the ingredient is purine, which is good for cats but potentially nephrotoxic in reptiles that already have some kidney challenges going on due to illness or debilitation. He does not recommend Scienc Diet A/D for that specific reason, and I no longer use A/D except as a single feeding bolus in well hydrated, non debilitated animals for that reason.


2. It seems that t-rex has discontinued bone aid. I can not find it on the shelf. I only like to use liquid ingredients as the powders make it difficult to squeeze thru the tube. Wal-Mart is now carrying a liquid calcium product call “coral calcium.” It’s liquid calcium derived from ocean corals. Information on the product can be found at http://www.drinkables.com/vsflash/pgs/index.html Anyone see any ingredients that could harmful to snakes if used in a force feeding mix?
Click to expand...

Naah, just potentially harmful to your wallet. Any of the calcium:magnesium powders will work fine if they have the optimal ratios.

For any kind of long term maintenance, I strongly prefer formulations that were veterinary made specifically for carnivorous reptiles. Mazuri Carnivorous Reptile Gel and the Walkabout Farms Enteral Carnivore Diet are tops in this regard, and can be used in the long term to maintain animals. Second best is to buy a dedicated blender and make your own slurry out of appropriate whole prey. Third best would be Gerber's meat baby food plus calcium, vitamins and minerals, possibly with some Jump Start or NutriCal in a dilute slurry with Pedialyte.

http://snakegetters.com/demo/assist-feed.html
 
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