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Old 08-05-2018, 09:42 PM   #1
Helenthereef
Vitamin supplements and forcefeeding snakes

I recently had to force feed a snake over a long period of time. I live in an area very remote from veterinary support and supplies, so I had to improvise while these tools and supplements got to me, and I found it difficult to get information on the specific levels of vitamins to aim for, so I thought it was worth putting up a thread with the basic nutritional information I eventually found, in order to make a quick reference for anyone in a similar situation.

In further posts I'll add a few personal experiences in force and assist feeding, and if anyone else has hints or tips to add, please feel free to do so.

I emphasis that I only post this for those who are, as I was, unable to get veterinary support. It is MUCH better to get professional help than to flail about like the amateur I am....

I used beaten egg as the main food source, administered with a 50 ml medical syringe and an old tube from an oxygen mask. It was a struggle to get this tube down, and the syringe was not a smooth delivery system, so the experience was stressful for both me and the snake, but we managed it about once a week.

Here's the nutritional breakdown of a standard egg:
Protein ... 6 gm
Fat ... 5 gm
Carbohydrate ... very little
Vitamin A ... 64 mcg
Vitamin B2 ... 0.25 mg (Riboflavin)
Vitamin B12 ... 1.4 mcg
Vitamin D ... 1.6 mcg
Biotin ... 10 mcg
Choline ... 144 mg
Folate ... 2.4 mcg
Pantothenic Acid ... 0.7 mg
Small amounts of Selenium, Iron, Calcium, Potassium, Zinc, Manganese, Vitamin E

After a few weeks, when he still was not feeding voluntarily, I began supplementing the beaten egg with liquid vitamin drops meant for use in new born human babies to 1 year old toddlers. As I had no idea what the correct doseage for reptiles might be, I was very conservative with the baby vitamin drops. I gave 1/2 of the baby, or about 1/5th of the toddler dose to a 2.5 kg snake. While this kept my snake alive, he wasn't thriving.

In the meantime I had ordered specific reptile supplements and feeding tubes and they were wending their very slow way to me. Once I got the reptile supplement I was really surprised to find out that the human infant supplements were over 100 times weaker than the reptile ones, so I had been severely underdosing him.


I used Fluker's Liquid Vitamins for all reptiles. https://flukerfarms.com/flukers-liquid-vitamin/

Their recommended dose is 2 drops per 50 gm of body weight of your reptile.

According to the supplement formula, the vitamins per kg (2.2 pounds) of your reptile's body weight (which would be found in 40 drops or 2 ml of the supplement) works out as:

Vitamin A. . . 913,240 IU
Vitamin D3. . . 73,060 IU
Vitamin B1. . . 548 mg
Vitamin B2. . . 785 mg
Vitamin B6. . . 182 mg
Vitamin C. . . 9130 mg
Nicotinamide (Vit B3). . . 3652 mg

My snake was 2,500 gm, so he needed 100 drops, or 5 ml of the supplement:
(2,500 gm / 50 gm = 50 doses, or 100 drops;
20 drops = 1 ml, so 100 drops = 5 ml;
so 1 gave him 2.5 x the amount of vitamins stated above)

I added my 5 mls of vitamin supplement, and 2.5 ml of Flukers liquid calcium supplement https://flukerfarms.com/flukers-liquid-calcium/
to one beaten egg and a little water and whisked it all up.

I delivered this through a #12 feeding syringe and tube bought from the Bean Farm:
https://beanfarm.com/collections/foo...nt=24905361993
This was MUCH easier to get down the snake than the oxygen tube had been, although I needed to add a little more water to my egg mix to make it thinner.


My overall message is, try HARD to get the proper supplements and feeding tools, but if, for some reason, these are not available, beaten egg makes a reasonable food base for a snake in the short term.

If you need to force feed over a longer period of time, you'd need to add vitamin supplements, and it would be by FAR the best thing to try and get proper reptile ones. If you only have human vitamin drops, do not be afraid to use lots of them. I had been adding 0.25 - 0.5 mls of baby/ toddler vitamins, and it should have been at least 5 - 10 mls to be anywhere near the levels in the Flukers Liquid Vitamins.