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Feeding Roadkill To Your Snake

Would You Feed Roadkill To Your Snake

  • YES - It's free food

    Votes: 1 3.0%

  • NO - That's disgusting

    Votes: 31 93.9%

  • MAYBE - It depends on the kind of roadkill

    Votes: 1 3.0%
  • Total voters
    33
SPJ

SPJ

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I saw on another board that some people think feeding roadkill is OK as long as it hasn't started to decompose yet.
I think it's just about one of the worst things you could do but my opinion seems to be the minority.
So I want to see if I really am the only one who thinks this is wrong.
 
I guess I see it the same as feeding your animals wc mice or rats. You don't know what parasites you may be getting with these things. Why take the chance?
Mark
 
Absolutely not worth the risk..... hell, I would never even consider it. Who would think up such a thing! LOL
 
I would NEVER feed roadkill to any of my critters.....like Mark said, you never know what kind of parasites or disease they may be harboring....and besides, it's REALLY gross, lol!
 
It's not the parasites and bacterias that I would be worrying over, it's the possibility of poisoning.

Why is that road killed critter dead on the road? Was it slowed by someone having poisoned it?

Of course here where I live the main roadkill is squirrel, cat and dog. None of them are really suitable for what I keep.

I still never have though and wouldn't start now.
 
That certainly says a lot about the other board. When I am out herping we run over mice all night long. I have never even thought about using them, they are best left for the wild animals that love prekilled food. Can you imagine a piece of road tar or gravel in your reptile?
 
A unique way to get rid of ex husbands one has disposed of, though....... :rofl:
 
OK. To ad another dimension to this.

The animal is WC and the prey was just recently killed (maybe by a car but the exact way is not known).

I still don't think I could do it even if the animal is recently WC and the roadkill was still warm.

Too many unknowns to take a chance IMO.
 
Wilomn said:
It's not the parasites and bacterias that I would be worrying over, it's the possibility of poisoning.

Why is that road killed critter dead on the road? Was it slowed by someone having poisoned it?
Click to expand...

Anti-freeze posioning. Dogs and cats just love to lap that stuff up.
 
SPJ said:
OK. To ad another dimension to this.

The animal is WC and the prey was just recently killed (maybe by a car but the exact way is not known).

I still don't think I could do it even if the animal is recently WC and the roadkill was still warm.

Too many unknowns to take a chance IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree Steve. Aside from the potential of exposing your animal to zoonoses and Wes mentioned a good point about poisioning, if you can not afford to buy feeders to feed your reptiles and have to resort to scoping out the highways for "roadkill" then you have no business owning any animals ...IMO
 
Taking in known WC can be just as dangerous to your collection as it is.
 
Just the thought of scraping it up off the ground is enough to make me avoid it.
 
Wow I could be wrong but I think this is the first poll where 14 people (so far) agree. Is this a record or what?

I don't think roadkill is wasted on the road. There are plenty of scavengers who'll take care of it. It doesn't "need" to go to your pet so as not to waste it. That was the reason the person listed as to why he picked up the rabbit to feed to his snake. He said he didn't want it to be wasted.
 
Ahhh. You saw the thread huh?

I posted on there that I would like to see the people who don't find anything wrong with this to feed a recently dead rat they found on the road to a lucy BP.

I think the opinion would change if you were talking about feeding a $100K snake vs a WC Afrock.

It looks like everyone here is in agreement that it isn't a good idea but myself and 1 other person were the only 2 to post it wasn't a good idea on the that thread.
 
Karen Hulvey said:
Wow I could be wrong but I think this is the first poll where 14 people (so far) agree. Is this a record or what?

I don't think roadkill is wasted on the road. There are plenty of scavengers who'll take care of it. It doesn't "need" to go to your pet so as not to waste it. That was the reason the person listed as to why he picked up the rabbit to feed to his snake. He said he didn't want it to be wasted.
Click to expand...

A Rabbit? In some parts of the country, thats a good way to bring home the possibility of plague. Just takes one flea bite.

I wouldn't even dream of it myself. And never entered my mind until I read this thread. Hard to believe people actually think of that sort of thing.

16 now :)

Ciao
Rick
 
LOL, I think you may be right Karen, and we're up to 16 people agreeing on here! : )

I never even thought of the poisoning aspect....I just don't know why anyone would take that chance on their herps.

The vast majority of roadkill around these parts is either possum, raccoon, or deer....and between crows and coyotes, it never "goes to waste".

My mom, who lives in Arkansas (that says a lot, hehehe) knows a guy that lives in town. Every morning, he leaves for work about an hour early, and stops along the road on his way, marking each roadkill with orange spray paint. Then on his way home from work, he picks up any dead animals along the way that don't have an orange mark on them, because he knows then that they are "fresh".....and HE eats them.

EW EW EW.
 
SPJ said:
I think the opinion would change if you were talking about feeding a $100K snake vs a WC Afrock.
Click to expand...
I understand your point, but I would much rather have the rock.

That said, I have never fed roadkill to any of my critters. I have, however, fed chipmunks and rabbits that were shot by a friend of mine (garden invaders). The animals were frozen for a few months prior to use. I suppose it bears stating that the chipmunks went to my water monitor. The rabbits went to (if I remember correctly) my 17+ ft retic and 15+ ft rock. For the record, that water monitor and rock python were among my 5 favorite animals at the time.
 
SPJ said:
OK. To ad another dimension to this.

The animal is WC and the prey was just recently killed (maybe by a car but the exact way is not known).

I still don't think I could do it even if the animal is recently WC and the roadkill was still warm.

Too many unknowns to take a chance IMO.
Click to expand...

:rofl: Oh my...where I live, I have watched people stop when they see a deer that has been recently hit, and toss it into the back of their pickup trucks!!!!!!!

I once hit a deer at a relatively slow speed, knocked it's hindquarters out from under it (I could not avoid hitting it totally), it slid across two lanes and into the gully where it quickly got up and took off. I know, because I stopped to see if I had injured it to the point that I would need to call the sheriff to euthanize it. A guy who was coming the other way stopped. Gets out of his car wearing cammo and a buck knife in hand (this was creepy) asked me if I saw which way it went!!!! One always hears all the stories about oklahoma...shoot, California is WORSE!!! :rofl:
 
I've seen people as Kelly says. In fact there are recipe books on how to recognize if it's safe and how to "prepare" road kill. A good friend of mine used to feed road kill to his ophiophagus snakes. Once I asked him if he was not concerned about parasites. He replied he never fed them "as is", and that they will all go through a deep freeze period first which, according to him, should kill everything. Anyways, having a large colony of ball pythons myself it's kind of difficult to find road-killed mice still in good shape, they once I can still recognize would probably have to delivered in an envelope ;) !
 
Anyways, having a large colony of ball pythons myself it's kind of difficult to find road-killed mice still in good shape, they once I can still recognize would probably have to delivered in an envelope
Click to expand...

Should have read:

Anyways, having a large colony of ball pythons myself it's kind of difficult to find road-killed mice still in good shape, the ones I can still recognize would probably have to be delivered in an envelope.

Wouldn't it be nice if we learned to edit before we hit submit? ;)
 
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