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Golden Serpent 2000 (Inquiry)

Jewel,
You might want to ring the front desk & have them bring you a pillow. Scratch that, since your in the lobby just yell over to them for one.While your at see if they have any vitamins that restore memory. Going to be a long night
 
Couple comments, none of which are meant to reflect personally on the individuals on this thread since I do not know them.

I have seen snakes directly out of the wild refuse dead food but attempt to swallow live prey. If I had not intervened in a few of these cases, the snake might have been injured. I have no difficulty believing an injury to the throat caused by a live prey item, though more often I have seen injuries to the mouth or the eye in this scenario.

There have also been cases of dead prey items causing internal injury due to protruding bones or teeth. One king cobra was torn up rather badly because a dead snake was swallowed starting with the lower jaw only in a way that left teeth exposed.

Treating an abscess in a snake with Baytril alone is not generally considered a smart move. Abscesses in reptiles do not tend to spontaneously drain or heal without surgical debridement. The inspissated or caseated material inside them is likely to be full of bacteria and will be a source of continuing problems if it is not physically removed. A systemic antibiotic is also a good thing in these cases, but it is not enough. If the snake was only given Baytril without debriedment of the abscess, its death is not a great surprise.
 
Tanith,

There have also been cases of dead prey items causing internal injury due to protruding bones or teeth. One king cobra was torn up rather badly because a dead snake was swallowed starting with the lower jaw only in a way that left teeth exposed.
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Good point! That I can see happening.

Regards.
:)
 
My snake eaters get headless dead snakes to avoid this circumstance. The heads are saved in the freezer. When I have enough of them, they go into the blender with a can of cat food or Mazuri gel to be turned into a snake smelling paste that gets smeared onto dead rats before they are wrapped in shed snake skin. King cobras will actually eat these "sandwiches".

And no, I don't make any margaritas in that blender. :D
 
Tanith,

What has worked best for me is IAMS kitten food (canned; the one with the purple label). If you check a mouse carcass composition on a dry basis it's almost identical to that feed. Not only that but it is way cheaper than feeder mice and no parasites! What else can one ask for!

Regards.
 
alvaro said:
What has worked best for me is IAMS kitten food (canned; the one with the purple label). If you check a mouse carcass composition on a dry basis it's almost identical to that feed. Not only that but it is way cheaper than feeder mice and no parasites! What else can one ask for!
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A lot of cat food looks great for carnivorous reptiles nutritionally, at least at first glance, but try to look a little closer. Certainly it is a better choice than dog food, but there are several products out there that are specifically formulated to meet reptilian nutritional needs. I would strongly recommend using these if whole food is not an option.

An anorectic (non feeding) reptile is already catabolic, with a negative nitrogen balance and high levels of uric acid. This can lead to all sorts of undesirable health consequences. Some cat foods are purine based. Purine degrades to uric acid, which puts an extra burden on reptile kidneys. Healthy herps can handle some extra uric acid pretty harmlessly. Sick herps can't. Using cat food can cause problems including nephrotoxicity and gout in debilitated or dehydrated animals, or animals that are on a course of kidney-stressing aminoglycoside drugs (Amikacin, etc).

This said, I don't see a big problem with using a can of cat food as a base to toss into the blender with a roadkilled snake when you want to scent a dead rat. You just don't want to feed a purine based cat food to a sick snake repeatedly as 100% of its diet.
 
Tanith,

Not to debate on the purine or pirimidine content of cat foods, as you seemed to be very well versed in the subject. but I had the opportunity (due to the kind of work I do) to vist the IAMS headquarters and see first hand the ingredients they use to prepare their foods. It's out of this world really. I agree with you with regards to feeding sick and dehydrated snakes. Care should be taken to properly hydrate the animal before feeding any protein-rich foods.

Kindly.
 
Alvaro,

I do not know the purine content of IAMS foods specifically. It may be low or it may be high. I only know that many commercial cat foods are high in purines, which is just fine for healthy cats, but can cause serious problems when assist fed to sick reptiles whose kidneys are already challenged by catabolism, a disease process or nephrotoxic drugs.

If you know the actual data on IAMS foods with respect to purines, please let us know! It would be good for hobbyists to have a immediately available assist feeding option since the enteral carnivorous reptile diets packaged by Walkabout Farms and Mazuri are not exactly something you can pick up at Wal Mart.
 
If you know the actual data on IAMS foods with respect to purines, please let us know!
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No I don't. What I meant to say is that I was highly impressed by the quality of the ingredients that go into their foods (chicken, beef, etc.) and by the cleanliness of the whole plant. As for the use of cat food I have used with the addition of water (if not it will not flow through a stomach tube) with excellent results in WC snakes that were initially reluctant to start feeding on their own. For an adult ball python I have fed 1/4 can every ten days with excellent increase in body mass accretion. Almost all eventually started to feed on their own. Anyways, I believe I'm getting a little off-topic.

Regards.
 
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