 | market - home |
|
| market - home |
|
 |
 |
News & Events:
|
Posted by regalringneck on September 06, 2002 at 15:57:55:
In Reply to: Re: questioning conventional wisdom.... posted by Thamnophile on September 05, 2002 at 17:26:40:
Hello Lisa; AKA; Thamnophile; gr8t screenname IMO...the afficionados of these genera tend to run in groups...
I think a giant garter (gigae) would be another wonderful addition... I dont know what a Dasypeltis is tho (if i wasnt too lazy...i'd look it up...)...but in general; most snakes like (need??) occasional meals robbed from nests & you're right the bird scent needs to be on them. Im surprised none of the guardian keepers have responded about the use/nonuse of chicken huevos. Take care; jg aka: rr
:I keep Dasypeltis inornata, and all they eat are eggs...
:As an aside, although mine will eat store-bought chicken eggs, many snakes won't because the washing process removes any food scent from the eggs (doesn't smell like a bird's butt, LOL!). There is also some controversy over whether it is nutritionally complete enough to feed unfertilized (store-bought) chicken eggs.
:The best bet would be free-range, unwashed, unpasteurized eggs. Which can be hard to find anymore, even in some rural areas. It just depends. You can also try different species - quail, duck, goose, turkey, even pigeon, pheasant, or chukar if you can find someone who breeds them.
:Just make sure the egg is of the appropriate size. My D. inornata male is small, and he will refuse large or jumbo chicken eggs. He'll only take mediums or smaller.
:I've never tried feeding eggs to anything other than my dwarf tegus (which love them) - I don't have anything else that would eat them (mostly garter species/morphs, calkings, etc)..
:Don't know if this was the type of info you were interested in, but hope it helps. (Just poking into the indigo forum, because I'd like to keep one someday).
:Lisa
:.:I wouldnt want to infer my post here is a good discussion...but...
::You are correct that Ca is elsewhere besides the bone, we get much of our own via the flesh we take in of our carrion diet. If you wanted to turbo-Ca em for some reason....I'd inject it into the dead chick, or stuff a pill down its throat (thats how I get antibiotics & other meds on occasion into herptiles, & then feed it. 2 other points, I am aware of 2 accounts whereby an all egg diet was eventually lethal to gilas, & 2 while I dont doubt you, I just have trouble imagining a fresh shed pit, roaming for food for a week to 10 days...that can then refuse a live stinking mouse...regardless of its fondness for birds.
::Lastly, a new wrinkle from your post...are any guardian keepers feeding chicken eggs to augment the regular fare?
::
:::I bring this question to the indigo forum because it is apparent that you guys have some good discussions and often successfully buck conventional wisdom.
:::I have several Pituophis that refuse to feed on everything except for day old chicks, which they really go after. This has gone on for a while and the snakes look great and are doing well.
:::Even the feces are not bad.
:::This got me thinking about conventional wisdom which is that chicks don't have enough bone to provide calcium for snakes. Is "C.W." correct?
:::From what I understand, calcium is present in bones but also in the bloodstream, muscle and in the nervous system. A chick needs all these systems and the corresponding calcium to make them work, even just to hatch.
:::How do reptiles that live predominately on a diet of eggs ( the precursor to chicks, in some circles)such as the genus Dasypeltis, or Gila monsters manage to survive/thrive on this diet?
:::Anyone know the pathway through which particular calcium ions go to form bone and are these particular ions present in chicks to be utilized by reptiles to form bone?
:::Are rodent breeders conspiring to supress chicks as reptile health food? Is the truth out there?
:::-Looking for a few good answers...
:::Thanks,
:::Dave
::
::
