Beware of thyaminase

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: Sacha, : First of all, let me state that I am insanely jealous : as I have always wanted to work with Drymobius ssp. : Hopefully, due to the effort of yourself and others : like you, someday I will. : I visited your website and it is clear to me that : you have a lot of experience and background (not to : mention great taste in reptiles), but I thought I : should warn you about some problems associated with : feeding fish. I appologize if I am being presumptuous : and you are already aware of this. : Thawed fish strips tend to be very high in an enzyme : called Thyaminase. Thyaminase breaks down thyamine, : which is essentially vitamin B (B-12 I believe). : Thyamine deficiency brought on by thyaminase cannot : be counter-acted by available reptile vitamins, or any : "over-the-counter" vitamins for that matter. It can : only be treated by a veternarian. : I am writing most of this from memory so some of the : details may be incorrect. You might want to read up : on this some more. : This condition is very often fatal to snakes, and I : might add the death it causes if pretty horrific, : with the snake ofteb convulsing for hours before : death ensues. Trust me, you don't want to see it. : At any rate, it sounds like you are already planning : ways to avoid feeding thawed fish in the future so : this message is probably not needed. : For what it is worth, I have switched fish eaters to : rodents by sticking a strip of fish in the mouth of a : mouse and feeding the whole thing to them. Soon : enough, you don't even have to use the fish. : Best of luck and I look forward to looking at your : website more completely.

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