Besides mice and rats...

[Deej]

If I could get a ball python to eat raw steak cut into mousey/rat size.. would it be healthy and okay for them?

It's not that feeding rodents bothers me as it is actually killing the rodents because the local pet stores only sell alive and I don't really trust any food shipped to me.. because I don't know how they're really being kept before hand, what they're fed etc... and sure they could type it out on a website but I'm a more.. if I see it myself I'll believe it kind of person...

I know it would be kind of a long shot with a ball python to eat steak since they are known to refuse food but.. It wouldn't have bugs, been fed dog food before hand, and the smell of raw meat and blood, I think at least, would be very alluring for a snake...

Right now I don't own any ball pythons and I'm just trying to do as much research as I possibly can before I do get one next year so please don't kill me over this probably stupid question. :(

[Tim_Cranwill]

It would NEVER work....

Don't get the ball python if you can't/won't feed it properly.

Sorry...

[latazyo]

well...if you dont' know how the rodents are raised, how do you know how the cattle are raised?

anyways....I agree with Tim

[Deej]

Thanks for being honest :)

[Tim_Cranwill]

No problem, man.... at least you asked.... and at least you asked BEFORE you bought the snake. :)

[sapphire_moon]

snakes need the diet of a full mouse/rat, that means bones, brains, guts, tail, and I believe fur as well.

[latazyo]

and it's hard enough to get them to eat rodents, imagine trying to feed a ball a steak with calcium supplement on it

that thing would ball up and never come out...hehe

not to mention that ball pythons resond to warm prey

edit: also, thanks for asking Deej...I usually attempt to maintain a non-flaming attitude, as I was (and still am) a newbie

[Invictus]

Just because snakes are carnivores doesn't mean that the smell of BEEF will be alluring to them. If you are skittish about killing mice, don't get a snake. Get a gecko or something that eats crickets.

[mykee]

Or get a dog, I've never met one that refuses a good steak. Or send the steak over to me. I've never been known to refuse a steak either.

[jfmoore]

What everyone else said. Plus -

A long time ago, I fed a piece of liver to a big – and I do mean BIG – Burmese python. I think I offered it to her on tongs somehow, and she gamely kept chomping her mouth open and shut on that piece of organ meat, but of course it wouldn’t go back into her throat. The bloody mess finally just slid out the side of her mouth to the cage floor. I wish I’d taken a photo, but I never did that again.

By the way Deej, I think we haven’t yet amassed enough evidence on how good a totally frozen food diet for snakes is. I suspect it’s got to be lacking in some nutrients. But many people have been feeding their snakes such a diet for some years with good success. I’ve been feeding exclusively frozen for over two years. So don't dismiss that option out of hand.

-Joan

[HeatherRose]

I know it would be kind of a long shot with a ball python to eat steak since they are known to refuse food but.. It wouldn't have bugs, been fed dog food before hand, and the smell of raw meat and blood, I think at least, would be very alluring for a snake...

Am I to assume (***-u-me) that the snake was fed dog food??? And offered bugs??? :\ I hope I'm misreading this, LOL.

Anyway, most snakes require the whole prey item, as sapphire_moon said. They get all the nutrients they need, which is why we don't need to supplement snakes like we would supplement lizards.

I've heard of snakes being fed chicken pieces, but it still doesn't mean its a good idea.

Before I got into snakes, the whole rodent thing was something that posed a problem. (I remember the only reason I could get my first gecko was because I told my parents it could eat those stupid freeze-dried cricket things you buy at a petstore...oh, my poor parents now.) While I still wouldn't be able to kill a rodent unless I had to, frozen mice/rats are no big deal to me.

You usually don't have to worry about getting frozen prey shipped to you, as freezing kills off any parasites or dangers to your snake.

Good luck :)

[sapphire_moon]

No he's saying he wouldn't have to worry about the beef having like mites or internal parasites, and that the beef wouldn't have been fed dog food before being slaughtered.

[HeatherRose]

Oh, that makes much more sense :)

Thanks.