Beef-eating snakes

[chas*e]

I was feeding my Alligators the other day with Stewing beef and I had some left over and cut it up and for a lark tried to see if any of my snakes would take the beef....Well, I was surprized that some of my smaller snakes did indeed take the small beef chunks.
I noticed that only the fast strikers took to the beef and not the snakes that sniffed around. I warmed the beef up first in water. I am going to try this method again ...I would save a fortune in rats/mice.. all I would have to do is inject the chunks with vitamin and calcium suppliment for a balanced diet.
Does anyone else feed in this manner or have they heard about it.???
Stewing beef = $1 lb

[mykee]

My dogs would drink windshield washer fluid if I let them.

[Shad0w]

I really dont think this is a good idea...
Your snakes need more than just the protien... How are you going to ensure proper ratio's of vitamins / minerals? Too much or too little could be very bad... How about constipation?

Your snake needs the muscle protine, the fat, the bone, the enzymes... all found in its natural food.

I say.. dont mess with nature Let them eat the food they were meant to eat

[Bartman]

I think it would be more a of a hassle injecting it full of vitamins then to just give it a rat. This is also exactly what most snakes would eat in the wild, so why try and use something else.

[marisa]

Yeah the only problem I see with that is you aren't feeding hair, bones or anything else in the rodent. Only straight beef.

I guess supplementation might correct this but I am really not sure. Interesting though. I am sure a few of my kingsnakes would eat anything meat related if I offered it. LOL

Marisa

[Scales Zoo]

And beef is red meat, which as far as I've heard, is hard for reptiles to digest.

I know rabbits are white meat, so I guess rats and mice are white meat also? Anyobody know the answer to that one?

Goats and deer are red meat I think, and I've seen pictures of snakes eating those.

The red meat / white meat issue aside, I'd say whole food items are the only way to go. Snakes use the fur to aid in digestion, and get many nutrients and vitamins from the guts that I don't think any supplementation will compare too.

Ryan

[BoidKeeper]

It's hard for everything to digest it.
Cheers,
Trevor

[marisa]

I would suspect rodents would be considered "white meat" Ryan. LOL omg as if I am even wondering what type of meat rodents are. Anyways...lol

Marisa

[Shad0w]

Rodents are white meat

[Vengeance]

The other, other white meat!

[Gary D.]

For generalsits and scavenging species like corcodilians, tegus and to an extent monitors and some turtles, I think feeding beef shouldn't be much of a problem if it is used as part of a varied diet. Snakes seem a bit specialized as previously pointed out. I would think that supplimented beef would be detrimental over time. If you were to do a legitimate long term scientific study it might be interesting, but I don't see it offering any true benneficial insites to herpetoculture nor herpetology. My hypothesis would be that a cornsnake fed on an exclusively beef diet suplimented with minerals and vitamins would show a substantially deminished life span. If you want to feed grocery store meat products I would think rabbit, poultry and fish would be better choices.

GD

Edit: Then again in europe where they're banning live feed it might be a benneficial study if they start banning feeders in general.

[chas*e]

Ya Ya Ya ...I know about feeding the beef to the snakes might be a bit of a stretch..but...I was just grasping at a dream of saving cash..lol

[sidewinder]

That would be unhealthy. Snakes need to digest the entire prey item, especialy the visera (guts, blood and intenal organs) they get vitamins and minerals from this that just isn't present in muscle tissue.There's no way you can duplicate that by mixing stuff in with the meat. You just can't improve on a system that took millions of years to evolve!

[ydnic]

LOL - WASHER FLUID - OMG LOL

[Scales Zoo]

I don't feed any of our monitors or crocodillians anything but whole food items either, and don't know many monitor people supplement the diet with anything less. I doubt many monitors other than komodo dragons eat a lot of red meat, and there is usually fur and gut material eaten during those type of feedings as well.

Whole food items, especially mice, rats and rabbits, are the way to go for all reptiles in my opinion.

I know people who've eaten rat, and they all liked it.

I do remember a fellow who lived in a small town in Saskatchewan who said he used dusted pork roast chunks for years on his snakes. He also said he bought a bunch of albino ball pythons for $1000 each, and kept them in a seperate facility in Manitoba.

Ryan