A Quick Guide to Snake Food
Snakes are very popular pets, but before you obtain a pet snake make certain you know what kind of snake food you need to feed him. There are thousands of types of snakes and overall, they eat an incredible diversity of food. The key thing about snakes is that all of this food is meat.
Snakes are carnivores and that means they do not eat plants. You cannot feed your snake a salad like you can if you have a bunny rabbit. That means you are going to be handling dead creatures or live ones should you let your snake make his own kill. If you want to have a snake as a pet, you can’t be squeamish about what he eats.
Snakes generally adapt to the kinds of food that are available in the region in which they live. The specific food will depend on the size of the snake and on the environment. A large sea snake can consume a sea turtle while a baby garden snake will be happy with a few insects and worms to start out.
Wild snakes like boa constrictors can eat a deer or wild boar. Luckily, chances are you will not have an extremely large snake as a pet. In fact, it is illegal to have some snakes as pets so check it out before obtaining one. Most of the snakes sold in pet stores are of normal size.
Always ask before purchasing a snake what they have been feeding him and how much food he eats every day. Make sure this fits into your budget and that you can afford not only the snake but the monthly cost of food and all the equipment you will initially have to buy to house and feed a pet snake.
Snake food for baby snakes, as we mentioned above, includes insects, all types of worms, spiders, pinkie mice and other tiny mammals. As you snake grows or if he is already full grown, he will eat larger rodents, such as mice and rats. Some people like to feed their snakes live prey and some prefer prey that has already been killed and frozen. Frozen is certainly easier to keep. All you do is thaw it and feed it to the snake.
If you snake refuses to eat pre-killed food, you should wiggle it around a little so he thinks it is still alive. Do not ever do this with your hands even if you have gloves on. You can use tongs or another type of apparatus to hold the animal away from you. It is not wise to feed live food because it is not always readily obtainable and there is a chance that your snake can be harmed or even killed by another live animal.
Remember that your snake is in a confined area and cannot get away from an attacker. Should a mouse or other prey become exceedingly frightened, the snake could be bitten or scratched. This happens frequently when the pet is not ready or in a mood to eat and another animal has free run of the same territory.
It is not so much that the snake might die because he is overcome by a much smaller animal but that a scratch or a cut could get infected. Many times in captive animals, infections are a cause of death.
Snakes know how to hunt and have that instinct from the moment of birth so there is no learning to hunt period as there is with some mammals. If your snake refuses to eat his food, dip it in chicken gravy and put it back in the cage.