Hi Mark,

I mentioned this in another thread, but after reading your specific questions, I wanted to reply here as well. Be sure to check out this article for answers to most of your questions (http://www.thamnophis.com/caresheets...?title=Thiamin,).

If you choose to feed fish that have thiaminase, do it very sparingly... perhaps every fourth meal (I'm guessing on that estimate). There's an old saying in toxicology, "Solis dosis facit" [Only dose matters]. If the concentration of thiaminase becomes too great, it will cause the types of problems that are mentioned in the article. I'd recommend buying a dead trout at the grocery store, freezing it, then feeding it to your snake instead of using a fish with thiaminase. (Note: I haven't checked the list of fish containing thiaminase in the article, so I don't even know if "lancefish" contains it. Just offering general advise).

Thiaminase destroys B1 from other food items as well, so if you fed a goldfish on Monday and a trout on Thursday, the thiaminase from the goldfish would destroy the B1 from the trout on Wednesday. (Hope that's clear).

Feeding fish with thiaminase and supplementing with B1 is a gamble. If you provide a B1 concentration that is greater than the capacity of thiaminase to destroy it, then you'll be safe. If you don't, you'll be in trouble. Knowing what the proper doseage should be is the unanswered question. It's a gamble, but if you're only supplementing a pinkie diet with fish, then everything should be okay... probably... maybe... Have I mentioned it's a gamble? Solis dosis facit. The amount of B1 you provide also depends on their dose. If you're crushing human B1 multi-complex vitamins as your source of B1, the doseage for a 3g snake would be very high, so you wouldn't want to offer it too often. Be sure to write back if you have more questions after reading this and the link that I provided. Best,

Rick