Rodent diet

[adamanteus]

I have seen numerous cases of hair impaction (never seen bone) in reptiles from a diet of "fuzzies" (I'm not sure what you call newly furred mice in the US). As I say, never in Thamnophis, but surely it's worth considering.

As I said previously, some of the larger Thamnophis species may well eat rodents in the wild, but certainly not all species.

Yes, I agree, amphibians can carry parasites, but wild snake populations can cope with this, even we humans carry them. At least with our captive specimens we can treat for parasites if it becomes necessary. It seems to me that many reptile species are popular with pet keepers because of their ability to adapt to the artificial live-style we impose upon them, but should we be making them adapt or should we be adapting our husbandry techniques to better suit them?

[Snaky]

I try to give some variety with the feeding sessions. Most of the time the food consists of pinkies/fuzzies, catfood, smelt or another fish and earthworms. (With B1 or Ca or multivitamin addition)

Yes, I agree, amphibians can carry parasites, but wild snake populations can cope with this, even we humans carry them. At least with our captive specimens we can periodically treat for parasites.

This is not a good idea in my opinion. Treating your snakes for parasites every several months doesn't seem all that healthy at all. It's always stressful and you need to take good care of the dose's. I think it's better to provide alternatives, and you have enough possibilities to alternate.

[GarterGuy]

Like a lot of people on the forum, I feed a diet of primarily rodents, but supplement with other prey items to add variety to the diet. I do wonder about the affects of a rodent diet on a group of snakes that does not specialize in rodent feeding.
I say specialize, because there are many examples of Thamnophis to do feed on rodents....as was stated before, T.e.vagrans often prey on rodents....I imagine this is due to the fact that they can be found far from what is considered "typical" Thamnophis haibtat where the amphibians and fish that so many others prey on can be found. There are also reports of insular populations of Maritime garters (T.s.pallidulus) that are the primary predators of rodents on those islands. I think that garters for the most part can be called generalized feeders that specialize in what ever prey item is most available for them in their habitat.
As far as garters being able to take on adult rodents, many other nonconstritors take on adult rodents...like racers. Now it's a big garter that's going to take on an adult mouse, since it's got to kill it by just biting it or smashing it into stuff.
I think the problem with possible impactions due to fur and stuff is due to the fact that we feed our snakes bigger mice then they could have possibley ever eaten in the wild. Personally, I don't feed any of my garter snakes mice that are much larger than twice the size of their head. I may have to feed more than one a feeding, but I think this is easier on them. So yeh, there's my two cents on the whole thing (that's a long paragraph for two cents! ).
Roy

[KITKAT]

When I feed rodents, I never exceed ten days old. That means that I may feed two pinkies rather than an older mouse, and when a snake needs to graduate to something quite larger, I use rat pinkies.