Tilapia/Trout fillet....

[Lovok]

Here's my input:

1. Scylla LOVED tilapia. I just read in this, Amazon.com: Quick and Easy Ribbon Snake Guidebook, that tilapia itself and other fish is ok as long as you supplement it w/ reptile vitamins like, once a week or so. The snake will get plenty of protein since it's essentially just flesh & muscle, so you'll have to supplement for the minerals missing from not digesting any bones and organs.

2. Trader Joe's is FAR more reliable in their merchandise than Wal-Mart. As long as you buy the fish frozen, I'm not seeing a problem with parasites, whether it's tilapia, salmon, or anything else. If you're worried about mercury, pollutants, and other man-made menaces, I think you'd have to leave the planet to escape it all.

VARY the diet as much as you can based on your snakes known preferences for food. I'm not entirely sure that what you feed it specifically is as important as how much variety there is, if you follow me.

Shop around for the book i mentioned too. I got it for like, $10 from a seller on Amazon, but shop around for it. The seller I got mine from is out of stock, and other people are asking frakking ridiculous (and I mean ridiculous) prices for it.

[RedSidedSPR]

Thank you... I think I'll go ahead and get the tilapia from Trader Joes, as long as Canada is a safe source...

Although i'm gonna look for some trout too.

[Lovok]

Sounds like a plan! The stuff I got at our local SuperFresh grocery store was (I think) from Canada, and it was definitely farm-raised. I don't foresee any problems for ya.

[RedSidedSPR]

Ok, I finally got around to buying the tilapia, and found out (TraderJoes) that it was from Indonesia. (bad right?). Crap. They dont have trout.

They do have Salmon from Canada. Is that ok?

Also, what about Whole Foods? That's the only other store I can think of local, besides Walmart and Target.

[kibakiba]

I believe that is where tilapia is always from, unless farmed. Should be fine.

[ConcinusMan]

The tilapia is fine. Virtually all tilapia in the stores is farmed. The only real difference is that some countries use environmentally unfriendly farming practices. The fish is the same. If it's imported to the U.S. it is inspected and I'm sure the fish itself fine. Not sure about "canadian" salmon. Canada covers a lot of ground. Basically anything from remote arctic /subarctic regions is going to be very clean.

[RedSidedSPR]

Oh.. crap.

It is farm raised. It says:

TILAPIA FILLET
[Farm Raised]
(Product of Indonesia)

[ConcinusMan]

So? It's fine.

[RedSidedSPR]

Yeah ok. I said that cause Chantel said "unless farmed".

Well CRAP!! Now I gotta go back!

[kibakiba]

Unless it's farmed, as in, it comes from other places when it is farmed. Not that it's bad that it's farmed.