Chicken bits as food?

[d_virginiana]

My husband recently got a job working stock in various Food Lions. So, I immediately thought of posts I had seen on here about people getting spare chicken or turkey bits from butchers and feeding them to their snakes. With Thanksgiving coming up, I imagine the butcher departments will have a lot of extra parts they are willing to give away.

So, if you've done this before, what pieces are acceptable to feed? Do these chicken parts need to be frozen for any particular length of time before feeding? Also, is this something I can feed every other week if they like it, like I would pinkies? I don't like to feed the same meat two weeks in a row; they seem to appreciate their proteins more when I switch them up :)

I've had a couple pieces of heating/aquarium equipment crap out and need replacing recently, so anything that makes feeding my babies more budget-friendly is something I want to jump on immediately.

[guidofatherof5]

I will be purchasing bulk turkey heart over the next few weeks. Most of my garter love them. I'm fortunate where I buy them, they are cleaned and ready for me to feed. No need to cut off the veins or prep them.

[d_virginiana]

Would livers or gizzards be okay to feed as well? I'm guessing whatever is good to feed from a turkey would also be okay from a chicken :)
Unfortunately I'm thinking whatever I get won't be pre-cleaned. I've almost never seen organ meat for sale around here, so I'm thinking that they probably just end up getting scrapped; good for price, annoying since it would mean I have to clean them myself. Never thought this would be how I used what I learned in my dissection labs.

[guidofatherof5]

Many of my snakes also enjoy the liver. Gizzards are a pain to work with.

[MCwyo]

Steve how often to you feed hearts and livers? As a special treat, or more as a part of their diet?

[guidofatherof5]

I used them as a meal every other week. The snakes wish it was more.:D

[d_virginiana]

Sounds like my snakes will be getting a lot of chicken heart and liver.

[SilasBannook]

Love the timely post. I hadn't thought of feeding my guys turkey hearts but will definitely do so now.

[ProXimuS]

Can the hearts/livers be frozen?

[kueluck]

Eww......hearts maybe, but liver?? Since the liver is a filter organ isn't there a risk of who knows what??

[ProXimuS]

I never thought of it like that....I really wouldn't know about that. But I do know that it is high in iron.

[d_virginiana]

I figure if Steve feeds it as often as he does, with as many snakes as he has, he'd have noticed problems by now if it was harmful :)

[ConcinusMan]

Sounds like my snakes will be getting a lot of chicken heart and liver.

I imagine those organs from turkey would be just fine too.

As far as butcher "scraps" go, I don't know. Depends on what it is. I only feed quality organs and lean muscle, (Liver, heart, thigh meat) avoiding fatty parts such as the skin.


I figure if Steve feeds it as often as he does, with as many snakes as he has, he'd have noticed problems by now if it was harmful http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

The only thing I've noticed is happy, healthy, fast-growing snakes.

[tress29]

Ooh, forgot I have chicken livers in the freezer from when we had the ferrets... I can only get chicken hearts in a pack with gizzards. What about beef heart, I got chunks of that in the freezer?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

What is gizzards?

[guidofatherof5]

My concern with beef or chicken for that matter might be growth hormones or antibiotic used.

I'm picking up a couple pounds of turkey heart today. My snakes will be happy about that.

[ConcinusMan]

My concern with beef or chicken for that matter might be growth hormones or antibiotic used.

There is plenty of chicken that doesn't use either (at least that's what they claim) and those brands make it a point to make sure you know they don't.

[guidofatherof5]

Called the butcher shop this morning. The guy tells me he has 2 lbs of turkey heart available. That's a good amount and can go along way to feeding some hungry monsters.
Later in the morning I drove over to pick them up. They had 4 turkey hearts. Not 2 lbs. That wasn't even enough to feed my concinnus group of females. Shyblue was first to get some heart and came back for seconds and thirds.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

For Biology we are going to have to buy some lamb heart for dissection. I was wondering if I could feed some lamb heart to my snake. They'd be great to feed as they'r really cheap and nutritious.

[ConcinusMan]

Hmm.. I don't know. I stick to poultry. They do eat birds as part of their natural diet. I'm pretty sure cows and sheep aren't on the menu and I'm pretty sure it takes antibiotics and hormones to raise cows and sheep on a modern commercial farm. Still, I'm skeptical that it makes any difference. I don't check that and don't care when feeding chicken/turkey parts. I only care that there is no additives and try to choose "all natural, no hormones" etc. if I can.

I'm just not sure about feeding them beef and sheep, lamb, whatever. I just thought that it can't possibly hurt to feed them bird organs.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Fair enough. I suppose birds are lower in cholesterol and fats than farm raised mammals.

In my local market they sell game birds and wild rabbit.Could they be an option?

[ConcinusMan]

I don't see why not. Even better option is if you can find someone selling fertile quail eggs and/or chicks. Those are great. It's not that hard to incubate eggs and freeze/ use chicks as snake food. Some people can't handle doing that even if they have no problem buying the eggs to eat.:rolleyes:

Plenty of farms right here locally sell fertile quail eggs and chicks seasonally. I've had no problem at all getting some of my bigger concinnus' to accept f/t chicks of appropriate size.

[jaleely]

So you guys usually do a mixed plate, when feeding the kids, right?
How do you make sure they all eat?
How do you GET them all to eat? lol
My wanderings only eat slugs, and my red-sideds only eat fish!
I can't get either to eat anything else!
I should try mixing the plates and smells, more, eh?

[guidofatherof5]

Hungry snakes are less picky. Skip a couple meals then offer something different.

[ConcinusMan]

I watch them closely so they don't fight. As they eat enough to get a good bulge individually, I pick 'em up and put them in another container tall enough that they can't leap out. As I do this, the numbers of them in the feeding tank, obviously goes down. This often gets less competitive snakes to come out and eat too. You know, the ones that sit back and wait for the competition to settle down.

If I'm left with a few snakes that didn't / wont eat, I place those in another container. Then I put all the ones that ate, back in their enclosure. I try again the next day or two, to get the non eaters feed. It's not that hard to make sure everyone eats. Sometimes, they just dont all eat. There's always a few that don't eat much or at all and over time you'll be able to tell which ones those are, just by looking at them.

I use ventilated plastic tubs with tight fitting lids for babies, and a very large "seedling heat mat" to warm the tubs by placing the ends of the tubs on the pad. I use rectangular tubs and I can heat several with that large pad. I always have multiple containers and always have some empty and ready for this feeding method. Basically you just pull them out as they eat, and keep them separate until everyone gets fed. Works well for me.

[MCwyo]

I picked up a package of all natural hearts/gizzards today. The package only had two little hearts and about a pound of gizzards :(

I cut up the two hearts and it ended up being enough to feed all of my garters, as they are all still smalish :) All of them went CRAZY for it. Only one snake did not eat, probably because she is in blue phase right now.

I know the gizzards will be a pain to prepare, but are they ok for the snakes to eat? I'll go through the hassel gladly if I can use them for the snakes. If not, my dog is going to be getting a lot of special treats lol. I don't know what else I'd use a pound of gizzards for... I expected there to be more hearts than gizzards, but seriously, two hearts?! Oh well :p

[d_virginiana]

I imagine gizzards might be more trouble to prepare for snakes than it's worth :) I thought about it, but as I only have three snakes, there's really no point in me worrying about it...
Right now I'm just frustrated, since apparently no one sells hearts/livers around here, but the Food Lion butchers won't let us take any heart/liver scraps because they don't prepare them for human consumption *grumble grumble*

[ConcinusMan]

oh, and to answer earlier questions...

Basically, a gizzard is a specialized digestive organ. Similar to a stomach, but not quite.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/PigeonAnatomy.png

Gizzard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizzard)

[thamneil]

To anyone who has tried hearts, did the snakes take them without scenting?

[guidofatherof5]

Turkey hearts, no scenting required for my snakes.

[Invisible Snake]

I understand that variety is great, but chicken/gizzard hearts etc.. ?

Out of curiosity why do you guys want to feed them these things, is it because it's more cost effective or more readily available than worms/fish ?

Or do these items provide a higher nutrition content than pinks, fish and worms?

[ConcinusMan]

All of the above except for perhaps the thing you said about pinks. Garters do eat birds too you know. Why not bird organs?

Anyway, the reason I use organs from time to time is that snakes tire of fish and it's not a balanced diet. Second, sometimes its hard to get pinkies that don't cost an arm and a leg. Third, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than rodents but I don't like going extended periods with just fish, worms are spendy for me, etc.

It's just an affordable way to vary the diet. Chicken liver is very nutritious as well, (high in B vitamins, iron, protein) and I buy it for myself anyway. If you want to, or have to cut down on feeding rodents, it's a decent alternative.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Would an adult be able eat a day old chicken chick? They are way cheaper than mice because they are the male chicks that are of no use to egg farmers so get the chop .Enjoy you'r eggs everyone!:p. They are practically giving them away Triple 8 Reptiles - Triple 8 Reptiles Frozen Day Old Chicks X50 (approx) (http://www.888reptiles.co.uk/productdetails.php?ProductID=2126&ProductGroupID=1045) compared to Triple 8 Reptiles - Triple 8 Reptiles Frozen Mice Small X10 (http://www.888reptiles.co.uk/productdetails.php?ProductID=786&ProductGroupID=448)

[ConcinusMan]

I would just cut it up while frozen but if your snake can eat whole large adult mice, then they should be able to eat a chick. (giggle)

[ProXimuS]

I was just reading that too much liver for a dog could potentially cause Vitamin A toxicity, leading to kidney damage/failure. Could this be true for snakes too?

[guidofatherof5]

I think there are dangers in feeding organ food if it is a main food source.
Dangers for humans = dangers for our snakes as a rule.
Variety
Variety
Variety

[ConcinusMan]

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/7090-concinnusmans-garters-88.html#post234045

[ProXimuS]

Yea thats true. As long as you don't feed that and that only they should be ok. I just had never heard of that before, and it kinda took me back.


I guess too much of anything is no good....

[ConcinusMan]

Except that some people feed them rodents only and don't seem to have any nutritional issues.

[Greg'sGarters]

I feed rodents, worms, and fish.

[ConcinusMan]

And it's OK to feed them bits of lean chicken meat, beef heart, turkey & chicken liver once in a while too and that was the original question. I certainly wouldn't make those the majority of their diet though.

[Greg'sGarters]

Ok

[Selkielass]

The gizzard is the birds crop. The muscular organ that holds the grit used to grind up food.
They are split in half and have the inner membrane peeled out. The muscle is good lean protien- I trim it away from the tough outer connective tissues.

I feed the heart, liver and gizzard when I get some with a whole roasting chicken.
Local ethnic markets sell bulk frozen packages of gizzards and mixed hearts and gizzards, but I've neverpurchased in that quantity.
Look near the chitlins, kidneys, liver and other specialty meats.