Quote Originally Posted by Alicia_kay_47 View Post
This is so upsetting. I love my snake, Eden. No pet owner wants to kill their pet, we want what's best, but quite frankly, not all of us all teaming in bait shops where we can easily get worms, or mice. (Mine is too small to eat mice anyhow.) So when the one bait shop near me says they're out of Earth worms( ridiculous, right? I know, wtf? ) I turn to Tilapia. It's in my freezer, I'm going to make it for dinner tonight, and I was planning to give some to Eden. But your revelation describing the horrible death I'd be condemning him to...make's me feel like a bad person for not driving 18 miles to the nearest earthworm breeder. That's scarey. However, Wal-Mart , you say? They're an evil conglomerate who gets their fare from seedy places anyways. So, I'll try my non-Wal-mart Tilapia an cross my fingers until I can get him his real food.
I think for an emergency "bait shop out of worms" feed you'll be absolutely fine with the tilapia from the freezer. You will be extremely unlikely to have a batch in your freezer that has, through a production line failure, been given an instantly lethal dose of preservatives. Over a longer period there is more scope for toxicity to build up, but that won't happen if you generally feed worms.
By the way, do you supplement the worms? Arguably not necessary for some species that specialise in feeding on worms, but best practice seems to be to supplement a worm-only diet with vitamin and calcium.