Tilapia/Trout fillet....

[jitami]

The more meat I can put on my table while enjoying the outdoors the better! Kill it, cook it, eat it!!

I like it

[RedSidedSPR]

Farmed rainbow trout has virtually no mercury but it does have PCB's.

List of Seafood Health Alerts - Seafood Selector - Environmental Defense Fund

Link doesn't really help with my snake concern...... I have no idea how this translates to snake health. Sure it has some mercury, is that a safe amount? Cause i have no idea...

[ConcinusMan]

Consider this: The amount of fish they're going to be eating in relation to their own body weight is much higher compared to what a person eats. It's pretty obvious how it translates. Stick with the cleaner fish and try not to make it their main source of food. Any contaminants are going to build up in the snake really quick, until it becomes toxic causing organ failure and neurological damage.

Truth be known, I bet this happens a lot and B1 deficiency gets the blame. I know plenty of people who feed thiaminase containing fish to their garters their entire lives and never have issues. Feed your garters mercury long enough and it will look like B1 deficiency.

[RedSidedSPR]

Tilapia or trout? If not trout, why?

[Chondro788]

Well it's quite simple. The polluted fish only became a problem during the 20th century.

Oh, and there's plenty of frogs in the most polluted bodies of water around my area.

Still seems like a lot of beaurocratic BS to me.... I'd rather live off the land then eat the supposed safe meats full of growth homones and such... So of this pollution is added to meat on purpose.

[ConcinusMan]

It's not BS. Coal plants have been spewing methyl mercury into the atmosphere for quite some time now. It ends up in the water and on up the food chain. It's not beaurocratic BS, it's science.

Living off the land is fine and dandy, but the land is tainted now. Almost no place on earth is unaffected.

[Chondro788]

It's not BS. Coal plants have been spewing methyl mercury into the atmosphere for quite some time now. It ends up in the water and on up the food chain. It's not beaurocratic BS, it's science.

Living off the land is fine and dandy, but the land is tainted now. Almost no place on earth is unaffected.

Do you not think over time our bodies will adjust? Isn't this what evolution is all about? I believe that yes there are more toxins now then 1,000 years ago, but since we are introduced to these toxins (some of which are purposely put into our food) from day one, I feel humans will adapt over the coming centuries and thrive on what is available. I worked in a microbiology lab for years and you would think I would be a germophobe, but actually the exact opposite happened. I realize there are nasty bacteria living everywhere, but we as humans come in contact with them, and with a strong immune system, fight them off. Now Mercury may not be the same right now, but I believe over many years it could be. The body is constantly adapting, and nature never ceases to amaze me.
Think about thousands of years back. I am talking before 10,000 BC We were hunter and gatherers. We did not grow crops to eat, and very little of our diet came from anything other then meat, berries, and nuts, maybe some grains but not many. There was no agriculture back then. Now they want us eating as much grain as we can possibly put into our bodies? Why? I would guess the because our meat is not near as pure and lean as it was way back when we actually hunted out our meat instead of growing them in small cages with growth hormones only ensuring the fat content will be through the roof.
Sorry to get so off topic, but I find human diet to be an interesting topic, and I do feel we are fed lies from our own FDA about what we should and shouldn't eat. Much the same as the lies we are fed about oil and other natural resources...

[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.