Chicken?

[nessy]

Hi everybody!

This might sound really stupid, but is it OK to feed my garter pieces of chicken or any other types of meat to form a better balanced diet, because she takes anything that smells like fish. if so, should i include bone? (such as a small chick-leg or -wing)

I am currently feeding mine exclusively on fish because i dont want her to get any parasites from earthworms.

thanks guys, this forums the best!!!!!!!

[CrazyHedgehog]

Really not sure about chicken...but whatever you feed should be Whole food and include bone matter...I feed on a mix of trout and pinkies/mice(a lot more mice than fish)
rub the pinkie with fish to make it smell fishy, before you know it they will just take pinkies..the advantage is that it has a good mix of flesh and bone matter for a healthy diet..

[Brian]

Chicken should be OK since many garter species will take small nestling birds in the wild. However, when you cook chicken you destroy many of the nutrients in it and I don't know if salmonella poisoning would be possible if you fed it raw. You're best bet is to feed fish and mice. I always have worms in the diet of my snakes especially when they are young. I've never "knowingly" had problems with parasites.

[Thamnophis]

The feeding of chicken is ok for Thamnophis.
In our Reptilezoo we feed the fish-eating snakes amongst others also chikenmeat.
They sometimes get boneless chickenmeat (chickenfilet?) and sometimes they get pieces of a wing or so with the bone included.
Ofcourse you must watch for sharp endings of the bones!
On the chickenmeat (with or without bone) we always put some vitamin/mineral/calcium powder.

[Thamnophis]

Personally I feed my Thamnophis which I keep at home, amongst others, chickenheart. For the large specimen you can use a whole heart and for the smaller ones you can give pieces.
In Holland these are sold as food for cats.
I buy them fresh and freeze them in small portions so I can weekly thaw one portion.
Ofcourse I put some vitamin/mineral/calcium powder on it.

[nessy]

THANX!!! u guys are great!