Graphic: Is an all rodent diet really ideal?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Here's the story. I woke up yesterday morning to turn the snake lights on. I noticed my male hypo water snake in the pond. Thinking nothing, I left for work. When I returned home... I noticed he was STILL in th pond, in the exact same position. He was curled in a U with his head resting on a rock out of the water. Little did I know... he was dead!!! I never would have though in a million years he would be dead, but he was!!! He looked perfectly alive and alert. Anyways... I got this snake from Scott Felzer at the daytona show last august. Shortly after checking him out in the truck I noticed a part of his abdomen was rather swollen and puffy. Very soft to the touch. I was worried, so i had the vet check him out and the vet said it was just some fatty tissue buildup. I know Scott feeds pretty much all rodents and that this snake was eating them. I switched him onto a diet of fish, with only the occasional rodent... which he grew less and less fond of as he realized how much he likes fish. The puffy spot never really went away, it got a bit smaller because he trimmed down once he started eating fish. But it was still there ever after almost 9 months. He stopped eating 3 weeks ago before I found him dead yesterday. I was too curious to resist opening him up to finally find out for sure what the heck that bulge was.

Indeed, this does appear to be fatty tissue, but there is WAY more of it than any snake should have, especially in the area of the bulge. I was very surprised to see that it extended further than just the bulging spot. It was wrapped and entangled all around the organs and i had to move it aside to see any of them.

In short, I have always worried that an all rodent diet is too fatty and rich for snakes that normally feed almost exclusively on aquatic and invertebrate prey. Now, opening up this snake pretty much confirms it, at least for me. I know that many many of these snakes are seemingly doing fine on an all rodent diet, but i think this here is an example of why rodents are not always the optimal prey item.

Scott, this is in NO way directed at you or criticizing your husbandry. You raise hundreds of snakes each year and produce some of the best animals out there. You do a great job with your snakes and you are a master of breeding thamnophis. I will probably buy from you every single year, for... ever! I have garters/water snakes myself that once ate rodents only and none of them seem to be any worse for wear.

But, this snake is an example of why I strongly feel that a highly varied diet with rodents only as a portion of it is best. I am not saying that the rodents did it for sure either, this could be some kind of tumor, or hormone malfuction that caused him to store too much fat. I just wanted to post this find for all to see, and to be wary that we may be unknowlingly shaving years off our snake's lives with too many fatty rodents.

WARNING the following photos are GRAPHIC.
sorry for the terrible background... and I didn't have any straight pins!! I basically did this underneath the deck of our house, on an old board, with gloves and X-acto knives.

here is the snake. He is actually dead in this picture... stiff as a board. hard to believe isnt it???


Here is the bottom view. You can see the area that was puffy in the last third of his body.



Here is the view of the whole snake freshly cut open. You can see just how much fatty tissue there is... especially in the area the bulge was located.



Here is the snake after much of the fatty tissue has been cut away to reveal the organs. The organs are stretched out a bit so that they can be seen.

and finally, a closeup of the swollen area where the bulk of the tissue was.

[Sid]

Good information, Shannon and thanks for sharing it. I'm sure that wasn't easy for you to do. Sorry about the loss.

[GartersRock]

Wow so sorry for your loss... I am interested to hear what others say about this subject.

[guidofatherof5]

Very sorry to here about your loss. I know you are very fond of your water snakes.

[count dewclaw]

Sorry for your loss, Shannon. That is an interesting find. Thanks for sharing, even though it must have been difficult for you.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

it was difficult... but hopefully his death won't be in vain! I hope to be able to use this as my example of why a varied diet is key to a healthy, long lived snake. Luckily, this guy is an expecting father and momma snake is doing very well. It's really a shame, because he was a VERY persistent breeder and could have made many future breedings easy as pie for me!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I also recently lost the other dark male to what appeared to be stroke. You could tell by all his battle scars and the size of his massive head he was an old snake, and one day i saw him racing around the cage. I picked him up and his head was on a tilt, one side of his mouth was limp, and that same side's eye had rolled down into the bottom of his head. He was drooling and twitching his face on the limp side. He appeared to have to feeling or control of that side of his body. He soon convulsed and died right there. I do not beleive these deaths are in any way connected. Just a freak thing.

[adamanteus]

Sorry to hear about your loss, Shannon, but excellent topic. I have long had doubts in my mind about over-use of rodents in the diet of Natricine snakes...... have a read through this thread.
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...ht=rodent+diet

[drache]

Oh man, Shannon - I'm so sorry you had to loose a snake like that - that sucks
that's a huge amount of fatty tissue, and I did have something like that removed from a garter (Sammy - the double chin)
I think that some snakes will tend toward this condition

[Stefan-A]

Sorry for your loss, Shannon. And good topic indeed.