How to Get Your Snake to Eat Store Bought Meats

For those of us who have larger snakes they can become quite a part of the family. After all the nurturing and watching them grown, it is almost like another child to us. They also tend to eat about as much as our children.

It always seems like so much fun when you first buy them. Their little attitudes, the little small sized mice they eat. Then a few years later you end up with a ten foot long, two man snake, that eats $10 rabbits once a week. This can add up quickly for any of us. Especially if you have a snake that only wants to eat live food then you are really in it for some money. That is on the weeks that the pet store is actually carrying frozen or live feeder rabbits.

While raising my own scaled puppy dog I ran into this same problem myself. Living in a small town such as mine it can be very trying to get a frozen rabbit once a week. It seemed that whenever I would make it by the reptile shop that sold feeders they were out and getting them the next day, or had just sold their last one.

After a few times of this happening I was determined to find a new alternative. It may seem somewhat unconventional and every reptile shop discourages this, probably because it loses them money.

I have completely converted my Burmese python into a chicken and turkey eating snake. After four years of doing this I have never seen any negative side effects from doing this either. The biggest concern of doing this is the spread of salmonella, but from all the old wives tales I have heard about snakes in general they have it anyway. This made me figure why not. Our veterinarian was actually surprised when we told him about this diet because our snake is still very healthy.

Admittedly for me it was rather easy to make this switch because I always fed our Burmese python a lot of chicks during spring when they are readily available. Also, Burmese pythons notoriously love birds as a breed. I am sure though with not too much effort this method could work for many large snake owners out there.

It was the same as switching a snake over from live to frozen prekilled food only this stuff was bought at the grocery store instead of the reptile store. The easiest thing to start with is chicken or turkey legs depending on the size of your large snake and what is on sale that week in the meat department.

The bird legs are always very quick and easy for the snake to get down so they don't tend to argue too much about it. You can take the poultry and just warm it up in a sink of warm water in the kitchen. This is only to help fool the snake into thinking it is still a little bit alive.

When I first started my snake on the chicken legs we would wiggle them in front of his face, with a pair of long tongs of course, until he would strike it. Now, it has been so long I just have to set it in the tank and when he smells it he knows what is going on.

I have over the years tried this method with many different types of meat. Most of the time I can buy a bag of chicken leg quarters and that will last me a month. The holidays can be a great time to stock up on the marked down turkey pieces also. Turkey tends to be worth the extra cost because they eat less of it and it's a nice change for your pet. Other than that I have used, ribs, steaks, pork loins, pretty much whatever is on sale works out great.

Don't be too shocked when you get the dirty looks from your friends at the local reptile shop. I got used to that a long time ago. They will tell you all the down falls and risks that you are taking by doing this. The truth is though, it is fresh meat, it still has bones in it which are good for the snake, and it costs less then half the price monthly. To me these factors out weigh the dirty looks two to one.