i see too many answers from people saying to feed small/baby snakes crickets and/or fish... .. in reguards to http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoHmKVPOiBrrOyDw0R1Tj7rM7BR.?qid=20070820171256AADSGxw
there are some answers like..
it wont eat a roach wen it is a baby and it will never eat lunch meat. u need crickets.
or ... Large insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, and roaches are all food items that most snakes will eat..
i even saw an answer the other day saying that they fed their ball python fish when it was young....
correct me if i'm wrong.. but boas, pythons, and colubrids eat rodents....
2007-08-21 06:18:06 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Reptiles
I agree, to a degree. Some snakes are insectivores, but very few and while some snakes do eat fish, only a few have an all fish diet, while others like garters, can actually be severely harmed by an all fish diet. The problem as I see it is that some folks respond with rumors or things they think are correct without actually knowing the facts. I love when people swear that mothballs will repell snakes or that a snake chased them. Sometimes these errors are good for a laugh, but unfortunately, sometimes this misinformation can cause needless suffering to a helpless snake. I have seen people nearly starve a snake to death by offerring it grasshoppers/crickets/beetles instead of the foods it normally eats. Many a poor garter snake has been abused and starved by people offerring the wrong food. All it takes is a little research to ensure the safety of these creatures.
2007-08-21 08:21:30 · answer #1 · answered by Toe Cutter 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that it is actually the poorly researched (or no research at all) answers that you are irritated with, and I agree. It is an unfortunate by-product of the point system. One certainly doesn't have to wade through dozens of "junk" answers on the other forums like those at kingsnake.com that don't have such a system.
With that said, sweeping generalizations are also best avoided when talking about reptiles. There are a number of commonly kept Colubridae like Brown snakes, green snakes, garters and ribbon snakes that have amphibians, fish and/or invertebrates as their main or sole diet.
The Colubrids are a large family that contain snakes other then Kings, Corns and Milks.
2007-08-21 08:27:40 · answer #2 · answered by Thea 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are correct. Boas, pythons and colubrids eat rodents. There are other species of snakes that do eat insects and fish though. Garters eat fish as do water snakes. Green snakes (rough and smooth) eat insects as do brown snakes. I would stay away from feeding fish as it makes the stools stink and they can have parasites. Unfortunately, many petstores including Petco insist that cornsnakes eat crickets.
2007-08-21 15:00:42 · answer #3 · answered by gallianomom2001 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think people just answer questions to get points. Most of the time they have no idea what they are talking about. I believe people remember seeing snakes eatting fish or worms at one time or another and automatically assume all snakes must eat them. Different snakes have different diets.
2007-08-21 06:48:28 · answer #4 · answered by hummi22689 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot of snakes have a more varied diet, and I know of one or two kinds that do eat insects.
I used to have a Brown and an Olive House snake, they got fed the occasional goldfish, and they thrived on the variance.
2007-08-21 06:29:21 · answer #5 · answered by Unicornrider 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes i have a ball python and a boa both eat rodents. although aquatic snakes and garter snakes and other kinds do eat fish and there are also plenty of snakes that eat insects including garters
2007-08-24 18:07:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is why I am getting really annoyed that the asker can choose their own best answer, they could get some really duff info and go with it because it's what they thought already, regardless of what is right.
There's some other awful info too, releasing the snake even though it's a pet for example, many more, it's just wrong.
2007-08-21 06:42:05 · answer #7 · answered by Holly W 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I think that while people in general are stupid, they are much more so stupid when it comes to reptiles and amphibians.
There are VERY few questions posted here that could not be answered in the most BASIC reptile books.
But people don't want to go to the effort of looking in a book, they want somebody to spoonfeed them information.
2007-08-21 13:01:19 · answer #8 · answered by Dion J 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋