Vegetarian snakes

[LucyR]

Not a problem, really--the joke was in the Freud part, given the phallic nature of a "snake substitute".
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I undestood that first time...

Thanks for the link!

 

[Mercutio]

I undestood that first time...

My turn to hang my head, then...of course you did...*blush*

 

[LucyR]

My turn to hang my head, then...of course you did...*blush*

Is that another joke? Aw shut up Lucy you're just getting silly...

 

[c4ts]

I'm currently attempting to get my pet rabbit to eat only meat

Reminds me of the time I fed chicken to a chicken.

 

[Jas]

I am a vegetarian, chiefly. But I'm not considering getting a snake. I'm merely wondering if it's possible to maintain it so. Vegetarian dogs and cats exist, though with cats a dietary supplement or two is required.

Dogs can be vegetarian, cats cannot.
link

Besides which, if you need to feed the cat supplements to keep it from dying, isn't that a pretty good indication that your 'natural' diet isn't going according to plan? Why on earth would you attempt to push morals on a cat?!?

If a cat, which is as far as I can tell a near pure carnivore (other than the odd bit of grass or catnip), can be maintained without meat*, I wonder whether a reptile could. Or a shark, for that matter -- feed it watermelons?

Maybe you should do a bit of research on reptiles before you go out an buy one. Exotic animals have very specific requirements, and that's before you go and try imposing your moral view of what their diets should consist of. Do some research into snake physiology.

It's hard enough getting some snakes to even eat prekilled food, neer mind falafel - it took me 9 months of getting my ball python to eat frozen mice, and even then he wouldn't eat white ones. Switching him on to rats when he became big enough was another huge challenge. My brazilian rainbow boa would only eat freshkilled mice. As fun as it is taking mice home and killing them, I would rather not go through that headache again.

Let me know how feeding your snake a carrot stick goes. And then let me know how long it took for the snake to save up enough to pay its PETA membership dues.

Originally posted by LucyR
Do snakes really need to be fed live food? I don't know.

Not live food. Feeding live is actually detrimental to the health of the snake, for several reasons. Not to mention that frozen is much more convenient. Here in Alberta, rats are illegal, so you have to get frozen imports from BC or Sask, so you'd better make sure your snake eats frozen before they get that big!

 

[Rolfe]

The usual supplement for "vegetarian" cats is mouse. Wild, fresh-caught. Bird goes down well too I believe.

People who keep "vegetarian" cats confined where they cannot hunt usually end up with sick cats, because getting the diet right is extremely difficult indeed. And yes, arachidonic acid at least is sourced from animal lungs as far as I know. And I wonder how much of that you'll get from a nice juicy spider (just having noticed the possible implications of the name....)

Rolfe.

 

[jj]

Somewhat off-colour post from you Mercutio.

What's off colour about what he just said, anyhow?

Garter Snakes are a great thing to have living in your garden.

 

[tim]

OK, I don't know much about snakes - I freely admit it. I admire them for the great way they fit their evolutionary niches. But "do they make good pets?" I ask myself. Probably not. When I get home, my Lab Pandora is excited to see me and bounces up and down behind the door higher than my head (I can see her thru' the frosted glass). Would a snake, or a lizard, frog, or axolotle (sorry Zep, but it had to be said) do that? I know I'm anthropomorphasizing, but I feel she's pleased to see me. I give her food, walks, play and a warm place to sleep. She gives me what I like to believe is affection. I can't get that from a snake, no matter how much I admire it.
So a snake for a pet? No. A vegetarian snake? I think it's probably unlikey, and if you did manage it I would fear for the snake's long term health.

 

[Mercutio]

What's off colour about what he just said, anyhow?

I read it as meaning simply that it was uncharacteristic of me, not that it was necessarily bad. And I think he's right--I don't tend to go for the shock-value post.

I could be wrong, of course...

 

[CplFerro]

Thanks for the ideas. The only thing I could think of would be taking the suggestion of a nutrient mixture, and injecting it into an egg that's previously been sucked dry. Then feed it to an egg-eating snake.

But all this is far too labour intensive and does, I agree, lack the sado-entertainment value of live feedings.

That calls to mind one of those "cat ladies" who keeps six hundred cats inside her house and adopts all she can. Except you find out that she's got an alligator pool in the back yard and every day hucks a few of them in the pool to keep the numbers down.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Mercutio said:
I have had pet snakes before. Just being honest. Snakes do what snakes do--if you don't like what snakes do, you should not have a pet snake.

And as far as I know, birds fly. So now you know my opinion of keeping pet birds in cages.

~~ Paul

 

[epepke]

People who keep "vegetarian" cats confined where they cannot hunt usually end up with sick cats, because getting the diet right is extremely difficult indeed. And yes, arachidonic acid at least is sourced from animal lungs as far as I know. And I wonder how much of that you'll get from a nice juicy spider (just having noticed the possible implications of the name....)

Probably most people who believe that their cats are vegetarian smoke way too much dope to notice that they are killing cats, birds, and arthropods.

 

[Mercutio]

And as far as I know, birds fly. So now you know my opinion of keeping pet birds in cages.

~~ Paul

Agreed.

 

[CaveDave]

OK, I don't know much about snakes - I freely admit it. I admire them for the great way they fit their evolutionary niches. But "do they make good pets?" I ask myself. Probably not. When I get home, my Lab Pandora is excited to see me and bounces up and down behind the door higher than my head (I can see her thru' the frosted glass). Would a snake, or a lizard, frog, or axolotle (sorry Zep, but it had to be said) do that? I know I'm anthropomorphasizing, but I feel she's pleased to see me. I give her food, walks, play and a warm place to sleep. She gives me what I like to believe is affection. I can't get that from a snake, no matter how much I admire it.
So a snake for a pet? No. A vegetarian snake? I think it's probably unlikey, and if you did manage it I would fear for the snake's long term health.

I had good-sized pythons and boas, fully capable of defense against incautious humans. They exhibited unmistakable signs of attachment to me: if loose, they would seek me out rub their heads against me. When I took them to the park and let them explore, they would go off 20 or 30 yards, double back on themselves, come back and explore all over my body and face, wander off some more, then come back and coil around my arm or leg or body, and remain until their next exploratory venture. They always sought me out in any circumstances they were in.

I don't know what anyone else calls this, but it felt like affection to me.

I fed my pets chickens, rabbits, and rats - live or freshly killed.

Dave

 

[epepke]

I had good-sized pythons and boas, fully capable of defense against incautious humans.

I once knew a quadruplegic who had a boa as a pet.

Now, this seems to me a really bad idea. Quadruplegics are pretty good at getting around--hell, there's Quad Rugby--but it still doesn't seem to me terribly smart.

 

[RandFan]

Where you folks in my thread?

Can we eliminate predation?

 

[CaveDave]

Where you folks in my thread?

Can we eliminate predation?

No offense meant, the times I visited someone else had already written whatever I might have added, done it better, and expanded beyond my range; couldn't see the point, sorry.

I'll try on your next thread I see.

Dave

ETA I've owned snakes on and off my entire life and learned about their care and feeding. Your topic had a much larger scope that bordered on the philosophical.

 

[Zep]

Yeah, but in the overwhelming majority of cases we also feed our domestic cats and dogs horrible canned stuff. Doesn't your logic also apply to them, then? In the "wild" they would only eat live or very freshly killed animals, yes?



There's a joke in there somewhere....

Having worked for a very major canned dog and cat food company (name rhymes with "Hal"), I can confirm that most of this horrible canned stuff is actually left-over stuff from abattoirs that we don't usually eat (warning: gross description follows): neck and head parts, some skin, various surplus gristle bits, genitals and tails, some offal, and coagulated blood (lots of that...), etc. This happens to be much of what the wild carnivore hunters will eat first as they are soft and easy parts of their prey to get at. Plus they often include nutritional vegetable matter similar to would be found in the stomachs of natural prey.

Incidentally, canned dog and cat food is not identical, deliberately so. You should see the recipes! So don't feed one type to the other animal unless you want them to get sick.

Oh, and pet your cat or dog today!

 

[RandFan]

I had good-sized pythons and boas, fully capable of defense against incautious humans. They exhibited unmistakable signs of attachment to me: if loose, they would seek me out rub their heads against me. When I took them to the park and let them explore, they would go off 20 or 30 yards, double back on themselves, come back and explore all over my body and face, wander off some more, then come back and coil around my arm or leg or body, and remain until their next exploratory venture. They always sought me out in any circumstances they were in.

I don't know what anyone else calls this, but it felt like affection to me.

I fed my pets chickens, rabbits, and rats - live or freshly killed.

Dave

I admit that I am also biased to dogs and to some small extent cats. However I think too each his or her own. If you like snakes then cool. The only thing I expect or hope anyway is that a person will only take a pet if he or she is willing to take appropriate care of it. Some pets take more care than others. I'm no expert, just don't go getting exotic pets (or any pet for that matter) and then turn them loose in some empty field. This from a guy who always takes PETA to task.

 

[RandFan]

No offense meant, the times I visited someone else had already written whatever I might have added, done it better, and expanded beyond my range; couldn't see the point, sorry.

The question was rhetorical. My ego isn't really that big. I just thought that some of the argument here would have fit but you are absolutely correct that my thread went a bit far afield.