Snake Food

About Snakes -> Snake Food

Apart from a minority of species, most snakes are very easy to feed in captivity.

One factor that holds back some would-be snake keepers, or those they live with, is the subject of food.

Feeding live insects to my tarantulas is seen as barbaric by those I know. Watching my preying mantids tucking into a still-wriggling locust makes many people cringe.

Even the insects themselves make many people's stomach's turn and whenever friends see a box arrive in the post labelled "Danger - Live Insects" they avoid it like the plague!

But apart from a few select species such as the rough green snakes and some garter snakes most commonly-kept snakes are perfectly happy to eat dead prey.

For people like you and me this makes life very easy.

A huge range of dead snake food can be bought in reptile stores or from mail order companies and kept safely and hygienically in the freezer at home allowing you to htaw out what your snake needs on a regular basis and feed it.

What's more, whilst you shouldn't make a habit of it, snakes can safely go a week or two without food, so if you run our unexpectedly you can order more without the worry that your precious snake will starve before it turns up.

You should take care to thoroughly thaw the food you remove from the freezer before feeding it to your snake(s) or ice crystals may still remain which can cause real problems for your snake.

I'm a busy person, and even I don't like the thought of an unthawed dead mouse sitting around in my kitchen so I have adopted a simple process.

I take the snake food I need and place it in a plastic bag before tying the top.

I tend to use the small, clear plastic bags available from supermarkets to put sandwiches and other food in to keep them fresh.

I then drop this bag into a container - such as an old icecream tub - of hot (not boiling) water.

Within 30-60 minutes the food is not only unfrozen but is actually warm from the water.

I then untie the bag and feed the snakes straight away - while the food is still warm.

This means I don't waste hours waiting for the food to defrost, and the fact that it is warm when I feed it makes it all the more attractive to the snakes too.

But lets have a closer look at some other snake food topics:

Corn snake food Garter snake food Purchase snake food Frozen snake food Snake food frozen rats