Real Science II: The Cookening

Real Science II: The Cookening

What I've been pondering for the past couple of years. It's a lot so I put it under a cut because I'm sure not everybody wants a wall of text.

The problems with the current standards of corn snake feeding:

One big barrier for budding snake keepers, particularly those living with parents or roommates, is the aspect of feeding live or frozen/thaw whole prey. Though someone may be fine having butchered meat in their freezer or refrigerator, there is a "squick" factor when the meat in question is a whole mouse with eyes and fur and a face. I would like to be able to recommend a viable alternative to whole prey to those who are uncomfortable offering it, and an alternative to frozen prey to those for whom the issue is keeping dead mice in the freezer next to the ice cream.

Frozen/thawed prey presents a potential food safety hazard if the prey is not properly handled. Prey that is not completely thawed before being fed can result in spoilage in a snake's stomach and may cause regurgitation or death of the snake. Prey items that have been thawed during transport and re-frozen may begin to break down and spoil, which could result in illness for the snake that is later fed this prey. I would like to be able to suggest a safer means of feeding pet snakes, with less risk of spoilage or foodborne illness.

Whole prey with intact gut microbiota may begin to putrefy more rapidly than butchered meats or cooked food. Snakes who hesitate to eat thawed prey for more than an hour or so may inadvertently make themselves sick, necessitating monitoring by keepers and increased food waste. I would like to be able to suggest an alternative food for picky or finicky eaters that is less likely to be tossed in the garbage if it's not consumed within 30 minutes.

Corn snakes in the wild eat a huge variety of prey including other reptiles, amphibians, small rodents, and birds. Corn snakes in captivity are limited to available prey in an appropriate size range, which for baby snakes usually means baby mice exclusively. This is not nutritionally ideal. I would like to be able to explore means of offering larger prey in a smaller package, in order to diversify prey types and ensure balanced nutrition for small snakes.

Keeping snakes has, until very recently, been largely a niche interest and those who keep snakes are still considered "weird" or "subversive" when corn snakes are truly an ideal low-low-maintenance family pet. I believe the "squick factor" associated with the feeding of snakes is a contributing factor in their continued marginalization. I would like to help make snake keeping more accessible and approachable to "everyday" people.

The rationale:

Domestic cats, an obligate carnivore that have evolved to eat raw whole prey, have transitioned very easily and rapidly to cooked prepared foods. Other reptiles such as blue-tongued skinks are frequently fed cooked prepared foods with no ill effect.

Snakes were fed cooked food in a 2007 study on the energy expended during digestion, and it was determined that consumption of cooked meat does offer an energetic benefit over raw meat. This study was looking specifically at metabolism of a single meal over a short time frame, however, and was not focused on long-term growth. Additionally, the snakes in question were Burmese pythons and they were being fed beef. :/

Offering a cooked diet reduces the concern of spoilage. Prepared food could be refrigerated rather than frozen and kept safely for days rather than hours.

Prey could potentially be cooked and sealed in convenient packaging (similar to fish fillet kitty treat packets) which could even be shelf-stable, reducing the need for keeping dead mice in the freezer and making the task of feeding snakes more palatable for a wide range of potential keepers.

Neonate corn snakes who initially resist eating may be enticed to eat a pinky mouse that has been dipped, whole or just the head, in boiling water. This is an established method of encouraging eating, and used by many snake breeders. It is possible that snakes may find cooked mice more palatable than raw or live.

Cooking meals opens the door to providing a wider range of prey in the form of sausages or ground homogenized meat. These sausages already exist in raw form (Reptilinks!), but they do not currently incorporate rodent prey species and are, as with frodents, subject to the hazards of shipping frozen raw meats. It may be worth noting that grinding meat has an additional reduction of digestion cost (higher net energy) versus intact whole prey.

The hypothesis:

I hypothesize that cooked prey will be more readily accepted by baby corn snakes as well as easier and faster to digest, resulting in higher growth rates and more robust young snakes than those fed raw prey.

The concerns:

Since we have already established that digesting cooked food results in increased net energy, I am a little worried that feeding the same prey sizes on the same cadence as raw diets will actually cause a weight gain trend towards obesity. This is something I will be watching for when I take monthly comparison photos.

I am also a bit curious about how trace vitamins and enzymes will be affected by a cooked diet. I already offer probiotic, calcium, and vitamin supplements to all of my snakes, though, so these differences will likely be mitigated and not explored in this particular study.

I am slightly concerned about what happens when the study concludes, if it is successful. Will I be able to transition these snakes back to raw food? Maybe I could offer two smaller prey items, one cooked and one raw, during the transition period. Will I even want to switch them back if the cooked food results in better growth? How practical is it to continue offering cooked food through adulthood? It's something I am considering, depending on growth trajectories. Can I offer occasional cooked prey but maybe not always? Does cooked food have reproductive implications? This experiment is likely to invite more questions.

Thinking forward:

Depending on the outcome of this experiment, I may begin to explore grinding meat as well as cooking it and incorporating other prey types in a Reptilinks-style sausage with a rodent meat base.