Making pinkies more nutritious...

[formica]

Originally Posted by CosmicOwl

Has anybody ever tried feeding a diet of wild caught reptiles and amphibians? It seems that in a healthy, properly maintained animal, a small parasite load wouldn't be a problem.

a parasite which encounters a novel host (ie one from a different part of the world) has the potential to do significant damage if the host hasn't evolved a defense against it.

not all parasites require more than one different type of host to reproduce, some worms can multiply very quickly in a host which has no defense against it, and protozoans can also cause big problems, both can cause immune system failures which lead to infections - freezing the prey may help, but some parasites can survive freezing, it is probably safer with sub/tropical prey (i cannot confirm that, but they haven't evolved to deal with freezing temps, so its not an unreasonable assumption - i'm not convinced its worth the risk tho)

[CosmicOwl]

Originally Posted by formica

a parasite which encounters a novel host (ie one from a different part of the world) has the potential to do significant damage if the host hasn't evolved a defense against it.

not all parasites require more than one different type of host to reproduce, some worms can multiply very quickly in a host which has no defense against it, and protozoans can also cause big problems, both can cause immune system failures which lead to infections - freezing the prey may help, but some parasites can survive freezing, it is probably safer with sub/tropical prey (i cannot confirm that, but they haven't evolved to deal with freezing temps, so its not an unreasonable assumption - i'm not convinced its worth the risk tho)

That's true, but I'm assuming you'd be feeding the snake prey that it would have naturally encountered. It's definitely a risk, though.