Pinky mice as food

blueberlin said:

Sorry - I'm not advocating the use of mice as caudate food. I can't really see the purpose of doing so, either, considering how many different types of things they can eat, how easily available those things are, often in your own back yard, and how much more appropriate they seem to a naturalistic diet. I'm just trying to clarify whether or not caudates are able to digest a mouse (which also leads me to question the digestion of beef, chicken, etc.).

Now, though, I am also curious as to whether feces from eating a mouse would include bones and if not, why not? Answers spawning questions...

-Eva

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Eva, I wasn't directing my pinky question to you but rather posing a question. It is something that I think of each time I see these types of discussions.

I don't know specifically about caudates (never fed mine rodents), but in large snakes who eat adult rodents and have a digestive system perfectly tailored for this food, on occassion, their feces will contain fur and boney fragments. Pinks, however are neonatal and not developed.

jan said:

Eva, I wasn't directing my pinky question to you but rather posing a question. It is something that I think of each time I see these types of discussions.

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Hi Jan,

No worries, I didn't (and wouldn't) take offense. It seems to be agreed both in this forum and in my German forum that rodents are inapprorpriate as foods. The Germans also tend to pooh-pooh any mammalian flesh or organ meats, and the Caudata Culture site even has a picture (this article, bottom of page) of a tiger fed with exactly pinkies to illustrate salamander obesity. I can imagine that it would be possible, if rare, for a mouse or even baby mouse to fall prey to an axolotl occasionally, but I liken this to a Christmas goose - and the axolotl eating the entire goose at one sitting. As other frozen foods (bloodworm, etc.) are at least as easily found as pinkies, I see no reason to feed mice to a caudate.

It's just that some folks felt behooved to add that "axolotls can't even digest mice" and that got me searching.

-Eva