Pinky mice??

[hulker75]

Ok this may be controversial but i've heard of people using pinky mice on occasion to keep weight on there leos. Any opinions on this?

 

[Gregg M]

With a diet of properly supplemented, gut loaded insects, there is no reason what so ever to feed pinky mice to a leo... None of my adult breeders are fed rodents...

Pinky mice should not substitute proper husbandry...

 

[gators0204]

I dont think it would be considered improper husbandry. I myself have never done it as it would be to costly even if i did, but i know a few who have and they by no means dont practice proper husbandry. They are kinda like a treat/breeding season pick me up i suppose. They do contain loads of protien and calcium in one shot.

I do agree with you gregg that it is not a need.

 

[Gregg M]

I did not mean that feeding pinkies is improper husbandry but in the long run it can be seen as such... I was just saying it should not be put in place of proper husbandry... Get what I am saying... If all of you dietary, heat, humidity requirements are met, there is no need for the extra protein and calcium from rodents... Surely there is no need for the mammalian fats or lactic acid found in pinkies... Infact those things are not beneficial at all and can actually be detrimental to your leos health...

 

[gators0204]

I dont know about it being detrimental to the health of a leo, but like i said I do agree with you that it is not needed.
Just like you said "If all of you dietary, heat, humidity requirements are met" then i agree that should be plenty.

 

[Sunrise Reptile]

I agree with Gregg that, in the long run, pinkie mice can have a negative impact on a leo's health. I'm 110% certain I've even seen this in writing somewhere. It's advised to only feed pinkies in strict moderation. :main_yes:

And I've never fed pinkies, but I've seen leos feed on them. And based on the head shaking, I don't think you would want to clean up the enclosure after that. If you don't know what I'm getting at, think it over. It should be pretty easy to figure out. :main_yes:

 

[Ga_herps]

Out of all the years I have fed pinkies to females during egg laying I have never seen any ill effects. I use frozen thawed pinkies on all of them and they rarely get more then four per gecko per egg laying season. I could see where if you were shoveling 2 a week down a gecko it could have detrimental results, but in moderation I have not seen any bad results in the 10+ years of using them the way described above.

 

[clear]

From what I have read, its ok to give pinkies to females that just had eggs. The extra fat in the mice gives the females what they need to put some weight back on.

 

[dunderpate]

'Everything' in moderation. My Leo is 8. I only give him the smallest of pinky mice as a treat, like twice a year, sometimes once, or none at all. Not sure how fat Leo's can get once they hit adulthood, but for health reasons pinkies should never replace their regular diet.

I have fed my Leo medium-size gutloaded fruit and veggie superworms, crickets once and a while for exercise and coordination, . The occasional waxworms, and mealworms, but he goes too crazy for those, 98 % supers.

 

[Gregg M]

From what I have read, its ok to give pinkies to females that just had eggs. The extra fat in the mice gives the females what they need to put some weight back on.

You can achieve the exact same thing in the same time frame by properly heating your leo and giving it a properly gutloaded insect diet...

Ask Marcia, she can tell you that leos do not take well to lactic acid found in nursing pinky mice...

No need for rodent prey in captivity...

 

[shawn119]

Only give pinkies to adult leos.

 

[gators0204]

Out of all the years I have fed pinkies to females during egg laying I have never seen any ill effects. I use frozen thawed pinkies on all of them and they rarely get more then four per gecko per egg laying season. I could see where if you were shoveling 2 a week down a gecko it could have detrimental results, but in moderation I have not seen any bad results in the 10+ years of using them the way described above.

Thats what I was saying about the people i know who give their leos pinkies. Your just another example.

I'll take years of experience over hearsay any day. I run into this in the military all the time, officers who think they know everything from books but never experienced real world combat or whatever pertains to the situation. I'll lead my soldiers with experience not with info written by a civilian with no military experiance.

 

[jukahman]

I tried to feed my geckos with pinkie mice but they never seem to like it...they just ignored it...

 

[Brewster320]

I feed my geckos pinkies every now and then (probably once every 2 months) but usually they only get feed pinkies when one of my snakes decides it doesn't want to eat and I don't wanna waist it so it usually goes to one of my Leos or my brother's green frogs. Also feeding frozen thawed is best when it comes to cost because you can buy a large amount and it can last a year or more in the freezer. Try to remeber that in the wild geckos usually don't eat small animals, I'm sure on ocassion they do for example if they happened to find a mouse nest, a smaller lizard or snake, or maybe even a small bird nest in a burrow or something, but they evoled to eat insects so do many rodents can be hard on their digestive system.

 

[KnECritters]

My adults will be getting pinkies every so often. Mostly, breeding females and any animal I get in that is way too thin (I rescue a bit...). I also have one female leo that isn't losing weight, but she also does not gain weight. No parasites or anything of that sort, but the person I got her from (gave her to me because she didn't gain weight) said that the previous owner before him had given her pinkies every so often, which she loved.

I'm breeding (well, about to) African soft furred rats for my tegus, so once the little ones are born, I'll be feeding some to the leos (especially that one female), but like I said, every so often (maybe once every two months or so). The pinkies that I'll be feeding are going to be ones that are born right in front of me, so I can snatch them up before they start nursing. And don't worry, African soft furred rats are really small (only a bit bigger than a mouse) so their babies aren't going to be too big for my leos.

 

[gothkenny]

When mine becomes an adult, I plan on giving him about two a year. I have a constant supplier of mice and its always been my intentions to give them as treats. :]