Skinning mice?

[Guest]

I know of some people who're into taxidermy and usually the product left over is a skinless corpse...

Seeing as fur appears to be the main culprit of impaction and blockage, wouldn't you suppose it'd be fine to feed a skinless mouse/rat more frequently than usual? The only thing it'd be missing is the nutrients from the skin but seeing as a tegu should have huge variety of food, I imagine they wouldn't be missing much in terms of nutrients.

Thoughts? Aside from the fact that it's messy

 

[TheKid12]

I honestly see no point in it,a tegu being feed a healthy diet of rodents(as in one or two a week) should not have to worry about impaction,people go over board and feed around 5mice at a sitting and that's where the impaction problem come's from. The skin is easily digested and serves a purpose in the tegus diet, let me ask you this,in the wild when a tegu eats a rodent,does it whip out it's shaving kit and razor blade and skin and shave the mouse? No. I think the skinning is really uncalled for and kind of cruel in a way(i know the rodent will be dead) but still just yuckk,. And don't you think such exposure to flesh would make the gu go crazy during a feeding? I just see no point in skinless mice,hairless yes. I am not trying to be rude or anything,i am just a curious kid and need facts in order to believe something,and quite frankly the skinning will serve no purpose if you ask me.

 

[Guest]

As a person getting into taxidermy, I'd have a lot of skinless corpse sitting around. Throwing them out wouldn't be an option. So, why not feed them to a tegu.

I'm not going to skin a tegu's lunch just simply for the sake of skinning it for a tegu. I'm skinning it (the prey) for its skin and the tegu gets the by-product i.e. the corpse.

What purpose does the skin serve other than an addition of nutrients, might I ask? Just curious.

 

[TheKid12]

Ok,So your feeding it that because you have the extra corpse laying around,makes since, i thought you were going to go buy and then skin them just because your afraid of impaction.

A tegu feed a healthy diet of rodents and other foods would not have to worry about fur impaction if the rodents are being feed properly and not on a every day thing.

I have a friend whose tegu will only eat rodents and some times take beef and tilapia,everything else he turns his nose up at,and he will only take the beef and tilapia on rare occasions so mostly he is on a two rats a week diet and he is doing great,not shed problems or health issues,he is vet certified as well.

Good luck with this new thing,let me know how it goes for you.

 

[slideaboot]

Oh god. Ew.

 

[Guest]

lol People say "Ew." to the weirdest things.

Raw meat, dead rodents, hearts, liver, etc A-OKAY... BUT SKINNED MICE? NOPE.



I'll let y'all know how it goes when I start it up. In the mean time, I have ferrets, dog and cats to feed the naked rodents to. lol

 

[TheKid12]

Ferrets are amazing pet's to keep,i do not understand why more people don't keep them.Looking forward to see how this turns out for you,who knows you might start,the skinned mice craze lol.

 

[Guest]

They're illegal in many places and people still think they're wild animals. Despite the fact that they're domesticated...

And I find that too many people feed them really, really bad diets. "Ferret food" and cat food don't cut it. Ferret food is generally very bad for them. There are very few brands that I find suitable to feed them.

 

[Toby_H]

Seeing as fur appears to be the main culprit of impaction and blockage, wouldn't you suppose it'd be fine to feed a skinless mouse/rat more frequently than usual?

Using a hairless or skinless mouse would remove the 'risk' of impaction... though rodents are typically considered high in fat content as well (though not much more than most other foods).

I personally use frozen/thawed hairless mice and they make up full meals for my Tegu about twice a week.

I honestly see no point in it,a tegu being feed a healthy diet of rodents(as in one or two a week) should not have to worry about impaction,people go over board and feed around 5mice at a sitting and that's where the impaction problem come's from.

When dealing with baby Tegus this advice makes sense, but my 10 lb adult eats 1/2 lb meals on a daily basis in the summer. So "one or two mice a week" is not what I would consider "a healthy diet of rodents"... and feeding "5 mice at a sitting" is still a small meal for the day...


Personally, I have no judgements of anyone who wants to shave or skin their own rodents. The simple answer to the question is yes it will remove the concern of impactation, but it leaves the concern of high fat content....

 

[Guest]

Where is it stated that mice are high in fat when compared to other food?

 

[Draco D Tegu]

Actually I have a question....does anyone have a website listing the fat/nutritional analysis of rats versus mice?

I've heard that overall rats are much leaner than mice, when fed young active rodents (as opposed to fat older rats).

 

[Guest]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp</a><!-- m -->

Rats (10g, young rats to be comparable to adult mice):
Crude Protein: 56.1 - 57.9%
Crude Fat: 23.7% - 27.5%
Calcium: 1.85 - 2.07%
Phos.: N/A

Mouse (10g):
Crude Protein: 55.8%
Crude Fat: 23.6
Calcium: 2.98%
Phos.: 1.72%

 

[Toby_H]

Where is it stated that mice are high in fat when compared to other food?

Below...

http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

Rats (10g, young rats to be comparable to adult mice):
Crude Protein: 56.1 - 57.9%
Crude Fat: 23.7% - 27.5%
Calcium: 1.85 - 2.07%
Phos.: N/A

Mouse (10g):
Crude Protein: 55.8%
Crude Fat: 23.6
Calcium: 2.98%
Phos.: 1.72%

Whole prey in general (mice, rats, chicks) are higher in fat content than most other "prepared foods" meant for human consumption, which is where most of my 'non-whole-prey' come from...

...although acknowledging that, I do not feel that whole prey are "dangerously high" in fat content. i use whole prey as Tegu food quite frequently (about 50%).