# Rattlesnake meat, yay or nay?



## Compnerd7 (Aug 10, 2012)

In the last two days I have gotten 2 good sized Rattlesnakes ( 40in+ ). One was on the side of the road alive, as I ran to go grab it and save his life, but he struck at a passerby's tire right before I grabbed him... He was mortally wounded so when I got him home I put him out of his misery and skinned him. A beautiful Red Diamond Back. I hated to see such a beautiful snake go... But I also gutted, cleaned and kept the meat. Here is a pic before It was skinned:






The very next day I went to my brothers house and we saw a Rattlesnake on the side of the road, and of course, when I got out to grab him a car came and ran him right over , so I grabbed him, but he died fast. It was another big nice Northern Pacific Rattlesnake. I did the same thing with him.





Now, I am not a huge fan of Rattlesnake meat, I might eat half of one snake if I can get the seasoning right. But if I cooked it up, do you think that it would make a fine meal for a Tegu? I do personally don't see an issue with it.. Bacteria and Virus get killed at around 265 degrees, and IF some of their venom were to have ruptured in the head and leaked into the meat ( literally one billion to one odds of that ever happening ), Hemotoxon / Nerotoxin also break down into good proteins around 256 degrees. I know for a fact that one of the snakes Venom sacs both remained in tact, because I removed them from the head. The venom goes to pharmaceutics to make anti-venom, and this was way easier then milking the snakes I find. Please do not ask questions about permits and getting involved in selling snake venom, it requires A LOT of effort, and is a hard to get in to unless you know jump through a lot of hoops, and know the right people. 

Anyways, I thought that snake meat ( cooked ) would be a good treat for a Tegu, because it contains lots of protein and little fat. Any comments on this?


One more " odd " food ltem...

I few months ago I took a good amount of Bullfrog / Green Frog / Leopard Frog tadpoles out of a local creek because they are a bad invasive species. Since then, I have given away the tad poles and I am stuck with 3 Bullfrogs, 1 is now a frog, the other 2 are still tadpoles. I Don't know what to do with these frogs (Hind site 20/20 I should have used them for fishing bait). Killing them just to be rid of them is not really an option with me. I have grown to like one of the Bullfrogs I named Jeremiah ( tacky name for a bullfrog I know ) and I am going to keep him, but the other 2 I was thinking of raising up myself in a controlled environment, and feeding them to my Tegu. IS there something Bullfrogs carry or are made of that would be harmful to a Tegu? My Tegu absolutely LOVES live food, but I no longer give him live mice because he gets bit sometimes and we all know that is the more ethical choice. I would prefer to give him the frogs live, I am sure he would kill them very fast, but I would gladly cater to people's feelings on live prey and execute the frogs quickly and serve raw or cook. Thoughts?


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## Styx (Aug 12, 2012)

I honestly think you really only have the issue of disease and parasites being spread to your tegu, and cooking the meat would kill that so there theoretically shouldn't be an issue with it.

I guess the only other thing I could think of would be some toxins the animal might have ingested via a food item (ie, secondary poisoning) but that is really unlikely with rattlers. 

I'm not sure what contaminants a bullfrog might come into contact with in your area. I know frogs carry a number of different organisms which could be potentially harmful to another animal, one that comes to mind is Entamoeba invadens that is particularly nasty when crested geckos come into contact with it. They can also carry a lot of nematodes and such, which the frogs may have been infected with as tads - or not. That being said I have no idea if there is anything specific you should be concerned about, and it's almost impossible to say conclusively if the frogs have something that could harm your tegu or not. Me, I'm pretty paranoid about that sort of thing so if it was me I would just cook it.


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## chelvis (Aug 12, 2012)

Tegus in the wild have been seen eating neo-tropical rattle snakes so the meat should be fine. Funny thing about their venom, if you ingest it you will not get sick, it has to be injected into the blood stream. The only way to get ill effects from snake venom via ingestion is if you have a stomach ulcers then the venom can get directly into the blood stream, otherwise the GI tract will just brake down the proteins. That aside either cooking the meat or freezing the meat (both frog and snake) will help kill anything biologic they may have.


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## Quartzyellowjacket (Aug 12, 2012)

chelvis said:


> Tegus in the wild have been seen eating neo-tropical rattle snakes so the meat should be fine. Funny thing about their venom, if you ingest it you will not get sick, it has to be injected into the blood stream. The only way to get ill effects from snake venom via ingestion is if you have a stomach ulcers then the venom can get directly into the blood stream, otherwise the GI tract will just brake down the proteins. That aside either cooking the meat or freezing the meat (both frog and snake) will help kill anything biologic they may have.



So a venomous snake can't kill me if I eat it? I will use my new found knowledge only for good.


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## Diablo (Aug 12, 2012)

Wait alcohol gets into your bloodstream through your stomach...so why doesn't venom do the same thing? I might be totally off in my knowledge with this but am just wondering.


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## spark678 (Aug 12, 2012)

This man eats them live should be safe either way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4RmkdAoQB0 forward to about 1:50


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## got10 (Aug 12, 2012)

the tegu can eat the rattlesnakes


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## Compnerd7 (Aug 12, 2012)

Diablo said:


> Wait alcohol gets into your bloodstream through your stomach...so why doesn't venom do the same thing? I might be totally off in my knowledge with this but am just wondering.



Chevis is right is here is the science of the subject... 

Venom, when ingested orally, can be broken down into proteins that are not harmful. There is a flip side to this venom coin haha.. While swallowing venom, if it is hemotoxic, can quickly get into you throat, and start breaking down tissue. It really depends on what kind of venom were talking about too.. They do not all possess the same strength. Can you inject Venom? Yes. Do the pros weigh out the cons?... I don't see any pros in the subject lol, but you can. But I should say, don't swallow venom, period haha. 

Now the northern Pacific Rattlesnake has both Hemo and Nero toxin. If you swallow that, you are in for a painful experience most likely resulting in death. A really bad combo. I owned a Pacific Rattlesnake for quite some time, his name was Striker. He almost drown in a pool and a friend of mine saved him for me, and I had a nice cage built for him that was specifically designed for Rattlesnakes. After 8 months, he reached about 18in ( he was 10in when I got him ) and his strike range was just too much for me to deal with and so I let him go deep in an Ecological preserve way before he reached that 12 month period of being in captivity.



Styx said:


> I'm not sure what contaminants a bullfrog might come into contact with in your area. I know frogs carry a number of different organisms which could be potentially harmful to another animal, one that comes to mind is Entamoeba invadens that is particularly nasty when crested geckos come into contact with it. They can also carry a lot of nematodes and such, which the frogs may have been infected with as tads - or not. That being said I have no idea if there is anything specific you should be concerned about, and it's almost impossible to say conclusively if the frogs have something that could harm your tegu or not. Me, I'm pretty paranoid about that sort of thing so if it was me I would just cook it.



Good advice. Cooked bullfrog it is! The legs I may keep for myself haha.


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## Thelegendofcharlie (Aug 12, 2012)

Cooking will denature the protein. He will receive little to no nutritional benefit from it. Your best solution is to freeze it for approximately 2 weeks. This will be just as effective in destroying pathogens as cooking.
And dont you dare waste good frog legs - Thats a crime where I live. 
And yeah - superb looking rattles.


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## Compnerd7 (Aug 12, 2012)

Thelegendofcharlie said:


> Cooking will denature the protein. He will receive little to no nutritional benefit from it. Your best solution is to freeze it for approximately 2 weeks. This will be just as effective in destroying pathogens as cooking.
> And dont you dare waste good frog legs - Thats a crime where I live.
> And yeah - superb looking rattles.




Yeah I have both snakes in the freezer, that should do as far as killing off what is needed.. Don't want to cook them and have the meat pointless as far as nutrition wise


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## Thelegendofcharlie (Aug 12, 2012)

Compnerd7 said:


> Thelegendofcharlie said:
> 
> 
> > Cooking will denature the protein. He will receive little to no nutritional benefit from it. Your best solution is to freeze it for approximately 2 weeks. This will be just as effective in destroying pathogens as cooking.
> ...



Bon appetit!


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