do you feed anything else to your balls besides rats?

have you ever fed any other prey item? my ball has eaten a few baby chicks and a hamster along with rats and mice. anyone else?

i've never considered feeding anything but mice or rats to my bp. what would be the benefit of feeding it chicks and other things?

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Originally Posted by krood

i've never considered feeding anything but mice or rats to my bp. what would be the benefit of feeding it chicks and other things?

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No benefit. You will just end up with a picky eater.

....and snakes that eat birds have horrid feces.

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Originally Posted by krood

i've never considered feeding anything but mice or rats to my bp. what would be the benefit of feeding it chicks and other things?

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i dont know chicks are cheaper and whats wrong with variety? although he did get a little picky.

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Originally Posted by djansen

whats wrong with variety? although he did get a little picky.

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I think it's because snakes eat for sustainment. They aren't like people who get together and go out to restaurants and order extravagant meals...I dont' think they need or care for variety...jmo...:)

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Originally Posted by sho220

I think it's because snakes eat for sustainment. They aren't like people who get together and go out to restaurants and order extravagant meals...I dont' think they need or care for variety...jmo...:)

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I know :D

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Originally Posted by djansen

i dont know chicks are cheaper and whats wrong with variety? although he did get a little picky.

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I know what you are saying ... many species of mammals, birds, fish, lizards, etc, benefit from a varied diet.

Ball pythons, however, are very specialized and can thrive on a diet of healthy rodent prey.

They aren't like those other animals you are making the comparison to ... and they actually do better when kept on a single type of prey.

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Originally Posted by sho220

I think it's because snakes eat for sustainment. They aren't like people who get together and go out to restaurants and order extravagant meals...I dont' think they need or care for variety...jmo...:)

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Although I agree balls are imprint feeders, I talked to a very wise gecko breeder. The same may not apply for snakes but what he said made plenty of sense.
He stated that he feeds his geckos all different kinds of insects b/c its not practical that the animal can get all the nutrients on just a single prey type. I have no clue about the wild diet of BP and if they just eat a single species or multiple species.
Just my $.02 on it

I think that the amount of ball pythons that have been/are being raised successfully on an all-rodent diet shows that they do quite well on a non-varied diet. Check with any of the larger ball breeders, and I think you'll find they all feed all-rodent diets. It's what works.
If you feel that your snake will benefit from feeding chicks, or different types of rodents, that's your choice. But if your snake decides to eat only chicks at some point(ball pythons being known for doing silly things like preferring a certain color mouse) you'll have to go out of your way to find chicks. Then they might not be cheaper.
I feed rats. Simple, easy, and the snakes eat 'em.
Wolfy

So I guess tacos are out of the question? :)