He ate!...a chick!

Hi,

My BP is around a year old and has been off of his food for 2.5months now. Ive kept his husbandry perfect and handling to a minimum bvut he wouldnt eat at all. SO, today I was feeding my Taiwan Beauty snake some chicks, and I decided to chuck one in the BPs tub to see if he'd be interested (I had doubts as I dont think Ive ever read about a BP eating chicks on this site). Anyway, he scoffed the lot straight away, no hesitation. Im not sure if this was the switch from mice/rats to chicks which made him eat, or whether it was just his day to break the fast.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to see if any one else out there feeds chicks? And what are the nutritional values of such a food item? Chicks are ideal for me as they only cost £0.06 each!! :)

Cheers

SHOTTY

In the US chicks aren't as common (except maybe around Easter) so they don't make the normal diet of ball pythons (I would guess they don't make the diet of most snakes here)...but Ball Pythons are ambush hunters so I could easily see it happening and my guess is in the wild baby birds are eatin often by Balls.


Glad you got him to eat.

I fed my monitors chicks, they are cheap at rodent pro, but
i never fed one to my balls.

In the wild, bird remains are often found in the stool of young ball pythons. (Or in the stomachs of dead ones)


From what I understand, it won't hurt to feed a chick...but expect to have some pretty nasty, runny stools afterward. I'm not sure an all-bird diet would be healthy for the life of the snake, though. Studies of wild behavior show a significant change-over to a mostly rodent diet as they mature.

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Originally Posted by JLC

In the wild, bird remains are often found in the stool of young ball pythons. (Or in the stomachs of dead ones)


From what I understand, it won't hurt to feed a chick...but expect to have some pretty nasty, runny stools afterward. I'm not sure an all-bird diet would be healthy for the life of the snake, though. Studies of wild behavior show a significant change-over to a mostly rodent diet as they mature.

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cheers for the advice, and you dont have to tell me about runny stool, my taiwan beauty snake eats mostly chicks at the mo (shes gone off rats for a while) and her poo is disgusting! Not easy to clean as well. I really would like to get my BP back on rats/mice, but i think ill stick with chicks for 2 more weeks and then try another rodent. I tried gerbils, as i heard these were readily taken by BP, but he wasnt interested, he only wanted the chick.

cheers for the help, do u think the chances of him switchin back to rodents are high?

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Originally Posted by shotty

cheers for the help, do u think the chances of him switchin back to rodents are high?

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I have no idea, as I have no personal experience with this. I would guess though...that if all other things in his environment are correct...then when he gets hungry enough, he'll take whatever food is available.

Good luck with it, whatever route you choose to go!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shotty

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to see if any one else out there feeds chicks? And what are the nutritional values of such a food item? Chicks are ideal for me as they only cost £0.06 each!! :)
Cheers SHOTTY

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As far as nutritional value you can find the info here http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp

I would be concern of runny smelly stool, would also be concerned about the fact that BP are imprint feeder and what will happen if he never switch back to Rodents, and what if you had to re-home your BP and he was exclusively eating Chicks. I don't say it will happen but you never know, you should stick with rodent diet, rat or mice whatever works for him.

You mentioned your BP is off feed which can happen but I would double check everything

Temperature 32.5-34.5 C on the warm side and 27-29 C on the cool side
Humidity 50%-60%

Going off feed is often related to husbandry, breeding, illness, stress, overfeeding

I've also heard of bps being offered chicks and never going back to rodents. Same deal with gerbils too. IMO I would re-think offering chicks for another 2 weeks.

Another point that should be taken is chicks(poultry in general) are festering cesspools of parasites and salmonella. Ever been to a chick hatchery? They are frequently disgusting, and chicks are kept en mass letting anything that is transmitted to them to spread rampantly as they stomp and eat each others feces. Bad idea all around imo

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Originally Posted by Ridley

Another point that should be taken is chicks(poultry in general) are festering cesspools of parasites and salmonella. Ever been to a chick hatchery? They are frequently disgusting, and chicks are kept en mass letting anything that is transmitted to them to spread rampantly as they stomp and eat each others feces. Bad idea all around imo

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That is a very generalised and poor comment to make. Where do rats and mice live naturally? The sewers and around trashcans, most full of disease and parasites! Rodents you buy as feeders are bread for the purpose and hence are healthy...its the same with the chicks i buy!! I dont mind help on this subject, but when advice like that is given it annoys me. I know SOME hatcheries are really unhygenic, but I buy all my feeders from a respectible online breeder who breeds chicks in no more unsanitary conditions than the rodents, its all very safe! Ill try and switch back to rodents of course, but surely a chick eating snake is better than a snake that wont eat anything?! Gimme 2 weeks, my BP will be slamming rats again...hopefully.