Quail feeding experiment

[plateOfFlan]

I've seen a lot of people curious about feeding fowl but not too many trip reports so I thought I'd add mine. After reading that wild ball pythons eat a lot more birds than previously thought, I noticed LayneLabs offers day-old and week-old frozen quail so I ordered some of the week-olds, since the weight is about the same as a weaned rat.

40g quail vs 40g weaned rat:


Some observations on the f/t quail:
- because of their thin necks, there's no delicate way to put this, their heads tend to fall off when frozen
- when thawed they have a *much* stronger smell than frozen thawed rats! I assume this might evoke a good feeding response but it's kind of gross
- they are both longer and wider than a similar weight rat (see pic) which can give the BP some issues manipulating the feeder and figuring out how to eat it
- thawing works exactly the same as a weaned rat

My female would probably eat a chicken mcNugget if I waved it in front of her on tongs so I was pretty confident they'd get eaten. I offered the quail above and she hit it immediately, then seemed confused when she uncoiled and saw what she had. She was very determined to get it down though, and after 40 minutes of trial and error, took it back into her coils and simply crushed it until she felt she could get it down - butt-first. At one point I swear she was trying to gnaw the legs off to give herself a better shot at it. It was nervewracking to watch because I was convinced she was going to hurt herself either on the width of it or by cutting herself on the sharp bones or beak, but she was totally fine and stuffed by the end.

Now to see if the rumors of horrible bird poop are true. My male is a pretty inconsistent feeder so I want him to get on a good streak of taking rats and then I'll offer him one too - when the female was working on this one he had his head fully out of the hide sniffing around so I think he recognizes the smell as food, which is encouraging!

[Bogertophis]

I've only fed chicks a couple times- like you, I worried about the snake getting internally injured by the awkward beak or toenails, & while my snakes (the few that tried them) had no apparent issues, I've stuck with rodents ever since. I can see the value of switching up prey items for snakes that will accept them though. Thanks for sharing your experience with this.

[Daniel_Effler]

I've got a male banana ball python that will not eat anything but birds and I feed the Frozen thawed quail like you have there all the time. So far I have not noticed any problems at all with this diet. I like the nutritional profile of the quail a lot better than baby chicks.

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[WrongPython]

I've been feeding quail to my crew (two boas and a carpet python) for about a year now without issue. Yeah, the claws and beaks look pretty intimidating, but it's nothing a snake can't handle, and you can always trim the feet and heads off the feeder with a pair of shears if you're really worried. And to be fair to fowl, rodents aren't without pointy bits either -- their incisors are really something.

With a few more feedings your female should learn how to manipulate a quail more efficiently. Learning how to handle prey is something of a skill, and she just needs more time to hone that with a new prey item.

If your male is an inconsistent feeder on rodents and seems interested in quail, why not offer him one the next time he's hungry? Maybe he secretly prefers fowl instead. The paper I think you're referencing found that male royals actually have a more fowl-heavy diet in the wild, so maybe that's what he'd actually like to eat.

Oh, and for what it's worth, my crew's waste doesn't seem to smell any worse with quail mixed into their diet. A roughly 50/50 split between rodent and fowl seems to dampen any foul smells.

[plateOfFlan]

I've been feeding quail to my crew (two boas and a carpet python) for about a year now without issue. Yeah, the claws and beaks look pretty intimidating, but it's nothing a snake can't handle, and you can always trim the feet and heads off the feeder with a pair of shears if you're really worried. And to be fair to fowl, rodents aren't without pointy bits either -- their incisors are really something.

With a few more feedings your female should learn how to manipulate a quail more efficiently. Learning how to handle prey is something of a skill, and she just needs more time to hone that with a new prey item.

If your male is an inconsistent feeder on rodents and seems interested in quail, why not offer him one the next time he's hungry? Maybe he secretly prefers fowl instead. The paper I think you're referencing found that male royals actually have a more fowl-heavy diet in the wild, so maybe that's what he'd actually like to eat.

Oh, and for what it's worth, my crew's waste doesn't seem to smell any worse with quail mixed into their diet. A roughly 50/50 split between rodent and fowl seems to dampen any foul smells.

The beaks, especially on the babies, I think aren't as hard as they look. And yeah, watching her puzzle over it I realized she's also getting mental enrichment from being confronted with something new. I'm hoping the male goes for them too