Feeding Chondros Birds?

[Dabonus]

I know there are videos of people doing it floating around on the net, but everything I've read indicates that it's a terrible idea. It puts your GTP in unnecessary danger, wont be as nutritious as mice and will be much more expensive.

[mainbutter]

It puts your GTP in unnecessary danger

Agree

wont be as nutritious as mice

Disagree

and will be much more expensive.

Depends on the birds.

Really the only affordable feeder bird for the most part are f/t chicks (as in chickens). Birds are highly nutritious feeders, and in I wish that more species were available in more sizes. Many morelia species prey on birds, though some more than others. I'm not an expert on GTP prey items.

I've seen the videos of feeding live birds (usually finches) to GTPs. These are vids of someone getting a kick out of seeing an animal die, and to a lesser degree, the hunting capabilities of a tree-dwelling snake. IMO it's a bad idea, and too many of those people are just getting a sick thrill from seeing death and suffering. Also it has the potential to injure your snake. Especially living in a walled-in enclosure, getting GTPs to strike at flying birds can be dangerous, particularly from the snake colliding its head with the cage. Birds can be quite capable of defending themselves as well, and beaks can make for surprisingly bad eye injuries.

If you want to feed your snake a bird diet, or want to try birds because of a feeding strike, go for it. Just give F/T or pre-killed a shot first.