Chicks as a staple

[tegu]

I was considering using chicks ( if the bps will take them ) instead of mice as the diet for bps, my vendor has them and weight wise theyre a good bit cheaper than mice. But, I was wondering if it is safe for chicks to be the bps only food intake, and what they are nutritionally compared to a rodent. If they arent good for the snakes, the tegu will definetly enjoy them .

[Jeanne]

1st, I wouldnt reccomend it. And their crap stinks worse if you feed them poultry.

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[Jeanne]

Try rats rather than mice.

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[tegu]

The rats I get are actually pretty expensive (more than twice as much as the mice or chicks, weight wise). I dont mind the smell much but if it can actually cause problems ill just occasionally feed them to the tegu since giving him all whole prey costs quite a bit. I figured it wouldnt be a great staple anyway.

[Jeanne]

In short.. Ball pythons are rodent eaters..not poultry.

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[PitOnTheProwl]

They are opportunistic feeders.
The problem with feeding chicks is that they can imprint on a food source and if you ever need to sell or rehome you might have caused a problem for the next person.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

By feeding chicks you will have runny smelly poop and calcium deficiency, is that worth saving money only you can answer that!

I have tried offering chick's before (not to save money but because I had too many of them) and every single BP turned their nose on them, the Blood had no issue.



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[DennisM]

I wouldn't. You might get stuck with a BP that only eats chicken. Will your vendor be able to provide larger chickens at reasonable cost as your BP grows? Probably not. Like Deborah, I too have had all attempts to feed chicks to BPs refused. I tried it a few times as I keep birds on hand for the carpet pythons who love them, but still feed primarily on rats.

[TurkeyPython]

I don't remember where I read it but in the wild male BPs eat 60-70% birds and only 30-40% rodents and females are the exact opposite. So it ought to be fine but he might get hooked on them and if you ever sell him or give him away that could be an issue for the new owner and I hear it makes the poody wet and stinky. I'll try to find where I saw that thing about their natural diets

[Yzmasmom]

Rats are nutritionally whole so they really are the best way to go.