Quote Originally Posted by Oxylepy View Post
Except for the fact that I specifically stated that it was I who saw the ethical problem with it, and not you or him. I was stating my own opinion, not presenting a law.

God you people are thick.
You don't have to be rude about it. I wasn't being rude to you. I was asking if there were any reasons other than personal ethics for not feeding quail.

It seems that really, the only thing that holds most back is that it's "not natural", but really, as Qiksilver said, most are feeding Norvegicus, which aren't the natural prey anyways, so if you're going to feed these rats instead of the real natural prey, then what's the difference? I'm sure a ball will take a ground dwelling bird in the wilds of Africa (or any bird, given the chance) just as easily as they would take a rat.
I'm not looking for personal ethics or opinions on the matter, because, well, everyone has one, but that doesn't make it "right". People could argue all day and night about what they think is right, but I want to get the solid facts and figure out if it would actually cause any type of harm to feed ball pythons quail, which, I haven't found any proof of yet. On the ethics side, there are some reasons not to, imprinting on quail and later selling the balls may cause problems for another owner, or starting balls out on quail and selling could cause problems, but that's not my concern. First, I plan to keep my adults, second, any babies would be started on rodents simply for "ease of use" for others, and, if for some reason I ever sold the adults that were imprinted on quail, I would sell them and make sure that any potential new owners knew full well that they were on quail and may never come off of them.
But, like I said, this isn't about personal ethics, it's about whether or not quail can be fed to snakes without causing any harm, and if there are any reasons (other than personal ethics) to not feed them. Who knew people would get so damned touchy over something as silly as "unnatural" diets (but still healthy, apparantly, as nobody can seem to give any real reason to not feed them).