Way cool info Marcia. I am SO glad to learn this. I can raise chickens easier and cheaper than rabbits, but I have always avoided it just due to my apprehension concerning possible Salmonella contamination/poisoning. I used to feed my colonies in the 80's a LOT of chickens, but I also seemed to have a lot of puking and intestinal problems. I attributed this to likely be Salmonella and I stopped using chickens as a direct result. But I would LOVE to stir up the diet with a chicken every other meal or every third meal. Now that I feel safer doing this. Can you post a link to where you read about this? I would like to read the entire thing before I jump in with both feet. Thanks a bunch.


>>I highly recommend feeding chickens. It is a nutritious and tasty treat that helps guard against a highly restricted diet of thawed out rabbits - over and over and over- and the deficiencies that diet could create.
>>As long as you get your chickens from a good source, you aren't risking salmonella poisoning. A recently concluded study on food animal production by the University of Iowa (if I remember correctly)found that only 3% of salmonella cases originated at the farm level. Most problems with salmonella originate in the processing plants which is why it is a bad idea to feed reptiles -or any animal- raw processed chicken or pork.
>>I have a retic that feeds mainly on freshly-killed chickens and she is gorgeous. I have no doubt that a snake can be properly maintained on freshly killed chickens its entire life as well as it could on freshly killed rabbits or pigs.
>>Now before anyone starts talking about how he has fed only thawed rabbits for fifty years and his snakes are the healthiest in the world- I want to say that it is my personal understanding from my experience and conversations with serious hobbysists and professionals throughout the years that a freshly killed diet is best and that nutritional deficiencies can manifest with all sorts of symptoms that may not be directly attributed to diet. I don't want to make this reply longer than it is so I will not post the deatils. If you cannot feed freshly-killed the next best thing for the health of your Burmese is to vary the diet.
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>>Marcia Pimentel
>>Tango River Reptiles
>>GiantFeeders
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Sytstems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>

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