Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey All,

This is something one of my friends asked me the other day and I honestly wasn't 100% on the answer. I was telling him about how anacondas can sometimes be problem feeders b/c they are used to eating birds in the wild and he asked me if you couldn't find baby chicks, could you use another bird? For example a parakeet or something else you could find at a local pet store with ease. I told him i doubt that you could due to disease transfer possibilities, but then raises the question of how is that any different from buying a chick at a hatchery? The conditions most chicks are in at a farm can't be much better than at a petstore. Just something i thought we could mull over and talk about....

thanks,
Jason

Jason,
I have used other birds in the past on those few occasions when I can't locate any chicks. They seem to work about as well. I don't know of anything that would transmit from birds to snakes with the possible exception of salmonella, but I don't know if it has been proven conclusively that the same strain of salmonella that effects birds is the same as the one that causes problems in reptiles. I have never had any problem issues with chicks and I have used them for many years.

Kelly

personally i started using quails. from chicks 1 day old all the way up to 10weeks, generally i only use 1 week old for babies

Cool, thanks guys. I've been wondering about it lately and thought it was an interesting question to pose and let the experts decide.

thanks again
Jason