Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is my first snake ever and he has been GREAT! I got him 4 months ago at about 24 inches long - he never strikes, never runs, and always eats! I read that it is good for them to eat a baby chick every now and then. I have always fed him frozen mice. My questions are, is it good to give a chick and, if so, how? Do I have to "kill" it, or give it live? Will giving him live prey make him learn to strike to eat? Again, he has never struck any mice, and I'm not sure he'd even know how to kill live prey.

my corns and black rats love quail chicks. I feed them 1-2 week old thawed ones, they have no problems getting them down. The anery A I posted below ONLY eats quail; she was a nonfeeder given to me...

I am sure it would not hurt, but i have never heard or read that you would need to feed chicks for health reasons..

As far as trying live prey.. i would bet that your snake would kill just about any food item you put in front of it. But, if the snake is eating thawed i would stick with that.

~ Mike

Rodents contain all the nutrition that a corn snake needs. While there's no harm in feeding chicks to corn snakes, they don't provide any nutritional benefit over rodents. Also, some snakes become "hooked" on eating a particular type of food (some will only eat rats, some will only eat mice, etc.).

With this in mind, it's possible that your snake is so accustomed to eating mice that it would refuse a chick OR after eating one chick, it might become "hooked," and only want chicks henceforth.

Tim

Third Eye

feeding poultry to snakes makes their defecations VERY smelly.
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phflame
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