Suitability of day-old chicks as food for captive snakes

Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition
K Arbuckle

Abstract

Snakes are increasingly kept by private hobbyists and their numbers in the pet trade are increasing. Since suitable diets are essential for the health, welfare and maintenance of captive animals, objective research is required to improve and evaluate current feeding practices. Unfortunately, the husbandry of reptiles is frequently led by tradition, resulting in methods which are not evidence based. One such occurrence is the widespread belief that day-old chicks (DOCs) are unsuitable as food for captive snakes. Since this assumption has not been systematically assessed, herein I review the evidence in order to provide a more informed basis from which to evaluate the suitability of chicks in relation to rodent prey. Commonly expressed nutritional, ecological and husbandry-related concerns are examined using compilations of previously published data, new data, prior experience and nutrient compositions obtained from the Zootrition™ database. Day-old chicks were compared with two rodent species (mice and rats) since these are the most commonly used alternative prey item. Rodents were clearly the better option only in their 'naturalness', in that mammalian prey species are more frequently represented in natural diets than birds. I ...Continue Reading

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Aug 17, 2014·Toxicon : Official Journal of the International Society on Toxinology·N OguiuraB C Prezoto
Dec 2, 2014·Nurse Education in Practice·Sigrid WangensteenGun Nordström
May 5, 2016·Journal of Nursing Scholarship : an Official Publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing·John Rodwell, Julia Ellershaw
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Jun 10, 2014·Journal of Community Psychology·Sarah E Ullman, Liana Peter-Hagene
Jul 30, 2014·Brain : a Journal of Neurology·Aron K BarbeyJordan H Grafman

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