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Chicks as alternative Kingsnake food?

sarae

sarae

New member
I've been feeding rat pups (~30g each) to my kingsnake, but I'm not sure I like the way he's putting on weight with them and I'm not sure I like the price of ordering more :p

I can get a bag of 25 30g chicks for under $7... are chicks a healthy foodsource for kings? I know kings are dumpsters and can/will eat just about anything, but I want whats best for my snake and my wallet at the same time!

Any opinions?

sebastian082211.jpg
 
Not an expert by any means, nor do I have any kings, but I would think chicks have a lot of bone, and not much muscle mass or fat mass for nutritional value. Rat pups tend to have alot of bone, and rats in general have more fat than mice. Personally I would feed 2-3 mice instead of rats or chicks. I feed my 700 gram cornsnake 2 large mice every 14-18 days. Just my .02 though.

:eatsmiley
 
Just switch to mice. Less fattening than rat pups but more nutritious than chicks. Chicks really don't have much meat/protein/calsium/fat to them....so they are not as good as rodents. But large mice should do him fine for the rest of his life!
 
Thanks for that info. I wasn't sure how chicks compared to rodents.

I guess I'll be adding lg mice to my next order of food!
 
I have switched off between mice (or other rodents) and chicks for my corns for many decades, and it seems to work well. If I had to choose only one item, it would be rodents as I feel they offer more than chicks overall. But each species of prey offers different combos of nutrients, and snakes in the wild feed on a variety of species, not just one. So I like to offer more than just mice, too.

Most kings are not quite as stretchy as corns, so a young Cal king may have trouble eating a whole chick - you would have to give it a try.

Here is an article with various tables of nutrient values for many food items. Be sure to look at all of the tables for a good idea of how species compare. Then you can decide for yourself what you think is best. http://rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_03.asp
 
Thank you, kathy! I was looking for a chart that actually broke down the nutrients of each feeder. That's exactly what i needed.
 
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