Interesting article concerning day old chicks

[paulh]

Article looks interesting, though I've only skimmed the summary.

A different forum's piece about chicks.
Suitability of day-old chicks as food for captive snakes - Reptile Forums

Day old chicks generally are not fed before disposal. That is, if they come directly from the hatchery. If not from a commercial hatchery, they could be several days old and been given food and water during that time. If hatchery killed chicks contain antibiotics, they came through the mother during egg development. Commercial food generally does contain low levels of antibiotics.

IMO, day old chicks are too big for most garters. So suitability as food is moot. On the other hand, I've fed plenty of adult birds to a variety of larger colubrids, boids, and at least rattlesnake. No obvious problems.

[ConcinusMan]

Suitability of day-old chicks as food for captive snakes | Kevin Arbuckle - Academia.edu

Has anyone fed them to their garters?

Yes but they were the chicks of Sturnus vulgaris and Passer domesticus, 1-5 days old. In the wild, I have observed them (T. s. concinnus) eating the chicks of Agelaius phoeniceus.

IMO, day old chicks are too big for most garters. So suitability as food is moot.

So? It's not moot. A large trout, or a chicken is too big for baby garters, but you can still feed it to them. All you need is a knife or scissors.

[Invisible Snake]

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Thought this chart would be helpful

[JosvdB]

Very interesting to see the big differences concerning the minerals. And I figured that the fat percentage of pinky mice and rats would actually be higher than the adults, at least that's what I commonly read on forums. I wonder if they took into account that pinky mice often have mother's milk still in their belly.