Feeder Chicks

My biggest worry, outside of the concerns Clay mentioned, is the higher incidence and more virulent strains of Salmonella and E-coli found in domestic poultry.

Sure, there are some strains of salmonella that are naturally occuring in some herps, but the strains carried by chickens are frequently much... much... MUCH nastier and could potentially sicken or even kill a herp which consumes an infected chicken.

Same goes for e-coli only more so, since it's not found anywhere near as frequently in the intestinal tract of reptiles.

When needing to get a stubborn feeder to eat something and rodents were refused... and the species would be naturally inclined to take birds rather than other herps... I've always felt more comfortable with hatchling button quail. The same potentials are there, but the breeding process seems less intense since the resale market is lower, the animals don't come into contact with their own feces to the same degree and never get a chance to build up those massive pathogen loads.

One question though... if anyone knows offhand... Can non-Psittacines get or carry psittacosis? If they can, what kind of infection rate is there in domesticated chickens?

When i was keeping large burms & retics i had a person that had a large chicken farm and pig farm he would let a few of us set feezers on hi farm and he would give up any & all still born pigs/goats so he didnt have to pay to dispose of them .He also told me he wouldsell me male roosters for $.25 each i dont mean babieseither so i took home like $20 worth once and feed the burms & retics .. now if you have never seen a 16ft retic or burm push the feathers out of the disposal end .. let me tell you FOWL isnt the word i would stick to rodent and wabbits .... the chicks aint worth the odor andthe heaving in cleaning cages lol ... the baby pigs & goats now ... well that was another story ever seen them hoofs going down? lol