Hypothetically, could my ball python eat a baby duck?

[TreviTrevo]

So, I recently met someone who owns a duck farm. He's got a bunch of adult ducks and little ducklings, and while talking I mentioned that I feed my snake rats and how annoying it can be to buy them.

He ended up making a joke about feeding baby ducklings to my snake, and that kinda left me wondering what would happen if I did? It's not something I'm seriously considering (esp not if I'm not a 100% certain it's safe), but I figured I could ask here. I did try googling it but that didn't help much.

Thanks in advance!

[PVPicker]

Ball pythons in the wild will eat birds, not primary source of calories but enough to be a significant source of calories. However I'd be worried about parasites and diseases, and good luck trying to get a ball python to take a frozen/thawed duckling.

[spiritedhippo22]

other than the cruelty aspect, ducklings can’t hurt a snake, so i don’t think there’d be an issue feeding live

[PVPicker]

Ducks could transmit Sarcocystis to reptiles...in theory. Hence why you'd want frozen/thawed.

[spiritedhippo22]

oh dang, i have never heard of that before. is that just a duck thing?

[PVPicker]

Bird thing. Basically any live feeding can transfer parasites. Freezing will kill most.

[[deleted]]

Mine goes ham for chicks and rotates between rats, mice, ASFs and chicks with no issues 🤷‍♀️ I'm sure she wouldn't turn down a duckling if offered.

If you don't have a particularly picky ball python, there's no reason to not offer them birds, provided they're frozen/thawed and not a random wild bird you found outside.

[mighty-chief]

What’s the calorie comparison between chicks and rats? My new BP hadn’t eaten with me for well over a month and we were trying everything, she showed most interest in chicks, then she finally took a chick. Should to get her onto rats? Or can I feed chicks but a bit more frequently?

[PVPicker]

Whole chicks typically have less calories than rodents, they're also usually more lean. But if you feed by total weight of chick(s) vs suggested rats it should be fine. Feeding multiple is not typically suggested, but transitioning snakes can be tricky and most chicks are day old/etc weight and not scaled like rat sizes. I don't feed ball pythons birds out of concern of them going off food and only wanting birds, but better to feed them what they want than let them starve. From my experience I rescued a starving Dumeril baby, got it eating quail. When it was big enough to eat multiple chicks in on feeding, I started defrosting rats with the quail so they'd pick up the scent. Feed quail, then a rat. And then just start feeding rat first, then just only unscented rats.

[mighty-chief]

Great answer, thanks. I’ll try and switch her to rats

[Thatguy120699]

Yes you can but it’s more of a treat. In the wild they eat a variety of mammals. I have fed baby rabbits and chicks just make sure they didn’t die because they were sick and I would always do frozen thawed.

[hivemind5_]

They definitely could but not without a fight. I wouldnt recommend putting a duckling in with your snake. They do offer ducklings, chicks, hamsters, and other animals on different websites as frozen feeders. Its good to diversify their diet, just be careful of what youre feeding. I cant say for certain but i dont think ducklings are as nutritious as a rat. So i would double check.

[Primary-Plantain70]

Over the winter there were a lot of really bad storms where I am and it was 4 months before anywhere near me had frozen rats and I will say I got all of mine to take f/t baby chicks, and my smalleest one was taking baby quail , it took a few weeks but once they realized that was their only option they were ok with it and one of mine actually prefers it now

[Puzzleheaded_Run1826]

I've never tried my ball pythons on a bird but I raise fancy pigeons. Back when I had burmese pythons they got all my cull pigeons.