Raw Chicken

I saw a Youtube video of a young corn being fed a small piece of raw chicken. Is this a way to get some bird meat into a corn's diet or is it a bad idea?

It depends on how frequently it is fed. Straight meat lacks calcium and can result in bone and muscle (including heart) disorders if that it all that is fed.

I don't think there is anything of value in feeding raw chicken meat. It really lacks all the essentials that a cornsnake requires for healthy growth. I really don't pay a lot of attention to what I see on snake husbandry on YouTube, unless it is something posted by a reputable breeder.

A whole animal really needs to be fed for the snake to be getting what it needs, as Shiari pointed out. Feeding a chick may be a possibility, though I would look to somebody with better experience than I to confirm that. Does varying their diet really help the snake? Is feeding small reptiles beneficial as well? See now I have my own questions cropping up haha.

I am not an expert, but here's what I can contribute, culled from reading:

Some people do feed chicks, or other types of rodents of appropriate sizes. A big corn snake can easily take a smaller rat as a meal. I won't put my opinions in because I don't have enough expertist to make them useful. I have also read tha some picky eaters get "stuck" on a food item, and if it's hard to obtain, such as brown mice only, that could be an issue unless you have a mouse colony.

As far as the raw piece of chicken, I know there is one breeder who successfully includes chicken in his corns' diet as a major item and his corns look gorgeous & reproduce well.

Now you are going to get a piece of n00bie opinion. Anything to tempt a snake that has been on a prolonged food strike! If that's a glob of raw chicken, sobeit. Next meal the mouse can be wrapped in raw chicken like a rollup. And if the snake is an excellent eater, one unbalanced snack of some sort probably won't hurt it either, even if it is a piece of raw chicken meat.

Snakes should be eating whole feeder animals.

I really don't pay a lot of attention to what I see on snake husbandry on YouTube, unless it is something posted by a reputable breeder.

Exactlt why I ran it by a known expert like you !

One of the first questions I asked about my snake when I first joined this
board was if anyone had heard of feeding Quail Eggs to Corns as an
occasional substitute food item. . . I read that in one article on feeding
Corn snakes, and haven't seen it anywhere else since then. I know some
Rat Snakes will eat eggs. (large adult Yellow Rats will eat chicken eggs),
but didn't know if it was common to feed smaller eggs to Corn Snakes or
not.

I personally wouldn't do it for fear that he may only eat raw chicken from then on.

Spurticus said:

One of the first questions I asked about my snake when I first joined this
board was if anyone had heard of feeding Quail Eggs to Corns as an
occasional substitute food item. . . I read that in one article on feeding
Corn snakes, and haven't seen it anywhere else since then. I know some
Rat Snakes will eat eggs. (large adult Yellow Rats will eat chicken eggs),
but didn't know if it was common to feed smaller eggs to Corn Snakes or
not.

Click to expand...

I don't know if it's common, but I have seen a video posted by a serious breeder who knows their cornsnake husbandry of a cornsnake happily gobbling down dove eggs.

wstphal said:

I don't know if it's common, but I have seen a video posted by a serious breeder who knows their cornsnake husbandry of a cornsnake happily gobbling down dove eggs.

Click to expand...

When one of my corns was going thru a "I dont want to eat that freakin mouse" stage, i threw in a dove egg once, I came back an hour later to see if anything happened and i could not find the egg. the next week she ate a f/t mouse again

Where would you go to get Dove or Quail eggs ?

If you feed it and assortment, like Chicken, Chicken liver, and Chicken hearts with supplements of Calcium and Vitamin D3 and keep tabs on your snakes health and progress it 'Could' be enough. But really keep track of its weight, spin, and activity. ^.^

I love how every 4th or 5th first time poster we get resurrects a nearly decade old thread. k_01:

I'm surprised Vinman hadn't commented on this thread. He was/is rather infamous for feeding chicken parts to his snakes with surprising success.

I've had success feeding corns chicken in the past. Don't feed them it raw. Boil it. If it has bones, it's better for the corn. Just smash it with a mallot a bunch and crush the bones so they aren't as sharp

Another option is to feed them chicks. It's the same idea