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Here are a few thoughts on my experiences with feeding birds:

Years back when working with wild caught chondros, about a third would not accept rodents. All would accept birds. This always led me to believe that birds were being taken in the wild, although admittedly this is an assumption. The favorable feeding response towards birds seemed to have more to do with movement than scent.

I doubt that chicks are any more likely to be parasitized than rodents. If you are talking about the common day old chicks typically purchased, their parents are raised in sterile stacked cages where they lay eggs that are hatched in sterile incubators and fed grain until they are boxed up and shipped. Parasites are simply not a problem. You might have an increased risk of salmonella.

Day old chicks nutritionally are pretty much a wash. Theres just not much there. Nutritionally, rodents would be much better. Older birds such as Coturnix quail would be different.

While chondros do fine on a full time diet of rodents, I wouldnt take the leap to state that while humans benefit from a varied diet, reptiles do not. All species probably would gain some benefit from a varied diet. It is probably better to vary / manipulate the diet of the rodents than the reptile.

Ive noticed over the years that different diets will cause more or less weight gain than others. For instance, a neonate fed a pinky once a week will stay at a reasonable weight. A neonate that is fed frogs can eat almost a frog daily from hatch for months at a time and stay at the same weight as the neonate that is fed pinkies weekly. Adult birds and rodents result in approximately the same weight gain. Ive seen w.c. adults that would not take rodents that were fed pigeon squabs. A chondro that eats squabs puts on an immense amount of weight very quickly. One squab a month will keep an adult female chondro very chunky. A wc chondro that has laid eggs and fed on a couple of squabs gains back all the weight she may have lost in the laying / incubating process almost immediately.

I have no experience with feeding day old chicks to chondros and so cannot make any observations regarding stools. I have noticed that feeding adult or near adult birds has not caused any increase in unusual stools in animals that I have observed.

I have also noticed that a chondro that is feeding nicely on rodents will not automatically become stuck on birds if fed an occasional bird. I would be afraid that a steady diet of birds might well cause a chondro to prefer birds and began refusing rodents.

All in all, rodents that have been fed a good diet are always the preferred food. You might have an excellent source for Coturnix quail, but consider the fact that if your chondro eats only quail, you are probably stuck with it in the event you ever wanted to let it go. Not everyone else will be able to continue the same diet.

Please dont take any of these comments to assume that I am recommending feeding chicks, frogs, quail, monkeys or anything else to chondros. These are only some observations that I have made over the years.

Just a story: I knew a person with a neonate Burmese python that was a very picky eater and would take only quail chicks. The owner had a good and very cheap source for quail, so he fed it quail. All was fine for awhile. At the point where it took about 10 quail to fill up his growing reptile he knew that he had a problem. Meals were now not so cheap. I think he eventually solved