snip "well im basing it on the common 'thou shalt not' that i have beaten in to my head over the years, on the 'high fat'"endsnip
While higher in fat on a kcal basis when compared to worms, they are in the same ball park on a kcal basis as crickets and mealworms. (Didn't you attend the amphibian nutrition lecture at IAD? I seem to remember an entire power point page on pinks....). When looking at diets for amphibians and other animals you need to look at it based on kcals, this allows you to figure out what percent of the diet should be protien, fat and carbohydrate, pinks fall well within the dietary numbers for carniverous amphibians.
snip " and 'mammals are not normal food items for amphibians'."endsnip
Based on a lot of opinion that doesn't hold a lot of credible weight. If mammals are not "normal food items" then please explain how they became genetically wired to recognize it as a food source? (particuarly caecilians as they hunt by scent/taste). Otherwise they would reject it...
snip " im not being totally knee jerk here- for a new animal i wouldnt even offer it cause of its 'novelty', i would go for something easy to digest."endsnip
Often when a new animal refuses food, it is necessary to move beyond the normal dietary offerings to get it to eat. There is no indication that pinks are hard to digest for amphibians and this is not supported by the nutritional analysis.
snip "on a purely economic level -is there a benefit of offering pinkies over other food items which require less biomass to produce? how do you offer them normally -just drop them in?"endsnip
Yes, if you have an inappetant animal that is refusing to eat. Pinks are nutritionally denser than most of the commonly used feeder items and as a consequence it is a lot easier to overfeed on them. (and it requires a much smaller amount of biomass). Depending on how my time is running, I thaw them out and drop them into the tank. If I have time I tweezer feed them.
snip " what becomes excess too"endsnip
Feeding an amount over and above the caloric needs of the animal on a weekly basis. (I say weekly because I feed two to three times a week). To get the exact numbers you need the weight of the caecilian, the temperature at which it is kept and the kcal/gram as well as the number of grams of the food item you are feeding it. You can plug this into the formula and/or the chart in Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry and get the numbers.
Ed