Odd Little Questions

Hi,

Not certain about this one by any means but here are my thoughts on it.

The egg eating snake most usually shown has several evolutionary adaptations for that diet.

It has sharp spines projecting downwards inside its throat which it uses to peirce the eggshell. It then squeezes the contents out of the shell and swallows them and spits the eggshell back out in a neat little package.

So an egg eating snake doesn't eat the eggshell at all.

I have no idea if this is because of possible digestion probelms with bits of sharp eggshell that take a while to digest ( if they ever do ) or simply because there isn't enough goodness to be gained from the eggshell to make it worth eating.

I have definately heard of people using egg yolk in preparing liquid diets to tube feed a weak snake so there is no problem with the eggs contents I think.

But as to getting the snake to recognise it as food and eat it on its own shell included? I'm not sure I see enough benefits to even think of trying it personally. And that's assuming there are no possible downsides or problems. :weirdface

I have fed chicks to BP's on occasion but if it decided that was all it wanted to eat could you supply enough of them for the snakes needs?

I would be curious to know if there were any reports of BP's eating eggs in the wild.


dr del

Usually animals like birds can see colors because their mating rituals display large amounts of color.

I don't think most reptiles have too much of a use for this as they don't vary color wise male to female. I would think that chams could see color though.

The trait can be species specific, it's not always all reptiles or all birds. I think snakes might be able to see one color but you really would have to see the cone-prong ratio. If they don't have any cones, then they are colorblind. :)

dr del is definitely right about the egg eating thing. Tube feeding the pure protein from the egg wouldn't be bad, but it is species specific and only egg-eating snakes should eat them. Also, you probably would not want to feed normal white eggs from the grocery store to any reptile, as they can be dangerous to them.

Also, I wouldn't risk the perfume because they're respiratory systems are so sensitive, and perfume is often an allergen and can be agitating.