Re: Ratsnakes eating eggs?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FollowTheSun
With a sad heart I have come to say that Noodle passed away this morning. She was a sweet 4 year old snake. I'm not sure if it was the egg I gave her (it was a small egg from my small chicken), and she's eaten a couple of them before with no issues, but she died just a few days after giving her this egg. She did not appear to digest this one like the others. It might be that the egg was too hard-shelled, or she had some illness that made her unable to digest it. Either way I feel awful and sad. She was my favorite buddy.
I had seen ratsnakes in the wild raid chicken coops and eat several and come back for more. I even talked to my pre-vet student daughter this morning, who is studying at a university that has an exotic/wild animal vet department. She talked to them and got back to me that the egg "should not have" caused her death, but she was a domesticated snake so maybe she was not set up to handle it like a wild one would have. Or, she just had some underlying weakness or problem.
So, I will now say it's probably not a good idea to feed your pet snake eggs unless they are the kind that naturally eat them (there is some kind of egg eating snake out there that only eats them).
We have buried her in our rose garden and planted a peachy colored rose bush on top of her that reflects her pretty colors.
I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for the update.
Re: Ratsnakes eating eggs?
So sorry for your loss. Try not to blame yourself because there are so many other things that could’ve caused the death. Certainly “sudden death” tops the list and is most times unexplained. Also, chicken eggs are in the food chain of all rat snakes and it’s less likely that it was that. Don’t let this deter you from getting back into keeping another reptile. Thanks.
Re: Ratsnakes eating eggs?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Albert Clark
So sorry for your loss. Try not to blame yourself because there are so many other things that could’ve caused the death. Certainly “sudden death” tops the list and is most times unexplained. Also, chicken eggs are in the food chain of all rat snakes and it’s less likely that it was that. Don’t let this deter you from getting back into keeping another reptile. Thanks.
Personally, I'd still avoid the risk of feeding chicken eggs to snakes, & I have domestic rat snakes that are more than "big enough". Domestic chickens raised as pets or for egg production have very thick shells, and those shells are very sharp when broken. They can do lethal internal damage before digestive enzymes are able to work & the more graphic description of the snake's symptoms privately shared with me do suggest this is what happened. I urge anyone to think twice before offering a chicken egg to their snake- I personally would never take that chance, even if it sometimes seems to have been okay. (Unfortunately a necropsy was not done so all we have are "best guesses".)
Just a reminder that African egg-eating snakes have a special adaptation that allows them to puncture the eggs they consume, & they also evolved the ability to spit out the broken shells. While many snakes in the wild (notably rat snakes & bull/gopher/pine snakes) do prey on eggs, we don't necessarily see the "rest of the story" for what happens days later when they eat domestic chicken eggs as opposed to the much-thinner-shelled eggs of wild birds. What wild snakes that are desperate for food are willing to do should not be a guide for what we give our pets, should it?
Remember that a snake's digestive enzymes also require warmth to digest well. Any of us that have kept snakes for a while realize that snakes don't always follow "the rules" after eating- some of them head for the cooler areas. It occurs to me that might also have been a factor here- but we'll never know. African egg-eating snakes don't digest the eggshells- they regurgitate them. And we all know that our snakes are not "good at" regurgitating- they can die from aspirating (into their lung) even a normal rodent meal. Please don't risk your pets life with chicken eggs.
