Curious question from someone who doesn't know anything about ball pythons

[IndigoMaverick91]

So I was explaining to my boyfriend about how someone suggested a trick to maybe entice my picky ball python to eat , who has been off feed since I bought him three weeks ago.

I was given the advice to try offering the snake a thawed warm mouse dipped in raw egg yolk.
The people who gave me the advice suggeste it when I asked for a little help on getting him to eat.

They had troublesome eaters who had denied good, or shown little interest. But when presented the egg-yolk mouse, their snakes didn't hesitate to quickly snatch it up and regain a normal eating habit afterwords.

so here's the thing.
My boyfriend is curious if snakes an eat scrambled eggs? He wants to know because pictures a snake viciously strike, an snatch up a chunk of unseasoned scrambled egg would be adorable.


it would look cute, just as much as a snake eating cake.
But as a
ball python owner who knows better, I would never actually try to feed my snakes cooked things.

so help with an answer to my boyfriends stupid question, of why they can't eat cooked things.
Even if it would be sure to watch.

[sho220]

Just when I think I've heard it all...

I think the problem here would be that scrambled eggs don't smell like rodents, which is what they typically eat. Maybe if you sauteed a mouse or rat in with the scrambled eggs it would help to "scent" them. I do the same thing, only I use Chorizo sausage. Chorizo con huevos! Yum! I don't suggest that though as it's pretty spicy. Maybe some buttered toast would help as well....heck...who doesn't like buttered toast???

If you do try this, please video it and post it here...

[Pythonfriend]

this is funny if i would drink coffee, i would have spilled it


no, really, i think they can digest cooked stuff. i think the problem is that they rely on certain vitamins that are stored inside the organs of their food items, and these denaturate and get destroyed if the temperatures get too high.

(im not sure about any of this, but i think other reptiles use beta-carotene in combination with UV light to make vitamin A. without vitamin A, the bones get brittle and break for no reason, and i think the kidneys also take damage. so, some lizards, like bearded dragons, really need that UV light. so if they dont get their UV light, their bones get brittle, they can even lose limbs, and their kidneys go bust. im no expert but ive seen a chameleon that lost a leg and has kidney damage due to lack of UV light at a rescue facility. im recalling what they explained to me. they said the organ damage and the embrittled bones, forcing the amputation of a limb after an untreated fracture, was due to a lack of UV light, caused by the owner it was rescued from.)

now the thing is, rhodents store all these good vitamins in their liver. they can make them, and do so, and store them in different internal organs. just like cows make their own vitamin C, but humans cannot make vitamin C, and when humans cannot get vitamin C they start bleeding from their mouth and nose, the teeth fall out, and they ultimately die in agony. BPs are nocturnal and adapted to it, they rely on their food to deliver the vitamins. its in the internal organs of their food item. and heat just destroys all of it. so they cannot survive on fillet pieces of raw meat, and they cannot survive on cooked rhodents.

as i said, i dont know enough about molecular biology to be sure about the details. but the answer is: BPs rely on vitamins stored in certain internal organs of the food item, and heat will destroy them. and without these vitamins, there would be serious health consequences, ultimately leading to death, just like absence of vitamin C in human nutrition would kill a human.

[IndigoMaverick91]

Just when I think I've heard it all...

I think the problem here would be that scrambled eggs don't smell like rodents, which is what they typically eat. Maybe if you sauteed a mouse or rat in with the scrambled eggs it would help to "scent" them. I do the same thing, only I use Chorizo sausage. Chorizo con huevos! Yum! I don't suggest that though as it's pretty spicy. Maybe some buttered toast would help as well....heck...who doesn't like buttered toast???

If you do try this, please video it and post it here...

Lol, I think he'll be pretty pleased to read your replies tomorrow when he wakes up.

He doesn't know very much about my snakes, other than the fact they eat mice once to twice a week, and unlike the dog, don't eat every day.
MIT woul be adorable to see one of my cute little ball pythons munch some scrambled eggs.
But it doesn't have th nutrients needed that the mice do.

[Craigaria]

My ball python doesn't always eat eggs. But when he does, he prefers them scrambled...

[IndigoMaverick91]

Lol.


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[Slim]

Just when I think I've heard it all...

Remember the "Why can't my BP eat cat food" thread from back in the day

[bcr229]

I read a post recently about a woman whose boa was sent into "food mode" whenever she fried bacon. Heck, it works for me!

[supergeeman]

No one has suggested chocolate?....Easter is coming :-)

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[steve_r34]

When I 1st jumped on this site there was a thread of a girl that got a snake from a friend because the friend thought it ate turtle pellets and when found out it couldn't didn't want it no more ... lol people are funny