Ratsnakes eating eggs?

[Homebody]

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.