Urgent! Want to know if it's safe to feed store bought eggs to a 3yr old corn snake?

[wildlifephotographer]

Just wanted to ask if it is okay to feed corn snakes store bought eggs to feed to them on a occasion? I've heard it isn't a bad idea to feed other items as food as long as not used as a staple food item. Currently only feeding one live male mouse a week/2 weeks to Diamond. Was wondering if feeding the eggs to her one or twice a month would be safe to do? And if that might help with her shedding problems she has a lot? Thanks for any replies

[wade]

nononononononononono

[wildlifephotographer]

I swear I have read it somewhere that they ate birds eggs in the wild so I just thought it would be a big problem or deal to feed them store bought eggs? Thought it would have a lot of nutrients inside the eggs for them. Hmmm...I guess not since I'm not getting the answers I was almost sure I was going to get. Thanks for letting me know.

[wade]

What answer would you like. I can change it.

[RobbiesCornField]

The bird eggs they eat in the wild are fertilized eggs. Store bought eggs are unfertilized, and have much less of a nutritional value. Egg yolks can be good as a liquid diet to tube feed non-feeders, but other than that, I don't see any benefit to feeding store bought eggs.

[wildlifephotographer]

Okay! Thanks guys. I'm glad I got on here and asked about it first to be sure, instead of going on and doing it without asking. I appreciate it a lot.

[El Jefe]

Currently only feeding one live male mouse a week/2 weeks to Diamond.

You could try female mice....






Seriously, they do eat eggs in the wild but it would have to be a pretty big corn and fairly small chicken egg for it to work. If you try it, I'd thaw the egg to room temperature.

If you are really looking for something different, however, I'd order quail or chicks from someplace like www.rodentpro.com (http://www.rodentpro.com). There is also the sprinkle of vitamins on the mice and other options as well.

[ceduke]

I've fed eggs robin I found to my hognose, but it seems to me that a regular store bought egg would be enormous for even an adult corn to eat.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb152/cebogart/008.jpg

[Cornsnake124]

i would never feed an egg to a corn...


And i noticed you said you feed live..... I would HIGHLY recommend switching to f/t. Your snake could be injured or killed because of feeding live.

[wildlifephotographer]

And i noticed you said you feed live..... I would HIGHLY recommend switching to f/t. Your snake could be injured or killed because of feeding live.

I only feed live to my oldest corn snake Diamond because she doesn't and hasn't eaten frozen thawed in awhile now. She just won't eat them. I did have her on f/t several months ago but this year around April is when she stopped taking them. I had to switch back to live for her. I do however, feed all the rest of my corn snake babies f/t. Believe me I know it's highly dangerous for Diamond to be feeding her live but since she just refuses f/t anymore I had to go back to live.

[RobbiesCornField]

Have you tried slowly making the switch back using fresh killed as an intermediate step?

[wildlifephotographer]

And i noticed you said you feed live..... I would HIGHLY recommend switching to f/t. Your snake could be injured or killed because of feeding live.

Yes, I do feed live to my oldest corn snake Diamond, and that is because she refuses to eat f/t mice anymore. I had her on f/t several months ago and she ate them just fine and then this April she started being extremely picky and stopped eating them all together so I had to switch back to live mice with her. Believe me I know how dangerous it is for me to be feeding her live but she just doesn't want f/t mice anymore. I do however feed the rest of my corn snake babies Zoe, Bindi, and Kasper all frozen thawed mice.

[wildlifephotographer]

Sorry I didn't mean to post the same posts twice like that...when I posted the first one it didn't show up when I went to go back to read it so I thought it didn't post so I posted one just like it a second time...sorry. RobbiesCornField, yes I have tried freshly killed mice to see if that would get her back eventually on the f/t but she just doesn't want anything to do with them. I've done shaking/wiggling them infront of her and tried just leaving her in there with them for a 2-3 hrs to see if she would eat them on her own but she doesn't. I don't know why she just started being like that but that's what happened back in April when she first went off feed for about 20-30 days and when I tried feeding her f/t to her at that time she didn't want nothing to do with them. Then she went off feed for another 20-30 days in June this year and so after that I tried freshly killed mice nothing. She's just not interested.

[vetusvates]

Back in the 1970's I had a grey rat snake who loved red-winged blackbird eggs,...an infrequent treat, although I used to bring home all sorts of things from herping 30+ years ago.
But then, the obsoleta group is much more arboreal, and likely to be looking for, finding, and eating birds' eggs.

I had an elderly aunt, in the country, who used to put old porcelain doorknobs in her hens' nests to teach chicken snakes (E.o.o.'s) a lesson. I suspect she only taught the "chicken snakes"...to eat porcelain doorknobs.

[crackerhead]

The bird eggs they eat in the wild are fertilized eggs. Store bought eggs are unfertilized, and have much less of a nutritional value....

How is this a logical statement? An egg is a self contained entity. Sure they respirate and can absorb moisture but everything that is the resulting chick is there at the start. I don't honestly believe one little microscopic sperm makes all that much "nutritional" difference.

Fertilized or not I wouldn't feed them to a corn snake. Although yolk, as stated, is a messy but good reluctant eater starter food.
Terri

[RobbiesCornField]

How is this a logical statement? An egg is a self contained entity. Sure they respirate and can absorb moisture but everything that is the resulting chick is there at the start. I don't honestly believe one little microscopic sperm makes all that much "nutritional" difference.

Fertilized or not I wouldn't feed them to a corn snake. Although yolk, as stated, is a messy but good reluctant eater starter food.
Terri

:shrugs: It just seems to me that the more developed the chick in the egg is, the more nutritional value it would have, especially because that one microscopic sperm triggers cell production, and the creation of proteins that make up the chick. Proteins that aren't found until that microscopic sperm adds it's genetic trigger.

But I do see what you're saying, too, and it makes sense to me.

[El Jefe]

Your snake could be injured or killed because of feeding live.

Injured...perhaps. Killed? Doubtful unless the mouse is left there for quite a while. You know, snakes do exist in the wild and eat live mice out there all the time. :-poke:

And yes, I do understand the validity in feeding f/t versus live....but let's be realistic here and don't overstate the horrors of feeding live.

[ceduke]

Injured...perhaps. Killed? Doubtful unless the mouse is left there for quite a while. You know, snakes do exist in the wild and eat live mice out there all the time. :-poke:

And yes, I do understand the validity in feeding f/t versus live....but let's be realistic here and don't overstate the horrors of feeding live.

True, but I think it's not really worth risking it.

[El Jefe]

True, but I think it's not really worth risking it.



Yeah...but that didn't happen in a couple of minutes. That was an irresponsible owner who left the snake in a confined space with a mouse/rat in a confined space. I did not and do not advocate that. What I said was:

Killed? Doubtful unless the mouse is left there for quite a while.

Live feeding and an immediate constriction followed by swallowing is a completely different scenario.

[ceduke]

You're absolutely right. Sorry, I'm crabby right now and that was immature of me. :-/

[ladypunk123]

If anything a quail egg would be of the right size... but why would you want to feed your snake an egg? They get all the nutrition they really need from eating mice...

[mike17l]

If anything a quail egg would be of the right size... but why would you want to feed your snake an egg? They get all the nutrition they really need from eating mice...

Do they? or do we just think they do? In the wild they eat many many things, from live and dead mice to rats to lizards to small birds to eggs.

To the OP, I do not think you would have any health related problems with feeding eggs. The reason I would not do it, is because the mess it would leave behind the snake when it poos. If you do do it, make sure you do like Jeff suggested and let the egg get up to room temp before you feed it. It may also be advantageous to try quail eggs, or bantam chicken eggs, if you can get them. Also, like Jeff said, you may want to look into day old chicks or quail from some place like Rodent Pro, I think they have day old chicks for $.12/each right now.

[wildlifephotographer]

I don't know...I just didn't realize that they got all the nutrition from the mice that they needed from eating them. And I remember reading it in a corn snake book that they do eat birds eggs on occasion and thought it wouldn't hurt to feed her one or two a month. Mostly as a treat but also thought it would have more nutritional value and stuff in it that mice didn't have that might help her with the shedding process. But as I have found out now I will not be feeding her any birds eggs weather or not store bought or wild birds eggs or farmed quail eggs or etc.... since it seems that they do not actually have any more nutritional value then the mice do. I just want to say thanks to everyone for their suggestions, thoughts, and tips on this subject. I will instead be trying to figure out what else to do to help her in the shedding process. I will start with soaking her in lukewarm water for 10-20min and see if that helps. If that doesn't seem to help much then I will probably get a nesting box with some moist moss in it and use it to see if that does any good and maybe buy some snake oil or something to allow her to do it completely on her own without any assistance from me. Thanks again!

[mike17l]

I don't know...I just didn't realize that they got all the nutrition from the mice that they needed from eating them. And I remember reading it in a corn snake book that they do eat birds eggs on occasion and thought it wouldn't hurt to feed her one or two a month. Mostly as a treat but also thought it would have more nutritional value and stuff in it that mice didn't have that might help her with the shedding process. But as I have found out now I will not be feeding her any birds eggs weather or not store bought or wild birds eggs or farmed quail eggs or etc.... since it seems that they do not actually have any more nutritional value then the mice do. I just want to say thanks to everyone for their suggestions, thoughts, and tips on this subject. I will instead be trying to figure out what else to do to help her in the shedding process. I will start with soaking her in lukewarm water for 10-20min and see if that helps. If that doesn't seem to help much then I will probably get a nesting box with some moist moss in it and use it to see if that does any good and maybe buy some snake oil or something to allow her to do it completely on her own without any assistance from me. Thanks again!

I doubt feeding eggs will help the shedding process, but as far as nutrition, eggs are considered the "perfect" protein source, and could definitely provide nutrients or micro nutrients that a diet of mice misses. As far as the shedding issue, I would just make sure that the water bowl is adequately filled and the snake has a humid hide, when ever you notice it about to shed.

[ladypunk123]

I dunno... I've always just fed mice,my parents always fed their snakes mice and they've lived long healthy lives... I mean I guess you might find some other nutrients but nothing that your snake couldn't live without and yes eggs are definitely on the messy side :p
If you want to help your snake shed without you having to pick at it or anything, try misting the tank with water once a day while your snake is in the shed process. I use "Zilla: Tropical Mist" ($10 at Petland) once a day on mine after their eyes start to cloud over.

[Susan]

There is one medical reason not to feed chicken eggs to anything raw and that is Salmonella. Chickens are a greater source for that particular nasty over any herp...and many people are paranoid of getting Salmonella from herps. If you were to feed any eggs to a corn snake, I would use a wild or non-chicken egg. To add variety to a corn snake's diet, add the occasional rat pup, gerbil, hamster, guinea pig (are the babies called Guinea piglets?), baby rabbit, quail or chick (yes, also a source of Salmonella, but not as bad a the eggs from what I remember). And you could always try a lizard or frog, but you always run the risk of your snake catching something from those critters, plus any change in diet might make your snake decide that it only wants to eat that particular thing.

[ceduke]

The reason I would not do it, is because the mess it would leave behind the snake when it poos.

I didn't notice any difference in my snake's poop after the meal of eggs.