I just put a birds egg in his cage.

[mbdorfer]

I am guessing not many of yall every grew up in the country. Yall ever raise chickens out in the yard. You would be amazed at what all you will find eating your eggs. I have personaly watched a 5 foot corn down not one but two large to extra large eggs. I have seen one bigger than that eat a toad the size of my fist. Seeing a corn in the yard in Ga is what made me want one so bad over the years. A corn to my understanding is not all that different than a rat snake. And a rat snake in Ga is called a chicken snake by the ranchers and farmers cause you cant keep em out of the coop. I think a corn like most animals in the wild is an oppurtity feeder and will down what ever is slow enough and right size enough that it feels it can eat.
Cool, I figured they would take eggs, most snakes will. And why yes, corns are indeed Rat Snakes. :cheers:

 

[MaeglinCalaelen]

they eat eggs, I used to have some birds and somethimes I gave the eggs at my snakes. untill one had an perforated esophagus. I hope I helped you

 

[pcar]

I am guessing not many of yall every grew up in the country. Yall ever raise chickens out in the yard. You would be amazed at what all you will find eating your eggs. I have personaly watched a 5 foot corn down not one but two large to extra large eggs. I have seen one bigger than that eat a toad the size of my fist. Seeing a corn in the yard in Ga is what made me want one so bad over the years. A corn to my understanding is not all that different than a rat snake. And a rat snake in Ga is called a chicken snake by the ranchers and farmers cause you cant keep em out of the coop. I think a corn like most animals in the wild is an oppurtity feeder and will down what ever is slow enough and right size enough that it feels it can eat.

I live out in the country too. Here in TX we don't have wild Corns, but we do have a lot of Rats. I have removed many a rat snake from our chicken pens, and I have even seen some of the larger rats down hatched chickes. We have a couple of other snakes out here that are routinely in our chicken coops that we have to take care of, and they eat eggs too.

cowboyman13, my father in law does something that I found intersting and had never heard of. Let me know if you have. He blows out the yolk from the eggs, and fills the dried shells with rock salt. Then places these salt eggs in the chicken nests as nest eggs. Not exactly sure what this is supposed to do to snakes and other non wanted animals, but I had never heard of this till I married my wife.

 

[Mary-Beth]

When my dad was growing up they used marble eggs in the nests to kill the snakes. When I was growing up my dad would catch the snakes and kill them quickly. He might not like the snakes eating the eggs, but he likes long slow deaths even less.

 

[E. g. guttata]

I appreciate all the replies to my post. Yes, these snakes are part of our families, but they are by no means anywhere near domesticated in most cases. I know my two origional SMR snakes are removed from WC corns by a generation or two. How can one say that domestication occurs within a generation? It took hundresd of years to domesticate dogs, so what makes our snakes special? I do like the comparison to keeping a baby in a sterile room it's entire life, which is essentially what most people do with their corns. This is also (if I did not satet this before) something I have a problem with. Again, you are not exposing the snakes to some of the same things they have to deal with in the wild, and as such, you are weakening them. I try to take my snakes out as much as possible, and even take them outside on occasion. I have also fed them a litter of pink mice I found at one point, with no ill effects I might add. I did this while they were still fairly young and able to adapt to bacteria more easily.

Addressing the "uncooked chicken" scenario with humans. Humans have adapted and changed their food options to their dietary needs. Our anscestors started by eating berries and game animals. Farm fowl was never part of that diet. We have evolved over thousands of years and have developed agrigultrue and farming, adding to our diet. We have also added "harmful" hormones and chemicals to our diets. I don't know if these things are actual harmful (no one has given me documented proof. PETA doesn't count), but they obviously aren't natural. This would be the only reason that I would not feed raw chicken to anyone, not because they are not natural.

Random aside the your friends that get sick and don't touch fallen objects it is much more likely they developed this habit because they are for some reason just sickly people(possibly to some level immunosuppressed) So to defend themselves further they avoid these things as they think it will save them from contracting various diseases.

As far as that comment goes, I have seen some of my friends who almost never got sick convert to the ways ot the bacteria-phobia crowd. They went from almost perfectly healthy all the time, to being sick 3 weeks of the month. I garuntee that if you started getting all anti-bacterial wipes, constantly cleaned everything so you didn't touch germs, isolated all your bodily functions to your own sterile house, and then used one public facility after a period of several months, you too would be sick almost constantly. I also believe that if at that point you stop being bacteria-phobic and expose yourself back to the very things you avoided, your system would revert back to being able to handle these things.

I don't believe in coddling animals just because they are part of the family, just like I don't believe in coddling my own children if and when I have them. Kids will get into things and will hurt themselves. Why try to stop it? They'll learn what they like and don't. Pain is a wonderful teacher.

 

[cowboyman13]

E. g. - Well said. I couldnt agree more.

 

[celbii]

well, its been in there for a few days now and he hasent ate it, it looks liked he moved it once so i took it out today,but yeah these small eggs fall out our tress all the time from the wind and this was just first uncracked one ive ever found. my snake east 3 pinkies every saturday, so he dosent have a problem with feeding at all

 

[Bright Scale]

It took hundresd of years to domesticate dogs

I think the number you're looking for is "thousands". Even cave-people had dogs.