Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How come feeding too many eggs (cooked) are not good but its OK to feed day old chicks? Which are basicly made of the same thing as the contents of the egg minus a lot of calcium in the shell?

I have a freezer full of mice, rats and chicks but my farm hens are going gangbuster in the egg production department.

I made the mistake of feeding eggs to a black tegu years ago. She wouldn't eat anything else after that. She was hooked on them, it sucked big time. I learned my lesson though, I will never feed eggs to any reptile again.

Between a chicken peep and an egg you would cook. Infertile eggs have very little to them but fluid, fat, and a few vitamins and calcium. Fertile eggs are a different story, but still not the nutritional value or the content of chicken peeps or any whole animal food.
Stick with whole animal prey items. By the way cooked eggs lose alot of what is good for the lizard, why cook it? They are not humans, to feed them meat products, or eggs, you should never cook it.

With a healthy monitor, a lot of eggs IS NOT A PROBLEM. The question is, IS YOUR MONITOR/s HEALTHY? most captives are not very healthy.

Second, eggs are fine, with one major exception, they do not provide roughage. Which is VERY IMPORTANT FOR VARANIDS. So if you feed some furred and feathered items along with your eggs, good on you. Try offerring well developed eggs.

Cooking eggs! WHY? Who cooks them in nature?

Eggs without roughage makes for one messing stinky cage. Just a side benefit.

Eggs are a very natural and utilized food item for many varanids. Consider, they are seasonal and if needed the individual monitors will consume roughage. Even plants like cats do. Yes, all monitors consume plants, WHEN NEEDED.

Well, all that I have worked with and thats a lot.

Anyway, feed eggs if you want, just keep in mind the above. ROUGHAGE is needed.

My bet is, eggs will make such a mess you will happily stop. hahahahahahahahahaha good luck

I have been give my animals heaping plates (or garbage can lids) of various whole animals. They get an unshelled boiled egg on the side with this maybe once a week. And yes, a piece of parsley for garnish They will work over the plate for a long time trying to get every speck of yolk.

From my scant understanding of biology and medicine as well as embryonology having candled many an egg in raising rare breeds of poultry, the only difference I know in a newly laid fertile egg and an unfertilized egg is the germ spot. On the yolk of a fertile egg is a spot the size of a pinhead that will start to develop into a bird if the egg is brooded. I do not have any roosters because of the dadgum crowing.

No offense to those who think or care about the differences between a fertilize and unfertilized egg. But who gives a flying donut hole.

What is suppose to be measured is the effect it has on the monitor. You know, Is the monitor growing/progressing normally. That is what matters, who cares if one is ever so slightly better then another.

My point here is. Roughage.

So if your adding eggs to whole prey items, good on U. Just keep an eye on the monitors. Whatever kind they are. Give um eggs, no need to cook them.

My lacies take whole eggs out of my hands and swallow them whole. You know, like a pill. No problems. Good luck

hahahahaha

This big Nile I inherited takes a whole raw egg in his mouth, holds his head up, cracks it, knocks it back, then eats the shell. I feed the waters, albigs and crocs boiled because they easily eat it all and they are sharing my stash.

Some differences between chicks and eggs I thought of: Roughage. The chick has grown fuzzz. Glucose and fat. The chick used a lot of it metabolising during 21 days of development

One point I was trying to make is, who cares about what is better. have you ever thought both are better. Or good enough.

What matters is, how is the Nile doing. If its doing great, then good on you.

Most people have no idea what husbandry is. They somehow think its about details of this and that. And some take it to very fine details. You know, temps like 84.7585493F My god, who cares about a few degrees, muchless hundreths of degrees. Husbandry is what it takes to allow a animal/s to do well. Thats it. Its an equation, husbandry has to have a result to be judged. Its not a formula that is judged, the result is.

Sadly, most people have very poor results or no results, so they spend their life judging the formula. Don't worry about those people, worry about the backend of your equation, the monitors results. Good luck and keep us posted

I adopted him. He was a Hurricane Ivan victim. A tree fell on his enclosure and the heat lamps came down and his entire back and the tops of both front and hind legs are a horrible white scar. Yet he is a strong creature with a typical Nile attitude. He rises on his legs, he bows his neck, he sways, he tries to bite, he beats me senseless with his tail. When you come into the monitor house he is the first one you meet. He is "Security" Few can get past "Security" without knowing the secret method. hahahahahaha There are two things he loves to do, eat eggs and lie in water. He gets more eggs than most others I have, but mostly he gets rodents and chicks. I can't tell if he has grown. Who would want to measure such a creature?

If available fruit bats always make a welcomed addition to a monitors diet.

Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that anyone harvest fruit bats for monitor food. I'm referencing to a previous discussion involving specialized adaptation and prey selection.

Ernie Eison
Westwood Acres Reptile Farm Inc.

Do you raise them? They're awfully cute

My friend Denise raises and breeds them. She has all kinds of bats and flying foxes even the giant Malaysian kind that have 6ft wing spans. Their super friendly.

Ernie Eison
Westwood Acres Reptile Farm Inc.

Sort of going OT here, but how ever would anyone be able to provide for something like that, unless they built a huge aviary?

She has big flight cages for some bats . The big Malaysians she's keeps them just like you would a big macaw. They don't try to fly away .Their celebrities I think they have been on letterman three times. Denise is the only private person in the US that has them. 5 minutes and those animals will steal your heart.

Ernie Eison
Westwood Acres Reptile Farm Inc.

My god they're cute!

Yesterday my 3.5 pound female croc ate 3 jumbo mice that had boiled egg yolk was sprinkled over them. Usually she eats only one mouse. I had never tried feeding her eggs before.