Reptile & Amphibian Forums

probably a stupid question but just curious if any American species of rat will eat eggs?

Absolutely!! I know texas, grey, and black rats will eat eggs and are often found in chicken houses where they raid nests. Not sure about yellow rats. When I was a kid, we called texas rats chicken snakes. More than one chicken keeper has found a big ole ratsnake coiled up in a chicken nest!! I have heard that they will even ingest wooden eggs placed in the chicken nests to encourage laying!!

pretty much all will eat them if they can find them and get them down.....

.....you never saw the pic of a snake with the 3 light bulbs in it (X-Ray).....(might have been a bull? I forget if bull or rat)

.........BIRD eggs.......most snakes will eat any bird eggs....

ratsnakes probably won't eat lizard,turtle or snake eggs....???

...milks and kings will eat any eggs.....I feed corn duds to the milks all the time.....(shells come back out)....eeeeew
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......JY

Yeah, I had a huge Yellow rat that ate chicken eggs but not store bought ones, lol.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

A couple of pix of my Whitesided Black Ratsnake eating a chicken egg (fertile). You can see in the second photo that she laterally compresses it to break the shell ... she digests the shell unlike my Dione Ratsnakes that regurg it a few days later in a neat little parcel.

Sue x

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Ratsnakezone

I just bought a batch of baby quail and in about 6 weeks should start having a whole lot of eggs.I was wanting to watch one of the snakes eat them, namely the TXR.I do have a kingsnake and a milk.Hmmm I will have to experiment a bit as long as it wont hurt them.

Great pics, thanks. Do the eggs make for a messier defecation?
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Have a nice day

Website: SerpenTrack

>>Great pics, thanks. Do the eggs make for a messier defecation?
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>>Have a nice day
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>>Website: SerpenTrack

I havn't really noticed it to be that much messier, no. Day old chicks on the other hand are a different story, they certainly make quite a mess when they come out the other end.

Sue x
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Ratsnakezone

>>A couple of pix of my Whitesided Black Ratsnake eating a chicken egg (fertile). You can see in the second photo that she laterally compresses it to break the shell ... she digests the shell unlike my Dione Ratsnakes that regurg it a few days later in a neat little parcel.
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>>Sue x

Good one, Sue.

One of my Dione's ratsnakes taking a quail egg from our yard...


...and compressing it.

However, the egg never broke. So, he swallowed the whole thing and digested the shell and all. He's eaten eggs before and digested the shells too.

Best...Terry
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