Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired a 5ft yellow rat snake through a reptile rescue, and it seems to eat about anything, including mice, jumbo rats, and even chicken and duck eggs. I know that they eat eggs in the wild, but I was wondering if there were any problems associated with them eating eggs in captivity, like salmonella or lack of nutrients.

The reason I'm asking is because I basically live in a small farm town, and I've got about an unlimited supply of chicken and duck eggs almost year round.

Thanks

Reptilez:
This question has come up before, either here or on the pit forum. As I remember the two issues cited by the poster was
1) A totally liquid diet will probably result in very runny stools that are pretty smelly.
2) An egg diet is pretty rich and may tend to fatten snakes kept soley on it.

As far as salmonella, mice and rats are just as (or even more) likely to be covered in harmful bacteria as eggs.

One strategy might be to throw a mouse in with a few eggs for a more balanced (and more solid) diet. But eggs if readily taken would definitely be a high protein and high fat diet, sure to spur fast growth in a young snake. Your five-foot ratsnake may not need to grow very quickly at this point but will certainly put on good flesh eating eggs. Please report back on what you decide and what are the results!!
John

I recall the mention of eggs causing runny, smelly stool.

I agree that supplementing eggs with rodents (or perhaps the other way around) would be better that just eggs.

As for the salmonella...I'm still a bit concerned. As for rodents being just as full of parasites, etc... Well, that's why we like to use frozen-thawed...right? A couple of weeks in the deep freeze deals with most of the nasties.

Your BEST bet will still be to use rodents which have been frozen for at least two weeks. If you are tempted to pick up the rodents "on the farm" , make sure that there is no chance whatsoever that they have ingested poison. I would think that the eggs should be a supplement, at best. But I do appreciate and understand the temptation if you have such a bounty of eggs available.

Whatever you do...Good luck with your snake. Duffy

I don't really plan on making eggs the majority of its meals, and if its crap stinks really bad, i'll quit feeding it eggs alltogether lol.

I just don't get rats but about every 3 weeks, but I'll end up feeding it mice and rats as well, atleast 2/3rds of its diet.

Thanks again!

Duffy:
Freezing which has some benefits in eliminating multi-cellular parasites like worms, has little effect on most bacteria which includes such organisms as Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, etc. It only prevents them from multiplying while they are cold.

Lately news reports have played up the role of raw poultry products as a vector for human bacterial poisoning. But these organisms are extremely common anywhere sanitization is not performed. So since our rodents cannot be soaked in chlorine bleach before use (nor of course should they be) it is a very good bet that salmonella, and many other organisms are present in the environment that our snakes are exposed to. That is why it is always a really good idea to wash yourself thoroughly after working with snakes and their cages (and any other animals for that matter).

With respect to eggs, I think special concern (and mostly for the snake's sake) would only be in order if the eggs were old. If they are fresh from the chicken (as our friend was describing) then I can't see them being anymore dangerous than rodents.

Regards
John