Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all
I just got a beautiful young adult beaded from Steve Angeli (I lucked out--He's practicaly a neighbor of mine). I have over 30 years experience with feeding reptiles, but heloderms are new to me. Everybody seems to just feed rodents only. I know in the wild, they eat eggs that have developing embryo's inside (at least gila's do) There are some asian markets in town here that along with live softshell and red ear turtles, sell fertilized duck eggs that contain about a half developed embryo inside. I bought a few and my guy loves them and seems to defecate a lot less after feeding on them. Has anyone had any bad effects from feeding this type of meal? I figure 1 egg after 3 or 4 rodent meals would add a nice variety to his diet. What do you guys think?

The thing that I have heard about eggs is the increased risk of Sslmonella. Here's a quote from Bob Applegate's webpage on feeding eggs (http://www.applegatereptiles.com/articles/heloderma.html) - -"Even though there are many references to Heloderma consuming eggs in the wild, a nest of fertile partially developed eggs is not the same as infertile store bought chicken eggs. There has been a study that indicated rodent eating Heloderma will live longer than those maintained on eggs."

JBL- please note that I was refering to fertilized eggs. I freeze them and them give them thawed to cut down on pathogens.

I rarely feed my gilas eggs. They do just fine without them. Quail eggs are prefered, but can be difficult to obtain and can be quite expensive. I have my own chickens and have them vet checked for pathogens twice a year. If you can find a small time chicken keeper with clean conditions and free range chickens, you will get better eggs. The eggs will also be lacking the extra chemicals and medications that are usually introduced in commercial chicken feed.