Reptile & Amphibian Forums

She ate a small chicken egg today.

Dan

Neat Black and a Reddish one. The red one was in shed (and gravid) in the photo but has since laid 6 big eggs which are expected to hatch in a couple of weeks. I expect the babies should be large to take button quail eggs.

Dan

Those are some beautiful egg eaters - almost (but not quite enough to get me back into Dasypeltis. Of course if I want to watch snakes swallow eggs, I might just get another Pueblan milk.

Billy

Phillyherping

A friend once found an eastern hognose digging up a turtle nest and eating the eggs. Seems many more snakes than we know like to eat eggs.

Dan

Yeah, here we think of the rat snakes as raiding bird nests and the scarlets digging up reptile eggs, but count the common kingsnakes too. My mother in law spotted a chain king raiding a bird nest in a bush next to her house in GA (I didn't believe it until she sent me the photos), and I remember reading an account of getula diet in South Carolina as consisting largely of other snakes and turtle eggs they dig up. Come to think of it I've seen photos somewhere of a chain king digging up box turtle eggs. I figure any generalist on warmblooded prey will probably eat bird eggs, and any generalist that includes cold blooded would take reptile eggs.

Billy

Phillyherping

Dan,
What do you feed them when they are tiny?
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Hatchlings are typically large enough to manage finch eggs but hope the red hatchlings are large enough to take button quail eggs when they hatch. I get the eggs online from folks on egg selling webpages for like 20 eggs for 12 dollars shipped and they only need an egg every week or two. Otherwise I simply use a metal tube with a syringe and tube them egg weekly for a couple of months and they grow quick and can manage a quail egg.

Dan

Interesting stuff.
Thanks for the response.
Have you ever tried Reptile eggs?
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Regards, Bill McGighan

Where can I buy an egg eater?

i've been looking at getting an egg eater lately but what is a good begginer species? how big does it get? how big an enclosure does an adult to live comfortably? also what is the minimum cage size for an adult? what are its temp/humidity requirements? and if i decide to breed it where can i get a constant supply of finch/quail eggs? and please tell me any info that i need to know that i didn't ask about?