Egg Eating Snakes!

[pssh]

I'm so excited to have these little guys! I just got them and they've already taken an egg each!

They are D. fasciata

Bigger female eating her egg!

Male sitting in a fake birds nest I made. You can see two eggs and the shell of one he spit up.

 

[pssh]

Found the female eating a second egg! Here's a video of her crushing it in her throat. You can hear the crunching noises. (click it)

 

[ChameleonRave]

Very cool! I have a friend that has these and they love them to death ha ha!

 

[pssh]

They are so neat! I didn't think they would eat so fast, so I was extremely surprised when I set her down by the eggs and he immediately gulped one down in less than a second! Watching them eat is crazy.

I really like that they don't eat mice and have reduced or no teeth The perfect snake for me.

 

[ChameleonRave]

I might have to look these snakes up! I hate how most snakes eat mice/rats. But if they eat just eggs I can handle that! You should make a video!

 

[Solid Snake]

Whatt!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats crazyness!

What type of eggs are you feeding them?

It was really interesting watching it crush the egg!

 

[ataraxia]

Those are pretty neat..Do you have a arboreal set up for them?>

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Very cool! What kind of eggs do you feed them? Quail?

 

[pssh]

Yeah, these guys are just big enough to eat button quail eggs. Large females can take chicken eggs from the store though. The set up I have them in right now is longer than it is tall, but it's a good two feet tall with some branches for them to climb in (it's about the equivalent of a 40-45 gallon tank.) I'm going to figure out how to get the nest up off the ground. It needs more support (maybe a box or plastic tub.) I'm going to make it more naturalistic eventually so they wont just have the newspaper bottom.


Also, the second post I made has a video (click the pic.)

 

[Solid Snake]

I had no idea these things existed.

Will you be able to use an actual nest in their setup?

Or is the "nastyness" risk to high?

 

[pssh]

Ive heard that others have. I only have a male cockatiel, so he doesnt make nests. I just took a couple of his recently shed feathers and stuck them in the nest I made. The smell apparently is very appealing to the snakes so they are more likely to eat. I also rubbed it on his wings a little (which he was very unhappy about!)

 

[Chase]

Those are awesome! What kind of eggs are those?

Chase

 

[pssh]

Button quail eggs.

 

[Chase]

Button quail eggs.

That's so cool to watch! How often do you have to feed them?

-Chase

 

[pssh]

After they poop. So whenever they poop they get fed again. I'm not sure how often that is though since I just got them.

 

[chameleonboy1]

So are they like rat snakes or as we call theem heer in tx chicken snakes??

 

[camimom]

Where do you get the eggs from to feed them?

 

[ChameleonRave]

Okay, I am getting more and more fascinated with these snakes! ha ha. Eggs are one of the only 'meats' that I can eat being a vegetarian. #connection ha ha. I would love to get them, but I have to always consider how easily available their food is around here which wouldn't be so easy. *sigh*. I vote for more pictures!

 

[Chameleon Loco]

Do the eggs have to be fertile?

I remember when I had a tegu I would feed him scrambled eggs as a treat but someone told me that un fertile eggs have more cholesterol than fertile eggs. Are you feeding fertile eggs?

 

[pssh]

No, these are a specific species of snake from Africa that ONLY eat eggs and nothing else. I get my button quail eggs off of eBay, though a lot of people breed button quail so it probably wouldn't be hard to find a local source. Once they are larger I can feed them small chicken eggs or the quail eggs from Asian food markets.

The ones I'm using are fertile. I've heard of them having possible deficiencies from not eating fertile eggs, so I'm playing it safe and using fertilized ones.