I owned that I had never done it. That said, I also had a herper friend back when I lived in GA that had successfully fed his Dasypeltis leopard gecko and day gecko eggs. So I am not parroting utter tripe
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I’d be very interested in getting in touch with that person! I’ve been very unsuccessful with gecko eggs, so I’d love to learn what they did different to get them to eat them if it’s true.
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I wonder if there’s some way to do scenting with eggs. Like some manner of shell-crumb-mixing, or even just rubbing. Maybe rubbing the reptile egg with the feathers of a bird that lays its favorite eggs?
Or perhaps doing that thing where you give a small version of the preferred food, then follow it immediately with a reptile egg? Full disclosure- I have never owned a snake (thus far…), but I’ve heard of people doing things sort of along those lines for snakes.
I’ve not tried this with a reptile yet, but with mammals, I’ve been able to convince patients to eat something after warming it just very slightly, by letting it sit a very short amount of time on a heat pad. But with mammals, you can do the ‘finger test,’ where you stick your finger in the warmed food to make sure the temperature isn’t too hot. You couldn’t do it with an egg, though, so maybe that’s not safe.
Will egg eaters ever eat eggs that are cracked, or egg contents outside the shell? (Not spoiled/rotten, just prepared in a different fashion.) Does anyone know if there is a ‘healthier’ egg to feed egg eaters, or any eggs that are imbalanced for them (e.g., too fatty, etc.)?
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Sadly, in the intervening dozen years since I lived there, I have lost track of him. Quit replying to emails about seven years or so ago. Last I heard he moved out of the country.
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My big girl has taken eggs that had small cracks in them that I only found when I took them out of the container. I have also seen a few vids of people that “shave” a layer off the eggs they feed which has been claimed to help reluctant feeders because “they can better smell the contents”. I have heard some people say their Dasy will “drink” chicken egg from a bowl but I have yet to see actual documentation of this behaviour (Oligodon will absolutely do this though)
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I have heard people say that feeding store bought eggs for extended periods is detrimental because the eggs lose biotin over time sitting on the shelf. But my big girl is at least seven (she was an adult when I got her six years ago) and I have not noticed any issues having fed her exclusively off quail eggs from the store.
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Reviving this topic because I’m curious if egg eaters would be fine with day gecko eggs? They have a hard shell like birds eggs.
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I have heard mixed reviews of using herp eggs, some people claim the work, others say the do not. If you were to try it I would advocate getting some chick down and rubbing it over the egg to make it smell more bird-like
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Reviving to ask about syringe-feeding.
It’ll very much be a last resort, just in case I can’t get button quail eggs or the snake is too small for button quails or something similar. But, how should I go about syringe-feeding? Should I whisk the egg first to get an even mix of yolk and white, or go for mostly the yolk, or something else? Then, how much should I feed my snake at once? How do I know if I’m over or underfeeding? And, how do I know if the snake is actually hungry or if it’s gone into a fasting period (since I’ve heard that sometimes they’ll refuse to eat for up to six months as a part of natural feeding/nesting cycles)?
I would mimic the egg as close as possible. Get any egg healthy for the snake or one that you would normally feed, mix everything evenly, and if it’s too big feed almost all of it and if they won’t eat feed all of it. Since syringe-feeding is essentially the same as force-feeding I wouldn’t try it unless the snake is dying due to starvation. If they still have a good body shape then just be patient.
The first thing you will need to do is get a bird crop feeder. These are designed specifically for that purpose. A smaller gauge is preferred.
I also very strongly recommend you get a tube to restrain the animal in. Their bones are incredibly fragile and even slight mishandling while trying to feed can result in breaks to the spine that cause kinking
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It is going to depend on the size of the animal. Since you are considering this method I am going to assume you will be dealing with hatchlings. I fed 1-2mL per feeding, just enough to give them a very very slight pooch to their belly. I would only feed once a week.
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I have never had an egg-eater voluntarily go off feed. I think they are so hard-wired to eat on opportunity that they will always take. Given how stressful tube feeding is for them, they are not taking in the same caloric content as if they were free-feeding so I feed weekly. Once they are large enough to take eggs on their own I enforced a seasonal cycle to prevent overfeeding/obesity
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