Boiled Egg OK for a western hognose?

It was a complete accident, but I recently discovered that my hognose loves boiled egg. I haven't seen him so excited about eating anything in years! He's about five now, and has always been a good pinkie/fuzzy eater. I have no reason to think pieces of boiled egg white wouldn't be good for him- it's got lots of protein.

I'll have to take a video of his response to half a boiled egg. He went around and around it, trying to swallow it (it is, of course, way too big for him to do so, but he left nibble marks all over the darn thing.) I tore off a few chunks and he was very excited about swallowing it.

My real question is whether this is a good food supplement, and whether it'd be feasible to feed him boiled egg exclusively (egg-xclusively? sorry).

Anybody else offered boiled egg to their hognose?

Jeepers, I have heard some weird things but this has to be one of the best.
I have never even heard of one taking a fresh wild birds egg.
I am not sure it is a good idea to feed it to him cooked egg and it for sure would not be nutritionally complete. Their digestive system is not really set up to handle cooked food.
But you sure make me want to boil up an egg and see how mine react.

That is interesting! What is the difference between cooked egg albumen and raw egg albumen? Additionally, what would make you think that these proteins are digested differently?

Michael

http://www.baars.org/hognose.html
http://www.centralpets.com/animals/r...s/snk2791.html
Eastern, But still. -
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ec...nose_snake.htm
http://www.garden-city.org/zoo/anima...nose_snake.htm
http://pawild.net/hognose/show_con.php?p_id=13

All of those links mention, either reptile eggs, or birds eggs.

I dont see why not though. heck, if itll help get w/c hoggies eating by scenting with egg as well as toads and such, that would be another really cool thing to help people get them started!

Originally Posted by geckos70

That is interesting! What is the difference between cooked egg albumen and raw egg albumen? Additionally, what would make you think that these proteins are digested differently?

Michael

Cooking alters the chemical and physical make up of the items cooked. It is possible that a snake's digestive system is not set up to digest the changed proteins.
Think cooking the rodents prior to feeding them to a snake.

The snakes acquire the bulk of their calcium from the bone in whole prey, so I would think an egg only diet would be inadvisable.

Maybe he likes the stink of hardboiled eggs? I'll test it out my hoggies too...

I am in no way advocating an egg diet. However, cooking the egg only changes one thing...it alters the protein folding from complex and dynamic folded structures seen in non cooked eggs to a linear and rigid structure in a cooked or denatured protein.

Theoretically speaking, the snake would have no problems digesting hard boiled egg because they already have the proteolytic enzymes needed to cleave a complex folded protein structure, in eggs and/or animal tissue, to allow absorption. These enzymes would do the same with the denatured structure. Additionally, we do not cook our mice but he thaw them in warm/hot water...snakes would not have any problems digesting cooked prey items.

Back to the original topic, I am not suggesting that it is a good practice to feed this snake a hard boiled egg diet but there is nothing wrong with feeding the animal boiled egg it is not harmful in any way.

Michael

Additionally, we do not cook our mice but he thaw them in warm/hot water...snakes would not have any problems digesting cooked prey items.


opps sorry I meant We

Thanks Michael

A lot of people feed hard boiled eggs to monitor lizards on occasion as one component of the diet with no ill effects. I don't see any reason it would be bad for the hognose snakes either. However, as stated previously, it would not be suitable as a sole diet. The same can be said for any non whole food item.

Thanks for all the thoughts. My boy will stick with the rodents for sure, but we'll add egg bits as treats (or to help him eat when he goes on a food-refusal kick).

Made a video of it, though!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wF5xt_V4Ge4

Thanks again.