# Black Rat Snake vs. Chicken Egg



## Hedorah99 (Aug 12, 2007)

Now if I can only get him to eat tofu....


I had read that Black Rats had been seen raiding bird and chicken nests in the wild but just kinda dismissed it as a myth. Some of the camp groups at the zoo found some pics of one at another zoo eating a chicken egg, so I decided to see if our 17 year old male BRS would like one. Surprisingly he began to eat it with no coaxing. I held it in front of his mouth with some tongs and he grabbed it after only a few seconds of smelling it. I had put a crack in the egg just to make sure he could crush it after swallowing it. The whole thing took about 20 minutes start to finish. Here are a few pictures taken by one of my interns.


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## froggyman (Aug 12, 2007)

hows the attitude on those??


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## Hedorah99 (Aug 12, 2007)

froggyman said:


> hows the attitude on those??


This guy has been in captivity 15+ years. He is a sweet heart except when he is getting close to a shed. His mate was really easy going and all their offspring I have raised are pretty easy going. That being said, the one wild one I had my hands on was forged by Lucifer himself. I dunno if he is the one exception, but they are a generally laid back snake.


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## froggyman (Aug 12, 2007)

maybe CB makes them more docile?


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## Hedorah99 (Aug 12, 2007)

froggyman said:


> maybe CB makes them more docile?


Just being handled and being around people does. We have an eastern milk snake that was wild caught that now tolerates prolonged contact and being fed via tweezer. We even have a northern water snake that I regularly use for education programs. Some snakes just require more attention than others.


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## froggyman (Aug 12, 2007)

cool thanks!


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## Schlyne (Aug 12, 2007)

I know you said you cracked the shell for him, did he crack the egg after swallow and regurge the shell like regular egg eating snakes?


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## Hedorah99 (Aug 12, 2007)

Schlyne said:


> I know you said you cracked the shell for him, did he crack the egg after swallow and regurge the shell like regular egg eating snakes?


I didn't find any shell remnants in the exhibit afterwards. Not saying I won't find any, but I am pretty sure he didn't spit them out.


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## arrowhd (Aug 12, 2007)

Back when I was a kid, my grandparents lived on a farm.  They had laying chickens.  There was a black rat snake that lived out in the barn.  You would often see it curled up in the rafters.  Every once in awhile you would find it in with the eggs.  The chickens would go crazy but it only ate the eggs.  You could see the eggs inside of it very clearly.  My grandfather would prod it with a stick and get it away from the eggs.  He always told me not to hurt it because it ate all the rats and mice.  This is how I developed a love and respect for snakes.  You could pick it up if it was in a good mood, but we didn't very often.  It was around 6-7 ft.  All the wild rat snakes I've been around were pretty honery.  Had a friend that owned one that she found as a baby.  It was very docile, but was handled regularly.  Nice pictures!


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## kahoy (Aug 13, 2007)

Hedorah99's snake has an egg on its mouth... way too early for easter...


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## Taceas (Aug 14, 2007)

Now if only I could convince the black rat snakes around here that eating eggs and chicks was a myth.  

I can't have any pigeon eggs or chicks for the damned things getting in and eating them. It's every week I'm relocating one or two of them.


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