Snake!!!

[Emzyyy]

Too bad for your eggs but I feel sorry for the snake. Their gorgeous animals. We just caught a little one in our basement yesterday because my brother came downstairs and a 5 foot long snake was sitting on the floor but he had to go to the restroom really badly he said or he woulda gone right then and there so he went and came back and it was gone, so they went looking for it and found a little not even a foot long snake that looked just like it. I wonder if it had babies in the house?

 

[allison finch]

No pictures? I am really surprised it was a kingsnake. I used to breed several species of kings and never knew them to eat eggs. Most of the egg eaters were one of the many species of rat snakes. Any way you could have mistaken a rat for a king? Many local folks have misidentified snakes and passed these names on and on.
Please, post a pic, if you can. King snakes usually don't have patterns that look like rattlers. Rat snakes do.

 

[duck walk]

You guys are killing me...I spewed coke and got it up my nose and just about choked...I killed one this a.m. Rat snake big enough to eat my gosling whom he was close to and eyeballing...momma had a bucket and a broom and he got the worst of both...one dead snake...I never felt animosity toward them before but the first one I killed was in the nest from which I had been missing a lot of eggs...he had eaten a ping pong ball the day I dispatched him to snake heaven...he was big enough to eat my chicks...I went from 8 eggs to 15 per day...he had been eating well...and he had friends, like the one I got today...not my baby goose...not on your life sneaky snake...

 

[Cetawin]

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Maybe captive bred or captive raised do not but wild ones will eat eggs in a new york second. I have seen them do it several times in my lifetime and this big sucker here, gobbles em up when I put them out for it.

This one is often mistaken as a rattler on first glance...

This is the variety that lives in my yard...huge one

California Kingsnake


Here you can see pictures of the various varieties of Kingsnakes:


Kingsnakes varieties

 

[walkswithdog]

Could have been a rat snake, maybe I'll drag out the body and take a pic. walkswithdogchampionsnakeslinger...

bwahahahhaha

 

[gypsy2621]

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That nearly made the screen coffeefied lmao .

To whom ever mentioned that snakes dont eat eggs, I have corn, king, rat and a few others and yes they will eat eggs if given the opportunity.
mine get an egg once a month for the protein it provides. they love them. I raise bantams and OEGB for this purpose.
They wont eat eggs if its not offered to them. I have offered eggs from the minute I bring them home.
not only do they get the protein from the egg its self but a small amount of calcium relieving the need to buy expensive calcium replacements.

 

[allison finch]

Quote:
Maybe captive bred or captive raised do not but wild ones will eat eggs in a new york second. I have seen them do it several times in my lifetime and this big sucker here, gobbles em up when I put them out for it.

This one is often mistaken as a rattler on first glance...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/7630_kingsnakevariety.jpg


This is the variety that lives in my yard...huge one

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/7630_013923_ca_kingsnake.jpg

California Kingsnake


Here you can see pictures of the various varieties of Kingsnakes:


Kingsnakes varieties

You claim to have watched that particular snake eating eggs? Are you J. Lassiter? The one who took that photo? Hmmm......

The reason I post this is that I bred lampropeltis for many years. Eating eggs is a specialized behavior that requires a vertebra with a spinous process that is used to crush the egg. I didn't believe that lampropeltis had this shaped vertebra, making it very difficult to break the egg. Without breaking the egg internally, there is no way to digest it.

I believe kingsnakes WILL eat chicks and they will, certainly, eat the rodents attracted to all the food around a coop.



BTW, if the above poster feeds eggs, successfully, to her king.....I stand corrected. I will have to go back and take a look at lampropeltis skeleton and figure it out. Corn (elaphe guttata guttata) are one of the many rat snakes. They are specialized egg eaters.

 

[Ducklove334]

are you sure it was a king?

they are ONE snake I would NOT kill

they eat OTHER snakes.

he was most likely in there looking for your REAL culprit

 

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
Maybe captive bred or captive raised do not but wild ones will eat eggs in a new york second. I have seen them do it several times in my lifetime and this big sucker here, gobbles em up when I put them out for it.

This one is often mistaken as a rattler on first glance...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/7630_kingsnakevariety.jpg


This is the variety that lives in my yard...huge one

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/7630_013923_ca_kingsnake.jpg

California Kingsnake


Here you can see pictures of the various varieties of Kingsnakes:


Kingsnakes varieties

You claim to have watched that particular snake eating eggs? Are you J. Lassiter? The one who took that photo? Hmmm......

The reason I post this is that I bred lampropeltis for many years. Eating eggs is a specialized behavior that requires a vertebra with a spinous process that is used to crush the egg. I didn't believe that lampropeltis had this shaped vertebra, making it very difficult to break the egg. Without breaking the egg internally, there is no way to digest it.

I believe kingsnakes WILL eat chicks and they will, certainly, eat the rodents attracted to all the food around a coop.



BTW, if the above poster feeds eggs, successfully, to her king.....I stand corrected. I will have to go back and take a look at lampropeltis skeleton and figure it out. Corn (elaphe guttata guttata) are one of the many rat snakes. They are specialized egg eaters.

Appearance and Anatomy of Common King Snakes
Colors and patterns: vibrant reds, yellows, oranges, tans, black and white arranged in bands, rings, stripes, patches, spots and speckles, with the exact design depending on the species, subspecies, individual and locale

Length: typically 2 to 4 feet, rarely 7 feet, hatchlings 8 to 13 inches

Head: somewhat wider than the neck, plate-like top scales, bulging eyes

Body Scales: smooth and glossy, giving rise to the scientific species name "lampropeltis," which means "shiny skin"

Hunting Attributes: powerful body, which the kingsnake uses to suffocate its prey by constriction

Common kingsnakes, which occur in a rainbow of polished colors, rate near the top of the most beautiful snakes of the world. For instance, the Sonora Mountain kingsnake of Arizona has narrow red and white rings separated by thin black rings. The common kingsnake of California typically has broad dark bands separated by cream-colored bands. The scarlet kingsnake of the southeastern United States has broad red rings and narrow yellow rings separated by thin black rings.

Superficially, some common kingsnakes such as the Sonora Mountain kingsnake resemble the venomous coral snakes, but the kingsnake's red rings are bordered by black rings and the coral snakes red rings, by yellow rings. Remember the old saws: "Red touches black, you're o.k., Jack." And, "If red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow."

Modern Distribution and Habitat
The kingsnake is comprised of eight species, including the common kingsnake. The kingsnake has the largest natural geographical range of any land snake. It occupies an array of habitats from southern Canada to northern South America. The common kingsnake, with a number of subspecies, occurs across the United States and northern and central Mexico, from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast.

Exceptionally adaptable for a reptile, the common kingsnake makes itself at home in a diversity of habitats, ranging from desert basins to riverine wetlands, from valleys to rolling hills, from coastal estuaries to grasslands, from shrublands to forested mountain foothills. Secretive, they often seclude themselves in dense vegetation, under rocks and beneath fallen logs and inside rodent burrows. They usually keep to the ground's surface, but they can climb swiftly into brush or swim efficiently in ponds and quiet streams.

Hunting Habits and Diet
Hunting during the day, especially around sunrise and sunset, or through cool summer nights, the common kingsnake will prey on just about any creature that it can overpower with its constricting coils. It feeds, most famously, on other snakes as well as on lizards, small turtles, frogs, birds and small mammals. It also eats the eggs of reptiles and birds. Equipped with an enzyme the breaks down the venom from poisonous snakes, minimizing the damage it suffers from bites it will eat rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouth water moccasins and even coral snakes. Its practice of eating venomous snakes makes it exceptional among the reptiles.

 

[Brindlebtch]

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