From Florida Native Snake Rescue and Rehab
Yesterday afternoon we took in an adult non-venomous Yellow Ratsnake that had swallowed a false wooden egg in a chicken lay box. The homeowner felt terrible it happened and had been trying to catch him for a couple months to get him help. We’re glad she finally did! Without intervention, this snake would have died a slow and painful death as these false eggs create a complete gastrointestinal obstruction.
Here at our facility we tried our best to massage the egg back out of his mouth manually, as we typically do in these cases. Unfortunately, because the egg had been in there for so long, we were unsuccessful. The decision was then made to rush him in for emergency treatment with our friend and local reptile veterinarian Dr. Tony
Colbert at the Exotic Bird Hospital, Jacksonville. He was thankfully able to perform the surgery last night and he successfully removed the wooden egg. The snake spent the night at the vet hospital, and we will update you later on this poor fellow’s progress.
Emergency surgery is expensive, and we are grateful for any donations the public feels moved to give. If you would like to help, we are so thankful for you!! The preliminary estimate for this beautiful snake’s surgery & after care is between $480-$680.
From people in the comment section, wooden eggs are placed in coops to supposedly encourage laying.
I guess that is a chicken thing? I know we’ve given some of our ambassador birds fake eggs to prevent them from laying and wasting nutrients and energy unnecessarily, from what I understood…
Fake eggs are common with chickens.
The idea is to give them hints as to where they should lay.
It also discourages the chicken from pecking eggs and eating them which can cause a big mess.
Glad the snake could be helped
Thanks for the insights. Some of the stories I hear about cooped up chickens make them sound pretty violent with what they will do to each other. Even though they’re ubiquitous, I suppose they are still descendants of those reptilian raptors.
I’ve heard people gluing the wooden eggs together to keep the snakes from being able to accidentally ingest them.
Even fully free range, as in only in a coop at night for security and sleep, can be vicious little buggers lol.
Ignoring roosters with their sheer barbarian rage class ability, sweet little hens will cluck around a big yard, and just peck the hell out of each other. Brutally. If you go looking up stuff about back yard chicken keeping, there’s pics and video of hens pecking another hen to death (mind you, the videos of that are the aftermath, talking about the behavior, not footage of it happening).
Wooden eggs serve to partially keep a broody hen content, as well as teaching them where to lay, and destroying eggs. Some hens, once they go broody never stop, but you can’t just leave eggs under them forever. So, fake eggs. Gives you and them cushion in handling the broodiness. Luckily, none of ours have ever needed that. But we don’t have many, and they’re pets, not working birds.
Chickens are apex predators stuck in a cute little body
My sister in law started keeping chickens last year. She tried some ducks this year, and one must have made one of the hens very mad, as it kept getting its poor eyelids bitten off. They also had a rooster for a bit, but it kept going for their kids, so I think he got checked out early.
I guess it’s just relative size that makes us not really fear birds. I follow a lot of carnivorous birds, and I know how savage they can be, but I still think of chickens as grain and bug eaters. Perhaps I don’t give them enough credit.
I thought that way too. Until I saw our rooster curb stomp a bird and a rat. And by curb stomp, I mean pounding the things with his feet until they stopped moving and ripping their heads off to get to the innards. Brutal as fuck.
He’s also quite willing to fight me. He always loses because he lacks opposable thumbs and the brains to just grab a flying rooster and restrain it until it calms the hell down. But that ten pound, 1 foot tall asshole will go hard at my almost 6 foot tall, ex weightlifter, sasquatch looking self with zero doubt he’ll win this time. Zero chill lol. If I was a kid, I’d be terrified.
The jerk is still around by virtue of having literally broken a spur off in a pit bull that was trying to kill the hens. He lost feathers, the dog left a trail of blood across three yards. Brutal af. He’s a jerk, but he put his life on the line to protect the flock. I’ll take some pecks and scratches (and a couple of scars from fumbling when I’ve caught him; the remaining spur is sharp) for that kind of yard guard.
That’s one tough bird! For being mostly feathers, birds can sure put on a tough act and hold their own against some lopsided opposition.
I guess it’s not the size of the bird in the fight, but the size of the fight in the bird! 😅
Absolutely lol.
Good point about the broodies, I forgot about that.
have you seen chickens hunting smaller animals? they are terrifying.
I’m starting to think I didn’t give chickens enough credit!
Fake eggs are common for killing chicken snakes too, although they’re usually glass.
I’ve seen some people mention doing this intentionally when I was reading things adjacent to this post, and I hope this can highlight how slow, cruel, and painful that is for the snake.
People should be able to do better than that.
Yeah, it’s a pretty fucked way to kill anything. I made my mom stop using them for her coop
That is good to hear! It’s amazing what cruel ways of trapping, exterminating, and poisoning so many people justify to deal with “pests.”
My mom tried telling me a story about how she had the exterminator rescue a snake stuck on a glue trap, and it was there for a few days and she poked at it to see if it was alive…
I had to cut her off and tell her that the story was upsetting me and her disregard for life was appalling. She included how they went away for the weekend and it was still alive when they got back, so I guess it was “worthy of trying to save”. Just disgusting and I’m glad I have embraced the view that every life is worth saving (besides mosquitoes and bedbugs)
I am the weirdo at the warehouse that saves all the bugs. I caught a little skipper butterfly, a wasp, and a couple spiders within the last couple months. The other day I was looking at a pallet and after a surprise realized a poor spider had been caught in shrinkwrap but was still alive! I cut the plastic around it and wrangled it outside; the poor thing deserves a chance
Ugh, so many snakes, birds, and others caught in glue traps. It’s also cruel to the mice they are sold to catch. They’re another thing I’d like to see disappear.
The good thing is we can dissolve the glue and get critters cleaned up if they are found in time.
It’s nice to hear you having the household and warehouse crawlies. I even leave the freaky but beneficial house centipedes to do their thing, I just try to pretend I didn’t see them. 😬
I try to avoid the mosquitos, and I’d have to kill the bedbugs if I ever got them. Ticks are another that make the list. If you invade my dermis, you’re done!
That’s brutal
Yeah, it’s pretty fucked
Oh poor thing!
I know! That looks so horrible! I’m so glad the lady persisted to catch it so it could be saved.
This is a very heartening post ❤️
It’s a great story of people pitching together to save something traditionally less loved. While I don’t like to see the animals suffer, I feel this type of story really highlights some of the best things about humanity, that we can all find such compassion for an anonymous reptile.
I’m glad you enjoyed the story!
That is so awesome. Nice work vets!
I’m so grateful for the vets that can work on animals other than pets! They are (literally) lifesavers for these extreme wildlife cases.
The homeowner felt terrible it happened and had been trying to catch him for a couple months to get him help. We’re glad she finally did! Without intervention, this snake would have died a slow and painful death as these false eggs create a complete gastrointestinal obstruction.
Am I reading this right that the snake survived for multiple months with the egg blocking its intestines? I know snakes can go quite a while without eating, but I didn’t know it could be 2+ months, wow.
So glad they were able to help the lil fella ❤️
From a little quick reading, mature snakes can go months, sometimes even to a year+ if need be.
Much of it seems to stem from them being exothermic (cold-blooded) as they don’t need to constantly be metabolizing to maintain body temperature.
They also have a good amount of internal fat storage to give them nutrition while they are between feedings.
Even if they’re not eating, they still need to drink every few days. Not drinking for a week or 2 can really start to cause problems as well.
I’m happy he was saved too! This send like a very bad way to go. 😐
Its more to encourage them to lay in that specific spot, often they lay eggs anywhere and everywhere but will gravitate towards where other eggs are.
That seems a very peculiar thing to not know as a bird 🤔
Plus why would they want to lay an egg where someone else had laid one already?
Birds are complicated.
Plus why would they want to lay an egg where someone else had laid one already?
Because the other hen will then be the one breeding them and raising the hatched. Some even take turns in breeding. For defense against predators, it’s also useful to have the nests at close vicinity, as each hen will individually defend their nest and its vicinity.
You guys are really making me want to learn more about chickens today. With 90% of my time spent learning about owls, it hardly crosses my mind there might be sociable birds.
This is my first time seeing a snake surgery
I’m still very curious about the anesthesia myself.
I know it can be very complicated on humans, let alone exotic animals.
I shared a post before where a dragonfly got gassed so its wings could be unstickied. Some of these people will do some wild things to help these animals. Truly amazing stuff!
Poor noodle! I am glad they cared enough to take it to a vet. He was probably suffering a great deal. 😭
I had gallstones, and that was some of the most excruciating pain I had and that only would last a day. I couldn’t imagine something internally blocked for weeks!
All lil bro wanted was an egg… 😔
I’m glad he’s patched up now!
I hereby dub thee, “Eggs Benedict”
I like it 😌
Florida People are Awesome, Save Snek
I went to get their donation link, but I don’t have the facepals and the only other place I saw them was on nextdoor. (!) Wonderfully, under “Our Story” it just says:
Injured or sick snake call/text: 904-707-9982 Free snake ID & relocation hotline text/call: 904-217-5136
If anyone can post their donation link that’d be swell
Sorry, here are the links they provided in the FB post. I normally strip them out unless requested, as I don’t want to seem like I am asking/guilting anyone into anything, plus I think people should support their local rescuers first, since all rescues everywhere need help… It’s hard to get these animals to pay up! 😄
Here is the Florida Wildlife Commission’s list of licensed rehabbers, so you have confirmation Shasta is legit. (She’s under St Johns)
I’ll always get you guys a link if requested!
Poor guy, hope he makes a full recovery
Me too! I’ve never really felt afraid of snakes, just a healthy respect, and I think they’re beautiful and amazing animals.
Yeah we have some evolutionary beef with snakes, but if you look past that there’s nothing really to be afraid of for the vast majority of the snakes
Silly long pickle.
Probably feels a bit pickled coming out of that gas! 🥴
