Rats and eggs?

Question

is it true that you can give a rat a hard boiled with the shell still on. someone told me this, but wouldnt the shell cut them, or choke them if they tried to eat it

Answer 1

You can, but I personally would cut it off.

Answer 2

You can, but I don't see the point of just giving a whole egg. They'll just be struggling to get the shell off and get to the egg, I suppose that might be a bit funny. They generally know enough not to eat it, just like they know not to eat the shells of peanuts or sunflower seeds. If I were you, I would just peel the egg, cut it up, and give it to them. My boys LOOOVE hard boiled eggs. ;P

EDIT: If you want to do that.. I'd say just peel off part of the shell, so they have somewhere to start and know what's in there. Then they'll try getting the rest of the shell off.

Answer 3

I don't know about cooked egg as I haven't tried it but I currently have 2 rats that VERY occasionally like a raw egg in its shell as a treat. My old rat also used to enjoy them as they have to get to their own food. Vet said it was fine and the shell doesn't cut them or anything. Mine just seem to add it to their bed pile.

Answer 4

i own pet chipmonks which are part of the rodent family, so the structure of the mouth and the way they store food in their pouches either side of their mouth is identical, you should not give them egg shell as this can damage the membrane inside the pouches and cause eating difficulty, try giving them nuts with shells on, my chipmonks love brazil nuts, the hard shell not only keeps them occupied trying to gnore through it, but also keeps there front teeth nice and short, these grow constantly in rodents and without enough hard food in the diet, will become to long eventually making it impossible to eat

Answer 5

I agree with Courtney. The one time I ever gave my rats hardboiled eggs in the shell, they sniffed them, licked them, rolled them, but couldn't figure out how to actually break into them and gave it up as a lost cause until I peeled it for them. If you want to give it a try, though, rats grind their food into tiny crumbs, so sharp jabby bits and choking aren't really an issue. The only time you should be concerned about choking is with thick, sticky substances like peanut butter.

Answer 6

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VFSSmxmJYQQ

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tLq8O6LoXsg&f...

Answer 7

My boys love hard boiled egg. I usually just give them the egg and watch then try to figure out how to open it until they get bored with that then I make a tiny crack in the shell just big enough for them to start tearing the shell off they go nuts after that, dragging the egg all around the cage not wanting to share it with anyone else.

Answer 8

I give mine the occasional boiled egg.  They cant get crack the shell themselves so I tend to break of a peace of the sell and peel it back and then give it to them.  They soon get the idea and break away the rest of the shell until they can get the egg out.  I’ve not given mine raw eggs as this might be a bit too messy.  I can just see them getting covered in raw egg and having to be washed.

One word of warning however, an egg has a lot of protein in so the you don’t want to give egg to often.

Answer 9

Hi its fine to give them the egg in the shell, there is a fab Pet Rat DVD by Houndstar, available from Pets at Home, and I saw them on Ebay low price as well, the Video shows them with a boiled egg I think its 1 egg a month....