Pest Guides

Egg Eating Snakes

Dasypeltis

Geographical Locale

Egg Eating Snakes
  • Found throughout Africa

Appearance

  • The few teeth it has are solid and harmless.
  • No fangs.
  • Wide variation in pattern and colour; ranging from browns and greens to solid dark grey.
  • V-shaped dark mark on neck; the top of which points to the snout.
  • Fairly slender snake with small head that is rounded at the snout.
  • Belly usually cream in brown coloured snakes and white in grey ones.
  • Size ranges from .5metres to 1.5metres in length.
  • Often confused with the Night Adder (Causus rhombeatus).

Venom

  • Non-venomous

Lifecycle

  • Females lay between 6 and 12 eggs.
  • Eggs are incubated for approximately three months.
  • Hatchlings are between 14cms and 21cms in length.
  • Dasypeltis reach sexual maturity after about two years.

Habits

  • Generally live in forests or anywhere that is also the habitat of large numbers of nesting birds.
  • Extremely strong climbers.
  • Keenly developed sense of smell – they will not eat rotten eggs or ones that are too far developed for their taste.
  • Swallows eggs whole but crushes and regurgitates the shell.
  • Extremely nervous species and non-confrontational.