Reptilia · Squamata
Dasypeltis scabraLinnaeus, 1758
Common Egg Eater
Photograph by de:Benutzer:Mond76, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A nocturnal, meat-eating snake from the Afrotropic region, reaching 116 cm nose to tail.
Also called Rhombic Egg Eater.
Reptilia › Squamata › Colubridae › Dasypeltis
- Grows to
- 1160mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 31years
Longer than 78% of all colubrid snakes anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 98 to 3,800 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
42 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Brown
- Pattern on the back
- Banded, blotched
- Pupil
- Vertical slit
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
- Longest recorded life
- 31years
Stark et al. 2020: 22.1, Spawls et al. 2023 (31 years in captivity)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 964mm3 ft 2 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 555mm22 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1160mm3 ft 10 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 149mm5.75 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 187.5mm7.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 188.2g6.6 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 72.25g2.5 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 2.81g0.1 oz
1160 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), hatchlings 2.81 g (Chen et al. 2021), Barends and Maritz 2021 (SVL: 321-802, n = 19, female SVL: 321-790, mean 479.9, n = 10), 450-1160 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), Pietersen et al. 2021 (max SVL 678 in males, 964 mm in females; hatchlins 115-260 mm TL), 55 g (the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History), Marais 2022 (adults average 30-60 cm, max 1.16 m, hatchling 21-26 cm), 40-110 cm (Trape 2023), Bates 2023 ("Size. Largest male (TMP 39329 – Katima Mulilo) 467 mm SVL + 98 mm tail length = 565 mm total length; largest female (NMWN 2292 – Witvlei, Gobabis) 730 + 97 = 827 mm, but NMWN 253 (Wilhelmsruhe) had a SVL of 773 (no tail measurement). in his appendix: 21 females 320-773 mm SVL, mean 555; 15 males 314-467, mean 398 mm - probably with juveniles; minimum 149 mm SVL)", Spawls et al. 2023 (50-110 cm, hatchlings 20-26 cm)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Grassland, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 66m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2400m
- Range size
- 13,770,395km²
exclusively bird eggs (Pietersen et al. 2021), bird egg specialist (van Huyssteen 2023) see also Marais 2022, Trape 2023
Active (Murphy et al. 2003, van Huyssteen 2023)
Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Pietersen et al. 2021, van Huyssteen 2023, Marais 2022, Trape 2023
Arboreal&Terrestrial (Feldman 2015, van Huyssteen 2023, Malonza and Bwong 2023), arboreal (Trape 2023)
from the lowest altitudes to 1200 (Wilkey and Terrell 2017), absent only from areas > 2400 m (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 15.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 6–25eggs
- Mean clutch
- 15.5eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
Feldman et al. 2015, Spawls et al. 2023
mean 15.5 (Scharf et al. 2015), 6-25 (Marais 2005, Wilkey and Terrell 2017, Murphy et al. 2003, Pietersen et al. 2021, Marais 2022, Spawls et al. 2023),
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- Dasypeltis scabra loveridgei MERTENS 1954 Dasypeltis scabra scabra (LINNAEUS 1758)
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- South Africa
Keeping one
3 ft 10 in × 23 in × 5 ft 9 in(116 × 58 × 174 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes snakes as a fraction of total length: 1 × 0.5 × 1.5.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own total length of 3 ft 10 in (1160 mm), at 1 × 0.5 × 1.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Common Egg Eater. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
A prey item should be between the same width as the widest part of the snake's body and about 1.5 times that width.
Widely used across snake husbandry references. An alternative formulation gives prey at 10-15% of the snake's body mass. This is established practice, not a measurement.
21kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 188 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Egg Eater — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Sex decided by
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Colubridae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Dasypeltis scabra. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dasypeltis-scabra
@misc{dasypeltis_scabra_2026,
title = {Dasypeltis scabra},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/dasypeltis-scabra}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.