# Quail eggs raw or cooked?



## marydd (Jul 28, 2014)

Hello all. I have seen people do both. I have read cooked eggs are less healthy for tegus than raw but I cannot remember why. Feel free to let me know your preference and reasoning for it. Thank you for your help.


----------



## Peasley (Jul 29, 2014)

I recall seeing something about the eggs being cooked actually reconstructs in a way that sort of "decontaminates" it, although salmonella is part of the natural gut flora of animals, even humans. I have also read that raw eggs are a bit more nutritious than scrambled or soft boiled. I would say that if you were to feed raw, feed sparingly, and flip between raw and cooked. Some of what I have read could be outdated, and some definitely prefer cooked over raw, and visa versa. As with anything, it seems to depend on a lot of different factors: whether it is a gravid female or growing baby, etc. It always goes without saying that it is best to be safe than sorry, and practice caution if choosing to feed raw.


----------



## marydd (Jul 29, 2014)

Thank you.


----------



## Peasley (Jul 30, 2014)

A little research on my end through the night brought up that a lot of people lean toward fertilized, peeled, soft boiled duck or quail eggs, as these tend to be much more nutritious in the cooked state. Don't mean to keep beating the horse here, just trying to help out with what I can come up with.


----------



## Little Wise Owl (Jul 30, 2014)

Mine gets both cooked and raw eggs. Cooked/boiled quail eggs because that's the only way I can find them and raw and/or cooked chicken eggs depending on what's more convenient. Eggs are fed sparingly so I don't think it honestly matters whether it's cooked or raw.


----------



## marydd (Jul 31, 2014)

Thanks guys!


----------



## apocalypse910 (Aug 3, 2014)

I usually feed quail eggs raw. As far as I know the only problem with raw is the avidin content, however, this is really only an issue if raw egg white is a large part of the diet. For quail eggs given as a treat alongside a balanced diet it isn't harmful. Quail eggs are a lot higher in fat than chicken eggs but they are also much more nutritious - so they do make a good tegu snack(in moderation). The only downside I've seen is that Loki gets over-excited about the quail eggs and occasionally chomps on them so hard they explode and get egg everywhere. Got to love dino mode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avidin


----------

