# Could I swallow a whole egg and pass it through my other end?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 31, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164 "2006-12-31T00:49:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/1 "2006-12-31T00:49:33Z")
Is it possible for me to swallow a whole egg, shell and all, and pass it out my other end fully intact? Would I need to coat the egg in something so it doesn’t dissolve?
Just curious 😃
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/2 "2006-12-31T01:23:51Z")
I assume you’re not referring to a hummingbird egg, right?
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/3 "2006-12-31T01:28:45Z")
As **panache** notes, it’s all about the size of the egg. A fish egg, for example (if enclosed in some substance that wouldn’t be dissolved by the hydrochloric acid solution in your stomach) would be no problem.
If you’re talking about an ordinary hen’s egg, how would you even manage to get it into your stomach? I still remember trying to swallow a peachpit (which is much smaller than the average hen’s egg) once when I was a kid, and never even got it past the glottis. (Good thing too, or I’d probably have choked to death.)
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### Author:  [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/4 "2006-12-31T01:41:11Z")
For the sake of argument, let’s say it is about the size of duck eggs.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/5 "2006-12-31T12:42:09Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu]
If you’re talking about an ordinary hen’s egg, how would you even manage to get it into your stomach? I still remember trying to swallow a peachpit (which is much smaller than the average hen’s egg) once when I was a kid, and never even got it past the glottis. (Good thing too, or I’d probably have choked to death.)
[/QUOTE]
Wasn’t there some Scottish bloke on the _Guinness Primetime_ television show who swallowed and regurgitated billiard balls?
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### Author:  [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/6 "2006-12-31T13:47:32Z")
No
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/7 "2006-12-31T15:03:03Z")
No. The inside of your intestines is very narrow. The sections are connected by a series of small valves. Moreover, the intestines work by peristalsis: a series of muscle contractions that push the contents through. Anything that large (and imaginarily impervious to crushing) would be hung up sooner rather than later and be extremely dangerous to your health.
We’ll now get a series of posts from the credulous who will tell us about some friend who swallowed a horseshoe and it came out with all the nails still in it and attached to the horse’s hoof to boot, but that’s as likely as their replacing Cecil when he retires.
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/8 "2006-12-31T15:13:47Z")
[QUOTE=panache45]
I assume you’re not referring to a hummingbird egg, right?
[/QUOTE]
I think he was referring to an ostrich egg.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/9 "2006-12-31T21:48:26Z")
[QUOTE=panache45]
I assume you’re not referring to a hummingbird egg, right?
[/QUOTE]
All kidding aside I think a quail egg might be big enough for some people to swallow. Now how far it will get before a) breaking b) disintegrating c) lodging, I don’t know.
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### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/10 "2006-12-31T22:40:18Z")
Based on anecdotal evidence a Golden Retriever can [swallow and pass an entire lightbulb.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8106854#post8106854)
[QUOTE=Parenchyma]
My favorite, which always makes me smile, is the Golden Retriever that swallowed a full-size light bulb and eventually passed it whole-- without, apparently, ever feeling a thing.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Don26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don26)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/11 "2007-01-01T01:34:22Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
Wasn’t there some Scottish bloke on the _Guinness Primetime_ television show who swallowed and regurgitated billiard balls?
[/QUOTE]
IIRC, it was Ping Pong Balls…
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/12 "2007-01-01T01:57:34Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase]
We’ll now get a series of posts from the credulous who will tell us about some friend who swallowed a horseshoe and it came out with all the nails still in it and attached to the horse’s hoof to boot, but that’s as likely as their replacing Cecil when he retires.
[/QUOTE]
You’ve heard of the old lady who swallowed a fly, and what ultimately happened to her! (although the song never mentions how anything exited her body)
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### Author:  [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/13 "2007-01-01T04:33:00Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut]
Wasn’t there some Scottish bloke on the _Guinness Primetime_ television show who swallowed and regurgitated billiard balls?
[/QUOTE]
Was he the guy who contorted his stomach and made some sort of high-pitched “yeehaw” noise before regurgitating? I’m pretty sure there were some billiard balls involved with that one.
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### Author:  [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2007, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/14 "2007-01-01T08:15:00Z")
Well, I know from experience that nuts can sometimes pass through my body intact so I think that it would be possible to at least pass a quail egg fully intact. You would just have to coat the egg in something so that it doesn’t dissolve in the stomach. If the coating is hard, like some sort of sugar, then it would also give the egg strength to withstand crush loads. After all, an egg is very strong due to its dome shape. Any suggestions as to what I should coat the egg with?
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/15 "2007-01-01T16:50:38Z")
Compare the size of the nut that passed through your system with the size of a chicken egg. Then forget you ever brought the subject up.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/16 "2007-01-02T00:42:46Z")
I’m pretty sure it’s possible for humans to swallow objects up to something like duck egg size - I used to have an in-depth book about the operation of the UK Customs & Excise and there were quite a number of pictures and descriptions of packaged illicit drugs that people had been attempting to import by swallowing them before travelling - in cases where the people were caught, the packages were nearly always passed with feces later.
Some of the packages were ping-pong ball size - they probably would have been a little squashable due to the somewhat flexible nature of their casings, but they would still have been quite a chunk even when squashed. Nothing as big as a hen’s egg though, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one or two extraordinary people in the world who could swallow a whole egg - as long as the requirement to pass it intact were lifted.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/17 "2007-01-02T04:21:14Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams]
Any suggestions as to what I should coat the egg with?
[/QUOTE]
Wait.. by your wording you’re _actually_ planning on doing this?
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### Author:  [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2007, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/18 "2007-01-02T05:32:20Z")
[QUOTE=clayton\_e]
Wait.. by your wording you’re _actually_ planning on doing this?
[/QUOTE]
Maybe with a quail egg. I don’t think I can do it with a hen egg. I will probably gag a lot, though. But I still don’t know how to keep it from being digested.
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### Author:  [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2007, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/19 "2007-01-02T08:14:06Z")
I heard from an old Christmas Carol that Robin, from Batman fame, once laid an egg. Perhaps this was how he achieved this feat.
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### Author:  [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-swallow-a-whole-egg-and-pass-it-through-my-other-end/386164/20 "2007-01-02T09:19:31Z")
C’mon people, stop egging him on
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