Splitting snakes

Lankyrob · 11-12-12, 05:32 PM

On this and another forum there have been several mentions about snakes literally splitting on two because of eating huge prey items. Unfortunately there has been no sources/evidence put forward so i thought i would pull this out of the random discussion within a thread and see what we all think.

Personally i can find no evidence and dont believe it would ever happen so what do you all think?

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 05:53 PM

I thought if a prey item was too big the snake would just spit it out

Gungirl · 11-12-12, 05:57 PM

I have only heard of one case. Someone I used to hang around with had a boa ( knowing what I know now I would have taken it from him for a lot of reasons.) .. He tried to feed it a goat? head

the snake was large enough to eat it but the horn was very sharp and did manage to rip through the snake.

I wasn't there at the time but I did see pictures of it. He video taped it as well. I haven't spoken to him in years...

I think it was a goat.. IDK about that size with a good 3" horn.

Lankyrob · 11-12-12, 05:59 PM

Sounds awful but i guess it wasnt the size of the prey as much as the horn that caused it?

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 06:00 PM

Come to think of it on this forum there was a discussion about someone feeding off a rat and having the esophagus torn by a sharp nail.

I wonder if the prey were smaller if it would have still made the tear

Gungirl · 11-12-12, 06:19 PM

Yes Rob it was clearly the horn that ripped the snake open. It had nothing to do with size of prey..

Lady bug.. this is the thread I believe.. http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/elaph...orn-ideas.html

I think the claim that a pinky mouse nail killed it is lame.. something else happened. Was the food Item to large ? I think so.. maybe they moved it right after it ate and that caused an issue due to size of prey. I don't know..

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 06:21 PM

yea I remember now. The corn stopped eating because of the tear but I doubt it had anything to do with prey size,

I know in Green Trees they can prolapse but I think this has more to do with humidity issues... so I am sticking to my theory that if food is too big the snake will spit it out

mykee · 11-12-12, 06:38 PM

That thread was an e**in joke. How is it NOT the keepers fault for feeding an item that was clearly too large of an item!?
People are dumb.

Terranaut · 11-12-12, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mykee

That thread was an e**in joke. How is it NOT the keepers fault for feeding an item that was clearly too large of an item!?
People are dumb.

Yes they are!!
I think this snake splitting is a tall tale just like the snake is sizing me up in my bed stuff. Pics or it never happened right?

dinosaurdammit · 11-12-12, 07:36 PM

yes it can happen, please note that this is a python that ate an alligator and it is somewhat graphic.

Here is the link

TragicTaste · 11-12-12, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinosaurdammit

yes it can happen, please note that this is a python that ate an alligator and it is somewhat graphic.

Here is the link

I saw this on a documentary once, and it is believed that the gator went in alive, and cut the snake open from the inside. IF that really is the case, then it still means that the snake didnt split due to too large of prey.

dinosaurdammit · 11-12-12, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TragicTaste

I saw this on a documentary once, and it is believed that the gator went in alive, and cut the snake open from the inside. IF that really is the case, then it still means that the snake didnt split due to too large of prey.

Still wouldnt surprise me if they ate a meal that could cause them to split due to gasses. It isnt like snakes burp and if they have i have never seen anything on it, they do fart though, my male boa can let one rip and many a times I have blamed husband for them and vise versa.

shaunyboy · 11-12-12, 10:18 PM

re snakes eating prey WITH,large,hard,sharp,body parts,that in life were used to defend themselves.....

i'm not sure if it might be possible,for say an antellopes antillers,to puncture the snake,from the inside out,or does the stomach acid soften them up instantly ?

or is the stomach tissue too hard,for the sharp antiller,horn,tusk,etc,

we don't hear of it that often,if ever in captivity,regards the wild, i can remember a tv documentry,where it showed pictures of a caimen crocodile (i think),bursting out of one of florida's large invasive snake species

re bursting snakes eating prey,WITHOUT,sharp,protruding body parts.....

we both keep carpet Pythons Rob,so we've witnessed how large a prey item,a carpet can take with ease,imo carpets will take...

2,3,4,5 times their girth,at times..

some other species can put away large/huge prey items with ease as well...

i don't think a snake would eat to the point of bursting,that said...

i've seen snakes do some dumb things

a great idea for a thread Rob mate

cheers shaun

jaleely · 11-12-12, 10:46 PM

I think snakes can die from food getting stuck. It would only split through the stomach, and the outside, if it was something like...a goat head with a horn (jeez, what?)

After more experience, i would say that most of the time the snake would regurge. In the case of the corn snake in that thread...i think the prey item was too big..and from the photo...it looked like the snake could not regurgitate it for some reason. It looks stuck.

But i sure did worry about nails on my feeder rats for a while. LOL wow that was a while ago.

**Aaron_S** · 11-13-12, 10:07 AM

Snakes have been doing this for far longer than we've been keeping them.

This is a classic case of over-thinking something. I've never seen a snake eat a meal it couldn't handle. They just spit it out or regurge it. They aren't too dumb to sacrifice themselves for a meal.