How does a constrictor know when to let go? - Page 2

Mutimbo · 08-14-12, 04:43 AM

To find out if they release when they stop feeling movement, next feeding of F/T, when you see the snake starting to relax grab and wiggle the tail of the prey item. If they begin to squeeze tighter again its probably movement. Just throwing it out there.

RandyRhodes; It makes my day to know that there are rednecks in Cali! LOL

knox · 08-13-12, 08:15 PM

And I have to correct one statement I made up there.

EVERY movement of the heart has to do with the action potential of the myocardial cells. However, they won't start firing at VT or VF rates simply from a lack of perfusion.

Sorry about that.

Brently · 08-13-12, 08:53 PM

If I was to throw my two cents out there I would say that it is an instictual response learned over millenia of ancestry. I would guess that it is a distinct feel combined with sense response from prey item and specific amounts of time of constriction. That is just my thought.

Will0W783 · 08-14-12, 07:18 AM

My snakes all eat f/t prey, and they all constrict it for varying lengths of time. I have some snakes that will just suck it down without ever wrapping it up and others who coil it for sometimes half an hour before eating it.
I have tried to tug or wiggle the prey and they do seem to tighten around it more, but that could just be because they don't want it taken away.

I do think that snakes instinctually sense clues about the prey's state...a struggling, panicking prey will have a pounding heart, twitch and scrabble. Once it is dead, all the muscles will relax and it will go limp. I think it is the sudden relaxation of all the muscles that the snakes sense rather than a heartbeat or pulse, as this is a very noticeable, sudden change that could be felt in all the coils as sudden loss of resistance.
However, when we condition our snakes to eat f/t prey, they instinctually know they must coil and "kill" it, but there is no signal of death...the prey never suddenly relaxes as it's already dead and limp. Without that signal, the snake doesn't instinctually know when to let go and must judge.

Just my $0.02

alessia55 · 08-14-12, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Will0W783

However, when we condition our snakes to eat f/t prey, they instinctually know they must coil and "kill" it, but there is no signal of death...the prey never suddenly relaxes as it's already dead and limp. Without that signal, the snake doesn't instinctually know when to let go and must judge.

This is a good point. When you feed f/t, the snake never really sense a struggle (unless you're pulling the mouse by the tail at that point), and may still coil around it for minutes. Others somehow pick up the notion that the rat is dead, and just start eating it without ever coiling it.

DragonsEye · 08-14-12, 10:32 AM

Can't remember the actual source, alas, but I have read that it has indeed been determined that prey death, as Knox mentioned, is due to the heart stopping as a result of insanely high blood pressure not to asphyxiation.

Highly unlikely that a snake is detecting heartbeats. Rather when the prey stops moving/struggling its dead and time to eat. Why would a snake bother constricting f/t prey? Simply an instinctual response.