Snake Facts
  • Home
    • Types of Snakes
    • Boa vs Python difference
    • Do Snakes Have Bones?
    • How do Snakes Move?
    • What do Snakes Eat?
    • Do Snakes Lay Eggs?
    • Pit Vipers
    • Snake Facts for Kids
    • Snake Venom Facts
    • Snake Fangs
    • What is a Chicken Snake?
    • Mothballs and snakes
    • Biggest Snakes in the World
    • 10 Most Venomous Snakes in Africa
    • Deadliest Snakes in Australia
    • Big Four Deadliest Indian Snakes
    • Taipans The Most Venomous Snakes in the World
    • Florida Snakes
    • Snake Movies
  • Venomous
    • Rattlesnakes >
      • Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
      • Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
      • Mojave Rattlesnake
      • Sidewinder
      • Timber Rattlesnake
      • Pigmy Rattlesnake
      • Massasauga Rattlesnake
      • Prairie Rattlesnake
    • Taipans >
      • Inland Taipan
      • Coastal Taipan
      • Central Ranges Taipan
    • Cobras >
      • King Cobra
      • Monocled Cobra
      • Indian Cobra
      • Egyptian Cobra
      • Mozambique Spitting Cobra
      • Cape Cobra
      • Chinese Cobra
    • Kraits >
      • Common Krait
      • Blue Krait
    • Mambas >
      • Black Mamba
      • Eastern Green Mamba
    • Garter Snakes >
      • Eastern Gartersnake
      • California Red Sided Gartersnake
      • Checkered Gartersnake
    • Eastern Brown Snake
    • King Brown Snake
    • Death Adder
    • Red-Bellied Black Snake
    • Gaboon Viper
    • Tiger Snake
    • Puff Adder
    • Horned Viper
    • Boomslang
    • Rinkhals
    • Copperhead
    • Cottonmouth
    • Mamushi
    • Russell's Viper
    • Eyelash Viper
    • Golden Lancehead
    • Jararaca
    • Fer-de-Lance
    • Bushmaster
    • Mangrove Snake
    • Ringneck Snake
    • European Cat Snake
  • Non-Venomous
    • Anacondas >
      • Green Anaconda
      • Yellow Anaconda
    • Pythons >
      • Reticulated Python
      • African Rock Python
      • Ball Python
      • Blood Python
      • Burmese Python
      • Olive Python
      • Carpet Python
      • Woma Python
      • Black-headed Python
      • Children's Python
      • Spotted Python
      • Green Tree Python
      • White-Lipped Python
      • Australian Scrub Python
    • Boas >
      • Boa Constrictor
      • Rubber Boa
      • Rosy Boa
      • Kenyan Sand Boa
      • Arabian Sand Boa
      • Brazilian Rainbow Boa
      • Emerald Tree Boa
      • Amazon Tree Boa
      • Dumeril’s Boa
    • Water Snakes >
      • Banded Water Snake
      • Brown Water Snake
      • Diamondback Water Snake
      • Northern Water Snake
    • Milk Snakes >
      • Eastern Milk Snake
      • Honduran Milk Snake
    • Kingsnakes >
      • California Kingsnake
      • Mexican Black Kingsnake
      • Scarlet Kingsnake
    • Corn Snake
    • Southern Black Racer
    • Black Rat Snake
    • Texas Rat Snake
    • Fox Snake
    • Queen Snake
    • Blue Racer
    • Bullsnake
    • Brown Snake
    • Grass Snake
    • Gopher Snake
    • Pine Snake
    • Eastern Hognose
    • Western Hognose
    • Ribbon Snake
    • Red-Bellied Snake
    • Eastern Indigo Snake
    • Coachwhip
    • Rough Green Snake
    • Dragon Snake
    • Worm Snake
    • Rough Earth Snake
  • Prehistoric
    • Titanoboa
    • Gigantophis
  • Mythical
    • Tsuchinoko
    • Hoop snake
  • By name
  • Links
Picture

What do Snakes Eat?


Google
Custom Search

First things first all snakes are considered carnivorous reptiles, what this means is that they eat only meat. 

Snakes don't eat plants, if you were wondering there are no vegetarian snakes.

Since snakes eat other animals including sometimes other snakes, they're are considered zoophagous animals. 
Picture
African rock python eating deer
African rock python eating deer
Snakes are very diverse when it comes to size, ranging from small species just a few inches long the like the thread snake to the biggest snakes in the world like pythons and anacondas.

These very different types of snakes will obviously eat different things. Smaller snake species will feed on smaller animals, including insects, rodents, birds and their eggs, fish, frogs, lizards and small mammals.

The bigger the snake the larger the animals they eat, big constrictors like the green anaconda or the reticulated python have been known to eat deer and pigs! These giant snakes can even take down crocodiles and alligators.

Although some snakes have evolved to feed on a generalist diet like the eastern indigo snake, some species have special diets like the egg-eating snake that only eats eggs. While other snakes are known for eating other snakes, like the king cobra or king snakes like the California kingsnake.

Snakes form a diverse group and have developed many different hunting strategies, adapted to their own size and habitat they live in. Some snake species will actively hunt their prey like the blue racer.

Other snakes will lie hidden waiting to ambush prey, relying on their camouflage like the puff adder. While the desert dwelling sidewinder hides under the sand waiting for some animal to pass by.

They will go as far as using tricks to fool unsuspecting victims to come closer to them. ​For instance, juvenile cottonmouth snakes have a bright yellow tip on its tail to look like a worm they use to lure prey.


​How do snakes kill and eat their prey?

Snake digesting a frog x-ray
Snakes kill their prey mainly in 2 ways, depending if they are venomous snakes or non-venomous snakes. 

Venomous snakes like the inland taipan will strike and sink their fangs into the prey injecting venom to paralyze or kill it before swallowing it.

Some snake venom contain hemotoxins that break down cells and tissues in the victim and help digesting prey.

While most non-venomous snakes are constrictors that wrap their bodies around the prey and slowly tighten their coils to squeeze the life out of their prey by stopping their heart. 

Some will just grab an animal overpowering it and eating it alive and others will squash the prey into the walls of their burrows. 

Even though snakes do have teeth, they are made for grabbing and holding prey, not for chewing food, for that reason snakes have to swallow their food whole. But how do snakes swallow such impossibly big meals without chewing, well they have very flexible jaws capable of unhinging, so they can have their mouths open wide.

They also have very powerful muscles along their bodies and use them for moving as well as swallowing food. These muscles move the food down into the snake’s stomach, a process that can last a few minutes to more than an hour, depending on the size of the meal the snake is eating.

Once in the snake’s stomach a meal can take anywhere from a few days, several weeks to a couple of months to be fully digested, that's one of the reasons why some snake species need to feed only a few times every year! When the digestion is complete, the snake will vomit any undigested parts like bones or hooves.
​​

Picture

​How much do snakes eat?

Gaboon viper feeding
​For any given weight snakes eat much less than a mammal of similar size, this is because snakes are cold-blooded reptiles.

While mammals need to eat so they can generate energy to maintain their body temperature, snakes don't and use only about 10% of the energy when compared to mammals.

So snakes need to eat much less than mammals, about 10 times less. Just like food snakes also drink much less water than a mammal of the same size.
​


Did You Know?
​
The Rinkhals or ring-necked spitting cobra is capable of spitting venom to a distance of 2 or 3 meters.
Picture
sharing is carring logo
© 2014 Snake Facts        About Us | Privacy Policy | Contact
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.