Said “meal”, that is. So Mr. Snake swallows a mouse whole, without killing it first. Is this generally humane for the mouse, or does the mouse have to deal with digestion or what? I know cats are extremely cruel hunters, but I wondered about snakes.
(I HATE snakes, so I’m not about to look this up online, even if I CAN turn off pictures on Firefox.)
Prey.
Lots of us “swallow” our prayers, at least to the extent of not blurting them aloud. But religious behavior has seldom been observed in snakes.
I’m not so sure. I’ve seen Hindu snake charmers make cobras to sway back and forth just like an African-American Baptist chior.
chior?
:smack::smack::smack::smack:
(I knew that. Don’t ask me WHY I typed the wrong word)
I thought you were using prayer stylistically, “a snake’s prayer” sounds the title of a Tom Waits’ song.
Won’t the mouse suffocate well before it gets digested?
But does prey like this really normally get swallowed alive anyway? I should have thought it would be pretty unpleasant for the snake to have an alive thing, with scratchy claws, struggling around in there, even for just a few seconds. Mutch better to break its neck (or something) first.
For the most part, snakes kill their prey before swallowing it, since it’s not all that healthy to have something struggling around inside trying to get out.
Constrictors will suffocate their prey before swallowing it. (They do not normally break any bones.) Snake venom is also primarily for subduing prey rather than self defense. Many snakes that are not dangerous to humans are venomous enough to knock out small animals before swallowing.
Mice and rats can injure a snake’s outside during the kill; I’d hate to think the damage they could do to its insides. So yeah, unless the snake has made a Darwin-Award-worthy miscalculation, the prey is dead before it’s swallowed.
This is from personal observation of having boa constrictors from a young age, and having mice as feeders. and, um , some larger critters, , well, No, this planet is not the best with being eaten from a human view. Sometimes I’d like to say I observe prey creatures with going into shock and numb and going on yond with aplomb, but there are struggles, too. Best to look it face forward, easy if you are a big creature, but, honestly, nature is a wonderful ruthless effecient Murferyer, and the eating is a good thing.
Fixed thread title.
Snake venom is a pretty evil conconction. Many snakes actually depend upon the action of the venom to help with digestion. Venomous snakes tend to have a range of striking modes. There is the “go away” strike - where very little venom is injected. There is the “I’m really frightened” strike, where a lot of venom is injected. The difference can be why some people survive bites from snakes that kill others. Then there is the food strike, where typically a lot of venom is injected. So much that the prey usually dies within seconds. Venom production in the snake tends to evolve to be specificly toxic to the usual prey. If you want to see a really good example of highly specific venom, Google up the “Inland Taipan, or Fierce Snake” and have a read. Now there is a snake to keep you awake at night with worry. 
I once saw a snake catch a frog then carry it across our path to the shade of a rock to eat it. It was in Japan and was probably an Aodaisho - not sure what that is in English. A bluish/greenish snake a couple of feet long and maybe a couple of inches round.
It had the frog in its jaws and it sort of adjusted its grip until the frog was in head first, then it slowly gulped and wiggled its head until the frog was nearly all the way into the snake’s head and making a bulge behind the head into its body. The whole time the frog was kicking and struggling.
Then the snake seemed to sort of bear down inside, and the frog must have been squeezed to death then as it finally stopped struggling and got sort of flattened. The feet were still slightly protruding at this point.
All that took about 45 minutes, and by then the rest of our walking companions were getting fed up so we couldn’t stay to watch any longer, but it was fascinating and I got quite few good pictures! (But it was the early 1990’s and a film camera so I can’t post them here unfortunately.)
I can say that a garter snake will swallow a fish before it’s dead. You can see it periodically shake around inside the snake for a minute or two after being swallowed. I’m sure breathing hydrochloric acid is a panful death for a fish. I doubt a fish could do much to the inside of a snake though.
I’ve heard that the small non-venemous snakes, like garter snakes, swallow their prey alive. The venemous snakes and the constrictors kill the animal first.
Many, many years ago I watched a small black snake eat a frog. There was no effort to kill the frog. The snake managed to snag a tooth in one of the rear feet and by moving it’s jaws back and forth eventually swallowed the frog while it was still alive. You could see it moving around inside the snake. I don’t remember how long the movements lasted but I’m guessing it was about a minute or two.
Being typical 11ish year olds we thought it was cool.
Yeah, I have observed many times, a water snake swallowing a fish, very much alive for several minutes after reaching the snakes stomach. Frogs too.
Thanks.
No thank you, I’ll pass. Like I said, I asked here rather than look it up myself because I’m extremely snake-phobic and can’t even look at pictures.
So it seems that being eaten by a snake is somewhat better than being eaten by a cat. At least from a mouse’s perspective.
Guin, you probably don’t want to look at this, but for other snaky interested: here’s some amazing photos my Ag agent friend Debbie Roos took of a Rat snake eating a squirrel---- it seems impossible, but there ya go. The end photo has a certain charm.
That’s an awesome picture! 