I stumbled upon a snake in the process of ingesting a frog that was probably a little bigger than it could handle a couple of years ago. The snake noticed me at about the same time I noticed the snake, so I could only observe the “before” state for a second or two, but it appeared that the prey wasn’t moving at that point–only its limp legs were sticking out of the snake’s mouth, and having had a boa constrictor as a kid, I guessed that meant the top part of the frog had been in the snake for a couple minutes, and before that, depending on this snake’s M.O., may or may not have been squeezed lifeless, too, (that was how our snake operated with her mice, though–squeeze to death, then slowly and laboriously consume whole, headfirst) .
Anyway, the snake registered me as a threat, because it…released…the frog (not sure what word to use for what it did…regurgitated doesn’t make sense since the frog wasn’t ingested yet, let alone digested, and it seemed to take a little more time and effort than simply spitting the frog back out on account of the frog’s size and how much of it was down the snake’s throat). At any rate, the snake gave up on the frog and fled for its life. The snake slithered away behind some logs or something, while the frog, seemingly lifeless for a few minutes, slowly came back around and eventually hoped a few feet away, apparently recovering, but essentially fine. My dad (who used to go snake hunting quite often in his younger days and might be insane) became all intrigued at the prospect of this unidentified snake hiding behind the pile of logs, and decided to flush him out. The snake’s defense? Playing dead. I like to think that the frog observed this, and got some kind of satisfaction from the way the tables were turned, then went on to live a long and happy life.
As far as the live small fish/frogs thing goes, it kind of makes sense that they could be eaten alive–what with no claws or fangs themselves, and a slick body, they’d likely go down easier than a be-fanged, razor-clawed, fully conscious rat. I’d imagine that fish bigger than guppies and so forth don’t get taken alive so easily, as they often have extremely sharp fins, quite capable of slicing up snake innards, though.