What do snakes eat?

Answer 1

RODENTS ~
RATS !!!

Answer 2

For starters, there's no such thing as a herbivorous snake, they all eat meat.

Some snakes eat insects, like garter snakes. Others like the Ribbon Snakes will eat fish. Most snakes in the wild will eat amphibians, reptiles (sometimes including other snakes), small mammals, and birds. Chicken snakes are notorious for eating eggs. Anacondas become large enough to eat people-sized food including jaguars.

However, in captivity a snake will normally be fed mice, rats, rabbits, and chickens. Contrary to popular belief though, most of these captive snakes are fed killed food. There's a reason for this. In the wild, if a prey animal puts up the fight and it looks like they're going to win, the snake will escape. If this happens in a tank or cage, the snake can't escape will be hurt severely or even killed.

Answer 3

The majority of snakes - this includes the main genuses such as colubrids, boas and pythons - eat a diet of rodents such as mice and rats, although some will take birds or even lizards if rodents are in short supply.

Semi-aquatic snakes such as garter snakes do eat fish; however, mice are actually more nutritious and even a fisheater like the garter can live on a staple of mice.

A small minority of snakes eat insects, and one or two species eat eggs. Egg-eating snakes are amazing animals; they swallow the egg whole, and once it's swallowed, their specially adapted bodies crush the egg. The snake then regurgitates the broken pieces of shell. The majorty of snakes however do not eat insects of any kind; that's a common misconception.

Another common misconception is that all snakes kill with venom. This is not true. In actual fact only a very small % of snakes are venemous; the majority of snakes kill by constriction. This means that they wrap their coils around the prey and squeeze it to death. Contrary to popular belief, constriction doesn't crush and deform the prey animal; in actual fact it's very rare for the snake to so much as crush a rib. The purpose of constriction is actually to stop the animal breathing; when the animal breathes, the snake tightens its grip so the animal cannot catch its breath.

All snakes eat their prey whole; they are not capable of chewing. They can partly unhinge their jaws, although they don't totally dislocate them (another misconception!) They slowly walk their jaws down over the prey, starting at the narrowest point first; some snakes will then stand up in the air once the prey is swallowed, to help push the food down to the stomach. Snakes will often yawn after feeding as this helps realign their jaws.

Snakes have a very slow metabolism and take several days to completely digest their food. After feeding, a snake will find somewhere to hide and not move for at least 48 hours, depending on the size of the prey taken. Snakes are very vulnerable when their stomachs are full, and if disturbed during this digestion period they are at risk of regurgitating their prey, which is a very serious matter for a snake.

It is very rare, if not downright impossible, for a snake to choke during eating. This is because they have a special tube in the base of the mouse which allows the snake to breathe even while their throats are full of prey. Snakes are highly specialist and good at what they do.

Snakes are also capable of taking prey of huge sizes; people really underestimate these amazing animals. Snakes are capable of swallowing food items one and a half times the thickest part of their bodies!

Answer 4

It depends on the snake certain smaller snakes can only eat insects and small rodents, bigger snakes can eat things as big as a deer. Most average sized snakes stick to rodents and prey in that category such as rats, mice, squirrels, birds, Other snakes, Lizards, rabbits and such. If you are talking about a pet snake mostly rats and mice of various sizes depending on the snake and live or dead depending on the owners choice.

Answer 5

It depends. All snakes eat meat, and usually, depending on the size and width, they tend to eat rodents, fish, other small wildlife and on occasion other snakes.

Answer 6

Snakes eat anything that has to do with rats, frogs, they also could eat insects like bugs that are in household areas.

Answer 7

usually rats or mice depends on snake too. some eat eggs. i would ask a pet store or someone who raises snakes.

Answer 8

Smaller snakes eat insects (like crickets) or small fish. Larger snakes eat mice, rats, and I have even heard of people feeding kitten and puppy runts to them. (Although I think that's cruel.)

Answer 9

well snakes are always kinda different then compared to other repties and animals....of that type......and nature.....specially a snake is something who likes to kill and eat his/her own prey....which means u cannot give snakes any ready to eat kinda thing .....and snakes eat rat's,birds,,,lizards,,,frogs,,and different types of insects and reptiles....of that size....and in the end make sure whatever ur providing is not already dead.....otherwise ur snake will die starving his/her whole life:)

Answer 10

this depends on the age! Small babies eat crickets, then pinkies, small mice and eventually mice! if it is a breed that gets really big they continue with juvenile rats, rats and then some eat whole chickens and rabbits! I'm assuming you mean pet snakes!!??

Answer 11

Depends on what type of snakes they are. They'll eat pretty much anything live that's they can fit in their mouth.