Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been my general understanding that snakes yawn to realign and stretch their jaws, or if they yawn a lot it can be a sign of respiratory infection.

I recently got the following comment on a video of one of my corns yawning:

"It's called "venting". Usually they do it after a meal to release gases built up. Snakes don't fart."

Searching gets me no relevant results to verify this little tidbit, so I leave it to the experts to confirm this one for me.

Yes,.....snakes will usually do what looks like a "yawn" to realign their jaws back into position after a meal. And yes, if they have a respiratory infection they will sometimes "yawn"in discomfort. this is often accompanied by "gaping" the mouth with a presence of bubbles from the nasal opening as well as from the mouth..........This would be a great cue to the owner to raise the temperature, and if need be administer some antibiotics if the temp. raise didn't clear things up within the week.............As to venting gas via a "yawn", that would have to be proven to me scientifically with a "gas sniffing device" of some kind before I believe it...... I've been raising snakes for many decades, and this is the first time I have ever heard even remotely of this............Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Thank you for your input. I've asked the person to cite the source of their info. Hopefully that will clear this up.

I wouldn't think that a snake would need to open it's mouth all the way just to expel gas. I can say for certain though that my snake was realigning her jaw after a meal because I took the video right after I fed her. Whether or not she was also doing a little snakey burp at the same time though will remain a mystery.

Felissa,.......you are welcome, glad to help,.......But you can rest assured, what looks like cute little burps are not!!every snake, after every meal does the "jaw alignment thing" every single time they eat. In all my years working with snakes(since 1967) I have fed hundreds of thousands of meals to snakes, and have never heard a single burp, period!!!. Also, the closest thing to a "fart" that a snake does, is produce a nasty bubbly, ploppy mess of fecal matter that makes a rather nasty sound when it is expelled, which COULD be enterpreted as a "fart" I guess.....that's the bottom line..............Doug

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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

>>"It's called "venting". Usually they do it after a meal to release gases built up. Snakes don't fart."

Who knows where that came from. I can't say for sure that snakes DON'T "vent", but I can say from experience that they certainly fart (usually before, during or after urinating or deficating).

If you do a search on "snakes fart" you'll find lots of discussion on it (mostly less than serious) including expert opinions like "snakes don't fart because they don't have intestines".

The consensus from people who have actually seen a snake seems to be that they do...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Thank you for your input. I definitely knew about the "farting", at least I can correct them there. I've asked them to cite their source so maybe I'll find the answer to this whole "venting" thing.