Reptile & Amphibian Forums

then themselves? like would a king snake eat a rat snake bigger then it? would it be able to?

Yeah, I once fed a Gopher snake to a Mexican Black King that was larger than the king.

I do not think you answered the question correctly. He asked, "bigger" not longer. Yes, they have no problem consuming longer thin snakes.

But they do have a problem successfully consuming prey that is as long or longer and weights more then they do. That would be very rare. And not done on a normal basis.

I do not know of a snake that successfully consumed prey that weighed more. I do know of snakes that attempted it, but either died or regurged.

((I do not think you answered the question correctly. He asked, "bigger" not longer. Yes, they have no problem consuming longer thin snakes.

But they do have a problem successfully consuming prey that is as long or longer and weights more then they do. That would be very rare. And not done on a normal basis. ))

I meant in both ways. The Gopher was longer and thicker than the king, but not by a great amount. You could tell the Gopher was rippled or folded looking inside the king. The bulge was so big that it came up to the neck of the king and he laid in a circular position with his belly out to the side (facing sideways) for the first few days of digestion. Each day the bulge moved back away from the neck. I wish I had a camera back then. That's nothing I would recommend trying. I placed them together thinking there's no way the king would attempt to eat the Gopher. the next day I found out I was wrong.

I agree that kings & most snakes will not consume a snake much more in weight then them. I did see young racers eat garter snakes slightly more in weight then them. In nature kings are opportunistic so it will attempt to eat any prey item it can over power. However my kings rarely ate their weight in rodents. they try to avoid large prey.

I've seen regal ringneck snakes do it.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com
^ Updated 11/29

I had an Eastern King take down a very heavy bodied Southern Copperhead (A.c.contortrix) years ago. The Copperhead was about the same lenght as the King. A very one sided fight. As I remember the King was bitten 7 times, just seemed to piss the King off that much more.

I did take pics, though no digital at that time.

Scott D

Maybe four or five times in about 45 years of herping. Which leads me to say, its not normal. Cheers

Very true Frank, I agree with you 100%, it's not normal by any means. In 20 years I've come across two dead Cal Kings in the feild that seemed to eat a snake bigger than they could take.

Hey Frank, am curious, where you a member of the Southwestern Herpetologists Society in the 80's when Harold DeLisle was President? Thanks!

Scott D

Hi Scott, No sir, by the eighties I was long gone from Cal, in fact, I left cal in 1969. I was a member in the mid sixties. I do not remember who was president, but Mike Dee(L.A.Zoo) was there. Cheers

Thanks Frank, for some reason I thought you were a member then and/or made guest appearances as a speaker. To bad and our loss, would have boosted the clubs members knowledge by a factor of a 1000 or more! Thanks again Frank!

Scott D

When I worked at Ross Allens(late sixties) My good friend, J.T.Glover, told me this story. He was driving along and spied a average adult black racer rolling and flopping on the side of the road. He was curious, so he stopped and went back to see if it was hit or something. Much to his surprise, he noticed something very odd. There was a Shorttailed snake(stillisoma) attached to its nose and had the racers head totally wrapped up.

Another story, I was walking up the Devils river(1970) and I hear a frog squealling from under a rock. This time I was curious, so I lifted the rock to see a baby watersnake attached to the hind leg of an adult leopard frog.

Another time was was walking down an old abandoned road in the mountains east of L.A.. I looked up and saw something in the road, As I walked up, I noticed a 3 foot helleri attempting to consume an adult rabbit. Hmmmmmmmmm I climbed a tree and watched to see what came of it. Well, the dang snake could get no farther then the head.

My guess is, sometimes snakes eyes are actually bigger then their stomachs. Cheers

was the rabbit dead? I dont think a 3 foot snake could kill a rabbit

Seeing how the snake that had bitten the rabbit was a Southern Pacific rattlesnake (C.o.helleri), the rabbit would be dead in a very short time!

Reminds me of this snake I saw in Montana. Certainly he was big enough to eat this fish he caught, but don't you think it would have been easier head first? I guess the concept of 'scales' is something a snake has to learn about the hard way at least once...

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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

And this reminded me of a story... I was out in the Mecca Mud Hills many years ago and found the front end of a skeleton of a cal King with the skeleton of a horned lizard stuck in its throat! The horns protruded out behind the occipital region of the kingsnake skull. It appeared that the kingsnake tried to eat the lizard and somehow the horns got stuck in its throat and it was game over for both. I gave the skeletons to Gerry Gates at the University of Redlands.

I also had a newborn Crotalus willardi eat an adult Urosaurus - a large meal in itself. Another newborn C. willardi started on the opposite end of the lizard. Not having a shortage of baby willardi, and being the inquisitive guy that I am, I decided to see what would happen.... Well headfirst swallowing little willardi ate the lizard and his littermate!!! It was the most amazing stuffed snake I have ever witnessed. My wife and I guestimated that it had consumed about 170% of his mass. He held it all down and ate again about nine days later. That being said, that type of gorging is very unusual. In my 40 + years of observing in the field and captivity, it is obvious that snakes eat more small meals more regularly. I believe that consuming huge meals results from inexperience, or desperation.