Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I also posted this below on the thread from a few days ago about storys and Big meals:

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.

"That type of gorging is very unusual."

Well, you haven't seen me on Thanksgiving!
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0.1 Lampropeltis Getula Floridana
1.0 Elaphe Guttata Slowinskii

I once stopped at one of those two star steak houses right at the highways exit, just outside of san antonio. it was during june and i parked the car just about sundown. it was a perfect night for collecting reptiles. anyway, i went in looked at the menue and saw they had a huge 72 ounce steak that cost $50 with all the trimmings. however, it was free if you could eat it all. well i ordered it and gave it my best shot, but i couldn't finish it all much to the dissapointment of my fellow reptile hunting companions. I was completely stuffed, miserable. i probably should have been taken to a hospital. to make a long story short I had to stay at the hotel, close to the toilet all night while my buddies were out collecting. by the time they returned just before sunrise, the majority of the meal had been evacuated and i was feeling better. that's the only HUGE MEAL story i have that is reptile related. it maybe a bit off topic, but i hope you enjoyed reading it. Regards, Rusty

The Sirloin Stockade in Del Rio. Been there done that Rusty.

Great post Hugh! Keep em coming. I'm taking notes
Here's a contribution to the discussion.

Sept. 8th 1982 I (with the SA ZOO on permit) found a hatchling L. m. greeri on the crawl at about 1:00 pm immediately after consuming an a rather large unidentified Sceloporus (probably Sceloporus jarrovi or Sceloporus poinsetti).

Big problem, the snake had to survive 3 or 4 more days and 1400 miles of travel without regurgitating. The large sharp spines of the Sceloporus which were evident from outside the engorged snake would surely wreak havoc coming back up. The snake didn't blink. Made it back fine, thrived, and bred many times.

Forky
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http://www.hcu-tx.org

LOL!!!
I can't stop laughing!!!!!
4 pounds and 8 ounces of meat in your gut, if you would have eaten it all, would have felt like a bowling ball.

Man, I have heard of those places, the one place in Amarillo in particular, but even I can eat a ton but I don't think I would have gotten much farther than you did.

Great story!! Take care!

Billy
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Genesis 1:1

now i'm 40. i'm much older and wiser than i was at 30 years old. i think with the proper stratedgy i could eat the entire 72 ounces now. i was only able to eat about 3 pounds of it the last go around. i'll update you sometime in june. wish me luck. rusty

I remember that place in Amarillo.
They had polaroids of folks that had finished the 64-oz steak.
Oddly, a lot were skinny.
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I am so not lesdysxic!

0.1 Creamsicle Cornsake
1.0 Bairds Ratsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
1.1 Eastern Kingsnakes

This illustrates to me how stupid the laws are. You must be one of the insiders that get to work with willardi, and you have so many you let them eat each other. The average guy can only dream, or become a criminal to have a willardi. A lot of words that start with "s" comes to mind.

HA! You bit on that line... I wrote that like that in jest really, thinking it would get a rise out of a bunch of folks. In truth, by the time I noticed what was happening the willardi being eaten was done - otherwise I would have separated them and attempted to revive it. I had many babies born over the years which were all disposed to fill other permit requests under the auspices of AZ G&F.

This isn't the time or place to get into the laws and whether or not AZ G&F has "insiders" as far as permits are concerned. I am not sure specifically what you mean by that comment? I have worked very hard to justify my permit requests with AZ G&F. At times I get denied in my permit requests too, and that is frustrating scientifically. When that happens it is up to me to get back to the drawing board and show them that my research ideas are valid enough for them to permit continuance. I don't have a problem with that.