Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,

Please indulge me. I am not a hot keeper and don't have any plans to start, but I was watching one of those Animal Planet shows featuring this guy prancing around cobras in shorts and sandals (don't get me started on that) and realized I had a couple of questions about feeding captive venomous snakes. If a snake is offered F/T over a long period I'm assuming they still strike and inject venom, but does the venom react differently in a previously dead mammal and consequently affect the snake during digestion? Does the snake's ability to produce venom change in response to the prey offered? I know the snake probably doesn't "know" the prey isn't alive if it is the right temp, odor, condition, but how much control do they have over how they envenomate? Maybe stupid questions to you, but I was curious.

BTW, The show had a segment involving a Gaboon viper. What a gorgeous gorgeous creature!! I'd love to live vicariously and see some of your pictures of captive Gaboons and how they are kept. Thanks for your patience and indulgence.

It’s been my experience that bite and release snakes quickly learn to bite and eat in captivity. They don’t really use a strike or envenomate food items anymore. Sometimes you will see the fangs “walking” and being used when swallowing, sometimes you can see venom being squeezed out, usually not. I really do not believe venom plays any role in digestion of a food item, especially a pre-killed as there is obviously no circulation of the venom. I could see where some of the necrotic venoms would seem to be an aid in breaking down a food item, but I think the thing is dead and in the belly before it could really do much good. I doubt the long term captive produces a less toxic venom because it doesn’t “need” it, but there are things you might be able to deliberately do through captive diet that may have that effect.

I cannot agree that captive snakes, even those that grab and hold, "don't really use a strike or envenomate food items anymore". Most of the grab and hold snakes that I feed do indeed strike hard and squeeze prey items tightly, suggesting that they are using venom at least most of the time.
It well known that the development of powerful feeding response in captive animals is a particular danger to keepers. Many keepers, including myself, have been bitten and envenomated by calm, relaxed snakes that get a bit whacko when they think food is coming.
In fact, I have long considered that it should be known as a "rule" in keeping venomous that even a snake that you have had for years and know very well is capable of a quantum increase in feeding response at any moment.
I do think it is quite possible that captive snakes withhold venom more often than their wild counterparts during both defensive and feeding bites, but this is only a guess as there surely is no hard data.

Ian Long

Thank you for the information. Part of my question was wondering if venom that hasn't been "metabolized" by a live prey animal affects the snake any differently. As you said, it's going to end up in the snake's stomach fairly quickly anyway so probably not. Even my completely docile ball python or baby Candoia can get "enthusiastic" when food is around, so dangerous or not, treating them carefully is common sense.

venomoid snakes have no problems with digestion and without knowing beforehand, you wouldn't notice a difference in the feeding/digestion habits of one or the other.

i'm sure venom is beneficial, but mostly as a way to kill what they are going to eat.

The eastern diamondback rattler at the Buffalo zoo typically has 3-4 sets of fangs in its mouth at any given time. The animal no longer strikes at food, so it doesn't break off fangs when it eats. Just like with non-venomous snakes... Some will still coil and act like the animal is being killed while others just sit there and eat off the tongs. I had a borneo blood that would coil it's frozen/thawed rat for 45 minutes before it would start eating.

Rattlesnakes are known carrion eaters in the wild (at least some species... can't say for all). I've never seen this in person, but others have. I'll venture a guess that even wild rattlers will sometimes just find carrion and go up to start eating.

If I dangle food in front of a viper from tongs, the chance of a strike is pretty good, from the animals I've worked with (especially warmed food and a pitviper). If I just lay the food in the cage, sometimes the animal doesn't eat, and sometimes an animal will just go up and start chowing down without a strike. (The EDB from the Buffalo zoo actually just starts chowing down from the tongs most of the time.) Safe to assume that with snakes in general, every one can be different.

Just my thoughts. David.