Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As a self-preserving word of caution, I don't even remember who was on which side of the intellectual food fight of a few weeks ago, but some series of diet-related posts got me interested in setting up a little amateur experiment to see how much of a snake and its skin would actually be digested in the GI tract of another snake. Disclaimer: N = 1. Experiment not controlled. Results not conclusive. Investment products not FDIC insured. Blah. Blah.

Since one of my young southern black racers (C. constrictor priapus) is still eating primarily WC reptiles, she was my experimental GI tract.

Since this juvenile Dekay's brown snake (Storeria dekayi) is a likely prey item for southern black racers - and since I have a lot more where this one came from! - it served valiantly as the experimental prey item.

Next, I waited a few days, and started sifting carefully through aspen substrate looking for what I was certain would be a small spattering of urates with a few remnants of bone I might be lucky to pick up with a high res camera. In fact, on day 3 my digested snake remnants were surprisingly apparent.

Again, I won't try to draw any sweeping conclusions from one juvenile captive snake, but it was intriguing nonetheless to see a supposedly digested snake return to dust as complete and intact as it did.

Food for thought!

-----
http://www.waffahousereptiles.com

Very interesting post. Thanks for making the experiment!
-----
----

0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
0.0.1 Mexican black kingsnake (TBA)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

from a few weeks ago:forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1830760,1830760

I think what you found in your aspen shavings is a dryed up regurge.
Its common for snakes to digest or partially digest a snake for a few days then regurgitate the bones and skin all in one piece.
Digested snake looks more like this when its comes out the back end

BTW do you mind if I keep your baby brown snake photo and the regurg for later posts?
Glad to see people like you trying stuff out on your own rather then believing what gets stated as fact in a snake forum. Let us know when you do a second test your photos are great.Next time use newspaper for those 3 days.

-----
"He's down in the basement staring at his snakes " My Wife

--< : < > < > < > < > < >~~~

Doug L

I would tend to agree...from the one time I did this with a Cal. King and a Black Racer (as the meal) the black racer scales were peppered throughout the scat.

However, that snake was extremely small...so it could have passed through.

-Rusty

Thanks Doug. I thought that looked a little strange to be passed through the digestive system.

-----
Joe

Hey Doug,

Thanks for the correction. I actually wondered if it could be a regurgitated snake because it had an unusually "gastric" smell unlike the typical nitric smell of urates. I was hard pressed to believe it though because I've never seen a snake voluntarily regurgitate food days after ingestion. Why do you think this happens? Could there be some truth to the idea that some of these common ground snakes (e.g. Storeria, Diadophis, etc.) are distasteful or unpleasant to ingest? If so, I wonder if snakes develop a taste aversion to these species like those that ethologists have documented in mammals. This might explain why you can have (awesome) in situ photos of syntopic adult milks and ringnecks, while my rookie juvenile racer might just be ignorant enough to scarf down a similar species. It'll be interesting to see how many more of my foolhardy dietary experiments she puts up with... more to come!

And yes, Doug, feel free to recycle my images for teaching and training purposes. If a publisher comes along though, be sure to send some credit my way!

Cheers,

Brad
-----
http://www.waffahousereptiles.com

It might just be a bad example. Like babies of all types, their digestive juices arent all present. Animals gradually build up flora in their gut that digests such meals, the baby racer may not have had enought to fully digest!

hhhhmmmmm....3 days?.......little fast....don't know about racers....you'd think it would disapear....and take longer...

smell it next time...from the throat back up should smell worse than out the back door...

really....

I fed a red milk a corn the other day...and I have corns all over...I shall experiment...last year I fed corns and never actually looked or noticed any remains....

I'll go look now...and see what I find....!!!

...good luck.....

poor little DeKay.....

.
-----
...one of the CraZieS...?...

........JY.......