ok, obviously this sounds like a dumb question, but i know it would get your attention. i'm a relative new snake keeper so i've read just about everything i can on this site. i've arrived at a question. i always read things like a snake will burn itself if the heating pad is too hot (there was a really good post in the enclosure page about a corn not being that dumb, tropical snakes were different though), or that hatchlings of any species need small containers because they cannot find food. Snakes can't swallow any kind of substrate or it will cause digestive problems. i read that water snakes don't do well in aquatic enclosures. or they can't survive colder temps (i'm not talking about tropicals here, thats a given). i have caught garters and browns in late november when the temp was freezing for over a week and it happened to reach the 40's that day. If its too humid then they get respirtory infections. in wetlands and swamps the humidity is always high. i hear things like this all the time. if snakes are this fragile, how can any of them survive in the wild? i've never caught worms without dirt on them so how can garters or browns or ringnecks ever eat properly? hatchlings in the wild have no problem hunting and killing food, let along just finding it and eating a dead pinky. i've seen water snakes in the dead center of lakes and rivers, but they don't do well in aquatic environments? i'm not doubting anyone here that all these things present certain risks to a snake and they can be easily avoided in captivity so obviously you want to avoid them, but is there a little more credit due to the survival ability of snakes. i know this is going to cause debate and please don't call me a moron or anything. i'm not going to risk hurting any of my snakes just because i think they could handle it in the wild, but i think they are better survivors than people credit them.
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How can snakes survive in the wild???
Replies (6)
>that hatchlings of any species need small containers because they cannot find food.
They need small containers so they can quickly find the food I paid good money for. I don't like wasting my money on food that spoils because my snake never comes within a hundred feet of it. 
> Snakes can't swallow any kind of substrate or it will cause digestive problems.
Size is what matters here. I've fed pigeons to boa constrictors and found whole corn seeds (part of the pigeon's diet) in the snake's droppings. The bird didn't have a chance to digest the corn, and the snake couldn't digest the corn. A small amount is not a problem. A large amount is a problem. A thread or a bit of leaf or grain of corn passes through the gut without a problem. A blanket or a wooden egg can produce a fatal blockage of the gut.
> i read that water snakes don't do well in aquatic enclosures. or they can't survive colder temps (i'm not talking about tropicals here, thats a given). i have caught garters and browns in late november when the temp was freezing for over a week and it happened to reach the 40's that day. If its too humid then they get respirtory infections. in wetlands and swamps the humidity is always high. i hear things like this all the time. if snakes are this fragile, how can any of them survive in the wild?
I've pulled garters out of a broken tile line while there was still snow on the ground. And I've caught plenty of water snakes in swamps, both in the water and on bushes above the water.
The point here is that in the wild, the snakes get to choose their environment. A water snake in the swamp can climb up on a bush and dry off in the sun; it isn't in the water all the time. And it can select the right temperature.
And lastly, no individual snake survives more than a few dozen years. The figures I've seen indicate that 75% of the babies for a given year die from starvation, disease, predation, and freezing before they are a year old. The ones that make it to adulthood reproduce themselves until they die in their turn. And the species goes on.
Paul Hollander
ok, obviously this sounds like a dumb question, but i know it would get your attention. i'm a relative new snake keeper so i've read just about everything i can on this site. i've arrived at a question. i always read things like a snake will burn itself if the heating pad is too hot (there was a really good post in the enclosure page about a corn not being that dumb, tropical snakes were different though),
About getting burnt, snakes that dwell out in hot environments usually are not out in the sun in the middle of the day. Most snakes get out mid-morning or early evening to warm up, and then once it is warmed up, will move to the shade/cover to regulate its temps.
or that hatchlings of any species need small containers because they cannot find food. Snakes can't swallow any kind of substrate or it will cause digestive problems.
Its not that they cant find food, its just that they maybe stressed from something or the other and wont feed. Most hatchlings will feed soon after their first shed. You have to figure on some hatchlings not making it in the wild. The ones that are C/B have a much higher survival rate than their wild counterparts! The problem feeders in the wild most likely would die, and the ones that feed readily would survive. Mother Nature's survival of the fittest.
About substrate...most wild snakes do not live on shredded aspen, pine or repti-bark. Out in the wild there is less of a chance of a snake ingesting substrate than in captivity. Prey items are not F/T and wet. Think about it, a black rat snake catching and eating a mouse would most likely not ingest anything except the prey item. The mouse is killed by the snake, not wet, therefore nothing sticking to it.
i read that water snakes don't do well in aquatic enclosures.
The snake would do well if the aquatic enclosure was large enough to give the snake enough room to swim and when it needed, be able to get out and "sun" itself. This enclosure would have to have a large enough floor space to facilitate this, plus not be totally enclosed so the humidity would not be too high. It could be achieved, and would no doubt look awesome, but at a high monetary expense. Large aquariums arent cheap!
or they can't survive colder temps (i'm not talking about tropicals here, thats a given). i have caught garters and browns in late november when the temp was freezing for over a week and it happened to reach the 40's that day.
The snakes you see out when the temps rise above freezing, are generally out for the last rays of sunshine for the year, and are usually close to their den site. Once they warm up and the sun starts going down, the snake knows its time to find refuge.
If its too humid then they get respirtory infections. in wetlands and swamps the humidity is always high.
There is a difference in the humidity of a low lying swampy area, and an enclosure that is very humid. Even in a swampy area, the humidity is not at a constant, where in an enclosure, it is more contained and constant. Big difference.
i hear things like this all the time. if snakes are this fragile, how can any of them survive in the wild? i've never caught worms without dirt on them so how can garters or browns or ringnecks ever eat properly? hatchlings in the wild have no problem hunting and killing food, let along just finding it and eating a dead pinky. i've seen water snakes in the dead center of lakes and rivers, but they don't do well in aquatic environments? i'm not doubting anyone here that all these things present certain risks to a snake and they can be easily avoided in captivity so obviously you want to avoid them, but is there a little more credit due to the survival ability of snakes. i know this is going to cause debate and please don't call me a moron or anything. i'm not going to risk hurting any of my snakes just because i think they could handle it in the wild, but i think they are better survivors than people credit them.
Snakes are not really fragile, they are in fact a very hardy species. They are also a very good predator. Millions of years of evolution have proven that.
As far as the garters, browns and ringnecks, a little dirt wont hurt them. It is softened up and partially digested and passed on through the system. Where wood shavings cannot be digested, they also have splinter edges that can stick into a snakes digestive system and cause a blockage, even rupturing its intestine.
The hatchling snakes that dont readily eat in captivity, may not survive in the wild either. The hatchlings that do readily eat, would also actively hunt for food as well.
Snakes are a very hardy animal and only the strongest survive out in the wild. However in captivity, we tend to "baby" them.
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Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian
thanks, i knew those were really the reasons and responses i would get. like i said, there is no need to risk anything or lose money on food if you don't have to. and i know the majority of hatchlings won't survive, just like any animal. i just thought it was funny how much we baby our snakes and worry about all those things and they do just fine on their own in the wild. thanks....
Actually, these were not dumb questions at all. They were very astute observations and it was sound reasoning that led to the questions. I think this is actually the first time I've seen these questions framed and asked in this way in these forums. What that shows me is that you have an ability to listen to what other people say, take what you want from it and then look beyond it. That's a good quality to have.
For these questions I think there are a couple of things you need to bear in mind. First off, snakes held in captivity are seldom held in conditions that really closely match their natural environments. Secondly, there is a fairly high mortality rate in the wild for baby snakes of most species. Many of them are victims of predation, many probably die from some of the things you've listed, still others die from parasites and other diseases.
When we hold snakes in captivity, we have a responsibility to do everything in our power to insure the highest probability of long-term survival and to provide the safest, most comfortable environment we can. That is why we do many of the things we do and issue many of the safety warnings, etc. that we issue. Things like don't feed your snake on aspen shavings because he may ingest some of it with his food and die. The truth is, snakes swallow all sorts of dirt and debris with their food in the wild. Will it hurt them? 99% of the time, probably not. Do they ever die from things like that in the wild? I think you can bet on it. Sometimes they die in the wild from trying to swallow prey items that are too big, swallowing prey items backwards, etc. I've seen a Cottonmouth that died from swallowing a catfish backwards and the pectoral fins punctured the side of the snake's throat and lodged the fish in it's throat. That probably happens more frequently than we realize. So, we take all the precautions we can to see that it doesn't happen to the animals in our care. Why do we feed baby snakes in a deli cup? Well, that's (as Paul pointed out) more for our benefit than the snake's. It's easier for the snake to find the pinkie in a small area like a deli cup and he can't easily crawl away from it and forget about it until it rots. Remember that a 10 gallon aquarium is not a natural environment for a baby snake. He's going to spend most of his time crawling around the periphery and exploring the top trying to find a way out than he will spend in the middle of the cage where the food item is likely to be placed.
Life in the wild for a snake is tough. We just try to make it easier for them in captivity. In some respects, the snake may be better off in the wild despite all of these things that we do to try to make it better. For instance, a snake can carry a fairly significant parasite load in the wild without apparent ill effects. That same snake, if captured and placed in captivity may soon be overwhelmed by that same parasite load. Why is that? Well, there are a couple of reasons for it. First, the stress of being placed in captivity can weaken the snake's immune response. Secondly, depending on the species of the parasite, constant re-infection can occur. That is because in the wild, the snake is not likely to crawl through his own waste. In captivity, in a much more confined space, he may have no choice. If the parasite happens to be a direct life-cycle parasite (meaning it needs no intermediate host), it can continue to replicate itself and reinfect the snake until it builds up such a population in the snake's gut that it becomes overwhelming. That is why cage cleaning and disinfecting is so important in captive snakes.
So, the bottom line is that we have to take all of these precautions because we have changed the snake's environment to one that suits us and the snake just has to make do with it. It doesn't really fit his nature and we have to compensate for that.
Sometimes instincts that serve snakes very well in the wild may lead them into danger in captivity. A snake's instincts may lead it to hug a heat source that is too hot rather than be too cold in other parts of the cage. Besides, very few deserts reach 130-140 degrees like those heat pads do.
Also, in the wild, snakes can seek out different microenvironments, wet, dry, or whatever they need that day. but in captivity, we usually give them one type of humidity and they have to live with it.
And, as others have pointed out, we do baby our snakes, so that they have as close to ideal lives as we can provide. Prey might kill snakes in the wild, but it's not happening to MY blood python!
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?
Whoever said snakes can't swallow substrate or they will get ill or any of that other stuff is one of those keepers who are really into 'health & safety'. Sure, I don't want my snakes to swallow anything other than food and I like to keep them at the optimal temperature for them to thrive, but I do respect that snakes have been around for a lot longer than humans and are obviously tougher than some people make them out to be. A lot of keepers really love their pet snakes and only want the very best for them and thus effectively treat them like they would a newborn child and as the expression goes, 'wrap them up in cotton wool'.
