Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of Jackson's tree snakes and this one in particular seems to like to eat its shed. Now other snakes have mistakenly eaten their shed, and some have been so ravenous to eat its shed, but this sucker tries to eat its shed before its finished shedding.

I have caught it before in the act of eating the shed after it throughly shed itself, but as seen in the below photo, it is eating its shed half way through its molting process. It gets some good bites going and then obviously feels itself being bitten and lets go. The Jackson's tree snake is unique in that it's shed and skin afterward has a special scent like liquorish or candy/sweet/like new paper and I have not seen this behavior in my other Jackson's tree snakes, captive born or wild caught. That scent is obviously the oil it emits to help shed.

However, that being said, I have never seen such a ravenous snake and this snake puts a kingsnake to shame when it comes to appetite and eating. These snakes can eat a sizable food item almost every day or every other day, and that means rodents. I think this particular one would eat a shoehorn or a shoe for that matter if I put it in its cage. And it is always fed twice every week and is still always looking for food.

Dan

Do you have more pictures of this species and perhaps a little general info. It sounds like a pretty cool critter.

Doug T

Jackson's tree snake (Thrasops jacksoni) is from tropical forests of Africa at higher elevations and there are four or more (?) species of Thrasops, some green and other yellow, but jacksoni is typically black or dark in color. Supposed to be rear-fanged but I never looked close enough and seemingly harmless to man and not much information is provided on their venom, except what Brian Fry may have recently completed. I have captive hatched specimens and wild caught specimens and of course, the captive hatched are much more calmer and seemingly do not rub their noses like the wild caughts. They seem to be a mamba mimic and remain mostly arboreal and diurnal and would eat a shoe if it hopped around like a mouse. They can grow to almost 8 feet long and eat like no other snake I have seen. I would put them together but think they would easily eat each other by mistake or out of just normal behavior (?). When they are old enough to breed in two years or so, I will stuff them and then put them together with close observation to avoid loosing one or both of them.

Dan

Body shot

Here is another interesting snake which is perhaps a cobra micmic (does not rear head like cobra, but overall looks like a cobra at rest) that ranges from china to malaysia, the Ptyas korros which is also called an asian ratsnake and may be rear-fanged (?). It also eats rodents and can grow quite long and other Ptyas species reach almost 12 feet. This snake is mainly a terrestrial snake but will climb trees for food and basking.

Dan

FRAN,
Thanks for sharing--you have beautiful and fascinating animals. Unlike lizards, this is the first time I've read of a snake eating it's shed on purpose. You say that your others of the same species don't do this, so this one is unique. Are there any other snake species that regularly eat their sheds? Perhaps by looking at them and their habitat, etc., you can theorize the motivation this one has for the behavior. This is quite intriguing!

regards,
althea

Well, I do not know if this is just a case of a very hungry snake or what but since I saw it eating its own shed before just made me wonder? It sniffs it as though it is just sniffing a new food item and obviously does not know it is smelling its own body as it bites itself during the shed, hence, it perhaps is a snake eater in the wild and when it emerges from shedding, is just too overcome by hunger to figure the difference. Perhaps I forgot to sign before as Dan as Fran is my wifes name.

Dan