Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone think if a python was missing the fork part of the tongue it would affect breeding.

While a missing tongue would not hinder the physical capability to copulate, the limited ability to detect pheromones secreted by cycling females could reduce the mating response, though climatic cycling and inter-enclosure interaction between the male and female should be sufficient enough to elicit a mating response.

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

A few years back, I found a really nice, but very skinny, desert phase Cal King crossing the road near Wenden AZ. It had a very bad scar near its lower jaw and we assumed it had lost all this weight while its jaw was healing.
I felt kind of sorry for the snake and so I kept it with the intention of "fattening it up".

I brought it home and tried to feed it F/T fuzzies. It didn't eat them. I tried live pinks (it was a 3 foot snake). No luck. I finally tried live and dead geckos and even a roadkill watersnake baby. Nothing. After a few weeks, I decided to give it a thorough exam to try and figure out what was wrong. When I started handling it I noticed it wasn't tongue flicking. Hmmm. I opened the mouth and saw that whatever caused this injury had removed the tongue completely. This snake wasn't eating because it had no tongue! I force fed it a few liquid meals but eventually decided it was more human to euthanize the snake. At least it didn't starve to death out in a cantaloupe field!

So a snake with no tongue has bigger problems that breeding! I don't know if just the tongue tip would produce the same problem.
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas

Well this snake is a pig.Eating is not a concern.

I was going to note that such a disability would be of grave concern for a wild specimen, as such would most likely starve to death, as it would be difficult for a specimen harboring such a disability to locate and track prey, with the exception of "sight" hunters, such as species of Masticophis and Coluber, though I am certain most would succumb to infection, should the tongue have been lost via traumatic amputation. Captive produced specimens are generally so imprinted regarding their feeding routine, many take their offered food items without a second thought, or whiff.
I'm curious, was the python born without a tongue or was it lost as the result of an injury?

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

It was lost due to injury,however it was just the fork park,the snake still has a tongue and it flickers.

Years ago I knew a guy who collected a gravid E. Fox Snake. He hatched out the eggs and none of the babies had tongues, although it took him some time to figure this out.

They did eat but he decided to euthanize them. Hard to say how they would have faired in captivity.

Interesting accounts. The forked part give the snake a bidirectional sense so it would inhibit him from finding food or a mate in the wild. Even though he still flicks it, you do not know for sure if this malformation can still deliver smell particle to jacobson organ, so you don't know if he can smell at all. I would do a series of experiments to determine if he can smell and if he has lost his directional sense. Place a freshly killed mouse in a paper bag at one end of the cage along with several empty bags, see if he reponds to the scent, and if he does can he find it? It maybe that in an enclosed environment the jacobson organ can pick up the concentrated scent without the forked tongue. I would think that if he is unable to pick up scents at all that it might inhibit breeding, since the pheromone cues would be absent, but there are other cues, physical response of the female after being touched by the male for instance, that may be enough.

I myself have a albino ball that either has no tongue or it is to short to flick out.... he has no problem with feeding at all... my only question is would it in any way be genetic...