The ones I've kept just ate the 'pedes--sucked 'em down. I fed small centipedes and the snakes did not show any attack behavior that was different from their usual feeding, except they seemed to go after the centipedes with a bit more gusto than they showed with crickets.

I did not notice that the centipedes succeeded in biting the snakes. When small scorpions try to sting Shovel-Nosed snakes, the scorpions' stingers seldom penetrate the snakes' scales.

BTW, I've also kept Scolopendra heros, the giant desert centipede from Arizona, which were larger than some snakes I've had. One of those would eat a small snake if it caught one. The desert floor is a wooly place--"Nature red in tooth and claw", as Teddy Roosevelt put it. I'm glad I'm part of the megafauna.

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