cement
Very Well-Known Member
We all know that its not ideal to handle a snake after a feed, but why? And are larger sized food items better then smaller ones?
I thought I might put something down here to give others some food for thought, and also to promote empathy for the snake that we keep, so we can better understand that with snakes,... just because they look asleep and lazy, that's not always the case.
Firstly, its widely understood that pythons can go for ages without food, I have myself had one of mine go for 9mths without feeding and it lost practically no weight, in fact I purposefully starved it because she was obese. But, before I did it, I thought hard about how to do it, and it paid off big time, reducing her from obesity to good healthy muscle tone. There are several things that a snake can do to be able to withstand long times without food...
One of these things is pretty amazing and it has to do with their gut. In fact when a snake feeds it actually grows its gut to be able to digest the food item. When times are lean (eg winter) and it isn't feeding it shrinks its gut down to just a smooth walled pipe, that doesn't use any energy.
When it feeds and the food item is in its stomach, it really goes to work. The gut switches on and in doing so begins to expend energy in huge quantities. It firstly produces or directs more hydrochloric acid into the stomach at such a high rate that to balance it out the rest of the animal becomes so alkaline that it reaches alkaline levels that would kill a human.
Secondly, the intestines begin to grow, from a smooth walled gut into a factory that produces digestive enzymes 60 times greater then normal, just to digest the incoming meal. It can triple the weight of its intestine over night. After 3 days the level of absorbtion of amino acids (proteins) from the food into the gut wall, has increased by 16 times!
At this point our sleepy friend is actually using more energy pound for pound then an olympic sprinter.
It also needs more oxygen to help with this process, so you will see this reflected in the snakes breathing as it draws in large breaths while working through the digestion process. Of course all of this is a chemical reaction... and warmth or heat helps speed up chemical reactions, so extra heat is always good at this time. If a python takes a feed and isn't able to get the heat required to help kick off digestion, then the digestive juices that are in the food item will cause the food item to rot, and if the python can't regurgitate the item it can actually die of food poisoning.
Body temps of around 28 degrees should see a food item digested in 4 to five days, five degrees lower and you will be adding an extra 3 days or so, five degrees lower again and it may not digest it at all.
So if you have to handle your python after a feed, you still can (minimal is better) just be aware that the snake is actually internally highly active, which leaves precious little energy for movement. And any forced movement will take energy away from digestion, making it have to work harder.
Too small a food size, will cause the python to generate more energy then it will receive from the food leaving it with an decrease in energy levels, which in fact is like a fast or sped up starvation!
I like to leave my snakes curled up asleep under the heat after eating, knowing that they are expending huge amounts of energy.... they dance on the inside!
I thought I might put something down here to give others some food for thought, and also to promote empathy for the snake that we keep, so we can better understand that with snakes,... just because they look asleep and lazy, that's not always the case.
Firstly, its widely understood that pythons can go for ages without food, I have myself had one of mine go for 9mths without feeding and it lost practically no weight, in fact I purposefully starved it because she was obese. But, before I did it, I thought hard about how to do it, and it paid off big time, reducing her from obesity to good healthy muscle tone. There are several things that a snake can do to be able to withstand long times without food...
One of these things is pretty amazing and it has to do with their gut. In fact when a snake feeds it actually grows its gut to be able to digest the food item. When times are lean (eg winter) and it isn't feeding it shrinks its gut down to just a smooth walled pipe, that doesn't use any energy.
When it feeds and the food item is in its stomach, it really goes to work. The gut switches on and in doing so begins to expend energy in huge quantities. It firstly produces or directs more hydrochloric acid into the stomach at such a high rate that to balance it out the rest of the animal becomes so alkaline that it reaches alkaline levels that would kill a human.
Secondly, the intestines begin to grow, from a smooth walled gut into a factory that produces digestive enzymes 60 times greater then normal, just to digest the incoming meal. It can triple the weight of its intestine over night. After 3 days the level of absorbtion of amino acids (proteins) from the food into the gut wall, has increased by 16 times!
At this point our sleepy friend is actually using more energy pound for pound then an olympic sprinter.
It also needs more oxygen to help with this process, so you will see this reflected in the snakes breathing as it draws in large breaths while working through the digestion process. Of course all of this is a chemical reaction... and warmth or heat helps speed up chemical reactions, so extra heat is always good at this time. If a python takes a feed and isn't able to get the heat required to help kick off digestion, then the digestive juices that are in the food item will cause the food item to rot, and if the python can't regurgitate the item it can actually die of food poisoning.
Body temps of around 28 degrees should see a food item digested in 4 to five days, five degrees lower and you will be adding an extra 3 days or so, five degrees lower again and it may not digest it at all.
So if you have to handle your python after a feed, you still can (minimal is better) just be aware that the snake is actually internally highly active, which leaves precious little energy for movement. And any forced movement will take energy away from digestion, making it have to work harder.
Too small a food size, will cause the python to generate more energy then it will receive from the food leaving it with an decrease in energy levels, which in fact is like a fast or sped up starvation!
I like to leave my snakes curled up asleep under the heat after eating, knowing that they are expending huge amounts of energy.... they dance on the inside!
