What do snakes eat?

The snake is an excellent predator. It hunts for its meal with great ingenuity. In general, this reptile is a carnivorous animal. Its diet is based on animals.

However, it is important to specify the diet of snake species according to their sizes. The larger the snake, the more it hunts large and heavy prey. Its meal must be proportional to its body.

It is obvious that the food that an animal must eat must be proportional to its size. Small specimens hunt small prey while large snakes are interested in medium and large prey.

1. What do small snakes eat?

First of all, there are the small specimens like the snake, viper, cobra, mamba, rattlesnake. These species of snakes are among the venomous species.

With their toxic venom, they kill their prey by envenomation. Following bites inflicted by their fangs, these venomous snakes inject their deadly venom into their victims. We talk about how they kill their prey to be able to distinguish which prey they might attack with this method.

These venomous animals are very fearful so they can only attack small mammals like rodents (rats, mice, mongooses), rabbits, poultry; small reptiles like frogs and lizards.

2. What do tree snakes eat?

For tree snakes that can live in trees, they sometimes eat the eggs of birds but not only those of birds, it happens to snakes to swallow the eggs of other reptiles and even those of other snakes. But it is not excluded that, even if these species are quite small, they eat those smaller than them.

3. What do medium sized snakes eat?

Medium sized snakes such as the king cobra, black spotted anaconda, yellow anaconda, Papuan python, boa constrictor can also be found feeding on medium sized prey in proportion to their size.

They attack animals that are suitable for them. Some of them are dogs, cats, medium-sized reptiles and birds. Nevertheless, these snakes, neither very big nor very small, also feed on small preys like those that small snakes consume, such as mongooses, rats, mice, lizards, frogs, poultry, rabbits and many others.

But as these snakes live in the wild, they can also feed on other snakes smaller than themselves, because these medium-sized snakes can swallow even the largest of these species.

4. What do Big Snakes eat?

Finally, there are the large snakes such as the Burmese python, the reticulated python, the giant anaconda which are generally constrictor snakes that is to say that instead of biting and injecting a venom (which they do not possess), they wrap their prey around their body and suffocate them by squeezing.

Their diet can range from small mice, small lizards, poultry, rabbits, frogs, rats, mongooses to large animals like antelopes, monkeys, zebras. But these snakes are big enough to deal with other giant predators in nature.

🐍 Read our article on the TOP 10 Biggest Snakes in the World 🐍

In fact, these giant snakes do not just prey, they also attack other predators like crocodiles, lions, tigers, leopards. Besides, the fights between a giant snake and one of these predators are always very fascinating. Several confrontations have been recorded between these predators. reticulated python And as we know so well, they live in the jungle and it is the law of nature, the law of the strongest. Only those who are resistant, strong, agile can get out alive.

Indeed, the jaws of these large snakes can open with great flexibility and can even swallow an adult crocodile. However, the digestion of food depends on its size. Digesting a giant crocodile takes more than half a day, longer than swallowing a rat, or a rabbit. But these large snakes are the ones that don’t mind hunting smaller ones. They feed on other snakes smaller than them and even eat each other of the same species as well as of different species.

In fact, it is possible that a giant anaconda or green anaconda feeds on pythons, even on the longest of snakes, the reticulated python.

5. Tips for feeding a pet snake

For more information, if you have a pet snake or are raising a snake, here are some tips for feeding your snake. It is important to know that the size of the prey to be fed should be proportional to the size of your reptile. It is not recommended to feed a large prey to a small snake.

For example, if you have a small snake, do not feed it a large lizard or antelope. Indeed, if the food you give him is too big for him, he will be able to regurgitate it which is not nice to see but also regurgitating will tire your snake and his esophagus may be irritated during the regurgitation. If this injury is found to exist, you will not be able to feed him until the injury heals, which can be anywhere from 2 weeks to several months.

Another tip to take better care of your snake on the food side, “it is better to give him a live prey”. This way, it acts as if it were in the wild, it hunts its prey and this can help it stay calm during the times when it will not have food. But never let the snake tame itself from its food, that is, if it does not eat it the same day it will not eat it.

Last tip, these reptiles are more active at night than during the day so give him food in the evening so that his digestion goes faster.

→ All about How to Feed a House Snake 🐍

Every animal respects the law of proportionality of its food by its size. This is the law of nature. You will never see a snake chasing a crocodile. Also, a snake’s jaw opens at an angle proportional to its size. For those who raise snakes, those who domesticate them, consider these tips for feeding them and keeping them healthy. Here we have talked a little about how a snake kills its prey and what prey it hunts. If these are the foods, the prey of a snake, what about the way they hunt? Can we classify them by level of danger? Can we sort them by level of venom toxicity? All these points will be addressed in the appropriate topics.