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All snakes area unit strictly carnivorous, uptake tiny animals as well as lizards, frogs, alternative snakes, tiny mammals, birds, eggs, fish, snails or insects.[5][1][12][51] as a result of snakes cannot bite or tear their food to items, they need to swallow prey whole. The body size of a snake features a major influence on its uptake habits. Smaller snakes eat smaller prey. Juvenile pythons may begin out feeding on lizards or mice associate degreed graduate to tiny cervid or bovid as an adult, as an example.
The snake\'s jaw may be a complicated structure. Contrary to the favored belief that snakes will dislocate their jaws, snakes have a really versatile jawbone, the 2 halves of that don\'t seem to be bolt connected, and diverse alternative joints in their bone (see snake skull), permitting them to open their mouths wide enough to swallow their prey whole, even though it\'s larger in diameter than the snake itself.[51] as an example, the African egg-eating snake has versatile jaws tailored for uptake eggs abundant larger than the diameter of its head.[5]:81 This snake has no teeth, however will have bony protrusions on the within fringe of its spine, that it uses to interrupt shells once it chow eggs.[5]:81
While the bulk of snakes eat a range of prey animals, there\'s some specialization by some species. King cobras and also the Australian bandy-bandy consume alternative snakes. Pareas iwesakii and alternative snail-eating colubrids of taxon Pareatinae have a lot of teeth on the correct facet of their mouths than on the left, because the shells of their prey typically spiral clockwise[5]:184[52]
Some snakes have a venomous bite, that they use to kill their prey before uptake it.[51][53] alternative snakes kill their prey by shrinking.[51] Motionless others bite their kill entire and active[5]:81[51]
After uptake, snakes become dormant whereas the method of digestion takes place.[54] Digestion is associate degree intense activity, particularly when consumption of huge prey. In species that feed solely periodically, the complete internal organ enters a reduced state between meals to conserve energy. The systema alimentarium is then \'up-regulated\' to full capability inside forty eight hours of prey consumption. Being poikilothermous (\"cold-blooded\"), the encircling temperature plays an oversized role in snake digestion. the best temperature for snakes to digest is thirty °C (86 °F). such a lot metabolic energy is concerned in a very snake\'s digestion that within the Mexican rattler (Crotalus durissus), surface blood heat will increase by the maximum amount as one.2 °C (2.2 °F) throughout the method|biological process} process.[55] thanks to this, a snake disturbed when having eaten up recently can typically regurgitate its prey to be able to escape the perceived threat. once undisturbed, the method|biological process} process is very economical, with the snake\'s organic process enzymes dissolving and riveting everything however the prey\'s hair (or feathers) and claws, that area unit excreted along side waste.
