11.22.2012

Reproduction

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Snake Reproduction

The mating process for the snake can take many different forms based on the species and the location. However, the standard practices include a male and female who are mature finding each other. Those that live in colder areas will only mate in the late spring and the early summer. For those that live in tropical areas the mating can take place all year long.

The temperatures along with the availability of food can determine if they will mate or not.
The males will become more aggressive around the time for mating. They will fight with each other so that they are able to get the attention of the female. She has the final say in who will be able to mate with her and who has to keep on moving along. It can take a few minutes, several hours, or even several days before she will make up her mind about mating with him or not. He won’t give up until he knows for sure there is no chance of it occurring.
Since males and females can look so much alike, the males usually don’t even have a chance to really avoid each other. They will have to get very close in order to find out if he has found another male or a female that he may be able to mate with. This can vary though by species but overall such behaviors are a part of the mating process for snakes.
Once mating has occurred the male and the female will go their separate way. They don’t say in contact. The female can become very hostile if mating is over and the male is still around. He will typically be in a hurry though to go look for other females in the area. However, when the male is mating for the first time he may become very exhausted. This is why he may want to stay around the female – he simply is too tired to venture further away from her.

Source: snaketype.com

Diet

What Is a Snake's Diet?

The variety of snakes kept in captivity is considerable and their food preferences are quite variable. Following is a list of preferred prey animals for the snakes most commonly kept in captivity:

Boa constrictors, pythons, rat snakes, gopher or bull snakes:

- Warm-blooded prey is preferred, such as rodents and birds. Juveniles of these species prefer the very small warm-blooded prey species.

- They may also consume very small lizards and snakes. Some tree boas and pythons prefer lizards to mammals and birds.

Garter snakes, ribbon snakes, water snakes, etc.:

- Fish, frogs, salamanders, toads, earthworms, slugs and carrion are preferred.

- Many accept dead mice if they are covered with the external mucus of frogs or fish before they are offered.

Indigo snakes, king snakes, and many racers:

- Warm-blooded (mice, etc) and cold-blooded prey (other snakes, lizards, etc) are preferred.

- The indigo snake prefers frogs but may eat anything when hungry, including dog or cat food.

Ring-neck or brown snakes and their relatives:

- Salamanders, earthworms, very small snakes and lizards are the foods of choice.

Racers, vine snakes, coachwhips: talktothevet.com

- Lizards are preferred. Racers also eat mice and chicks of ground-nesting birds.

- The young of these snakes eat large insects, such as crickets and grasshoppers.

Source:talktothevet.com

The main limiting factor in the range of items consumed in a snake's diet is governed only by the size of the snake itself. Snakes subsist only on items that are smaller than themselves because all snakes have the disconcerting tendency of consuming their meals whole. According to the website EnchantedLearning.com, snakes consume all manner of small mammals, rodents, other reptiles, birds, insects, amphibians (such as frogs), fish and even whole eggs stolen from the nest. In all of these cases, snakes feed by quickly striking the prey with their fangs (or rendering it unconscious by squeezing it in the case of the boa constrictor), and then proceed to consume the animal whole. This is possible due to the extreme elasticity of a snake's body; the snake is able to expand and contort its throat to accommodate all manner of items. Many types of snakes (such as pythons) are nocturnal, which means that they feed only during the night.

Read more: What Is a Snake's Diet? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5646356_snake_s-diet_.html#ixzz2D0oWQ53S

Incredibly varied in both size, type and variety, there are more than 100 different species of snakes in North America alone, according to information from the University of Pittsburgh. Despite this great level of diversity and salient characteristics, the diets of snakes are not quite as varied as snakes themselves. All snakes are carnivores, which means that they exclusively consume meat, forgoing plant-based sources of nutrition altogether.

Read more: What Is a Snake's Diet? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5646356_snake_s-diet_.html#ixzz2D0o7Ifhk

Behavior

Reptile Behavior

Snakes are probably the most misunderstood, and most illogically feared creatures on the planet. Of the 2,200-plus species of snakes in the world, fewer than 20 percent are venomous. People have an instinctual fear of snakes that stems back for thousands of years. It probably started out as a survival instinct, when there was no literature or way of telling which snakes were harmful or not. On the other hand, biblical literature has encouraged us to fear snakes for an entirely different reason. Other people simply misunderstand snakes, thinking that they are slimy, nasty creatures.

The first thing to know about snakes is that any non-venomous snake will only bite you for 3 reasons. First, if you smell like food. If you have recently handled a warm-blooded animal, such as mice, guinea pigs, even cats, the snake may smell that on you and mistake you for something edible. Second, if the snake feels you are a predator that is trying to harm it. Especially when reaching down towards a snake, the snake can misinterpret you for something trying to eat it. Thirdly, and the most likely reason non-venomous snakes bite, is simply because they are afraid. When given the choice between biting at you (the 5-6 foot tall giant that just stepped into it's territory) or running away as fast as it can possibly slither...it will choose running away every time. If the snake however, feels cornered, or for whatever reason unable to hide, it will strike out at you, more as a warning to leave it alone than to actually do any damage.

Non-venomous snakes are usually very safe to handle, especially pet snakes or snakes that are used to being handled. Even most species of wild snakes that are non-venomous are perfectly able to be handled without fear of bites (the exception being water snakes and other naturally aggressive species). If you do try to handle a snake, be sure to move slowly, and edge your hand under the belly of the snake near the tail area. If you move suddenly, or from the top, it may mistake you for a predator. Once you have actually lifted the snake and are holding it, do not hold it by the tail, rather support it's body loosely with your hands (keep a loose but firm grip, if you squeeze too hard it will likely injure the snake), and let the snake explore it's way around your hands and arms. If the snake seems agitated, or goes into a strike position, it is best to slowly, but gently put the snake back.

You will find that snakes are not slimy, nor nasty in any way. However if they get frightened, they may defecate on you as a way of showing fear. If this happens, be sure to wash the area thoroughly with soap and hot water, as snakes do carry salmonella bacteria in their feces. You must also remember that snakes, while being beautiful and interesting to watch, simply aren't the brightest creatures in the world, and have about the same thinking power as your average goldfish. Remember when you are holding a snake that it likely sees you as a very odd tree, and does not recognize you as a human being. Snakes react by instinct rather than thought, and as long as you keep this in mind, being around snakes is very easy to do as well as being interesting.

So how do you tell venomous and non-venomous snakes apart? There are several ways to tell, although some species of non-venomous snakes have adapted to be able to look like venomous snakes when they are afraid. If you are ever even slightly in doubt, leave the snake alone! As a general rule, venomous snakes have diamond or triangle shaped heads, instead of rounded heads that most non-venomous snakes have. Also, their eyes are elliptical like a cat's eye instead of being round as well. Pit vipers have a telltale pit between the eye and the mouth. The pit, a heat-sensing organ, makes it possible for the snake to accurately strike a warm-blooded victim, even if the snake cannot see the victim. Of course rattlesnakes usually rattle, but this is not always the case. Some species of rattlesnakes have evolved without a rattle!

So now that you know more about snake behaviors and facts, I hope you will give snakes a chance. Not only are they fascinating to watch, but they serve a vital function in our ecosystem.

Source:petsource.org

Habitat

What type of habitat do snakes live in?

Snakes live in nearly every habitat imaginable, from forests and lakeshores to prairies and deserts, and on every continent except Antarctica. In habitats range from underground burrows to the tops of trees, to ocean depths as much as 150 meters. Many snakes survive in regions that are extremely cold. The only place without snakes are Ireland and New Zealand. Snakes are able to live in many different environments; warm places, creeks, rainforests or forests.

Source: answers.com

what is a Snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca.
Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and on most smaller land masses — exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland and New Zealand, and many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific.^[1] More than 20 families are currently recognized, comprising about 500 genera and about 3,400 species.^[2]^[3] They range in size from the tiny, 10 cm-long thread snake to the Reticulated python of up to 8.7 meters (29 ft) in length.^[4]^[5] The fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 15 meters (49 ft) long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards during the mid-Cretaceous period, and the earliest known fossils date to around 112 Ma ago. The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene period (c 66 to 56 Ma ago). The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus.
Most species are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction.

Source: wikipedia.orgwikipedia.org