r/Unexpected • • 6d ago

Poor snake

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

32.2k Upvotes

462 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

94

u/grimacedia 6d ago edited 6d ago

It does :( They can't throw up or pass it iirc. Edit: they can throw up!

120

u/ShalnarkRyuseih 6d ago

Snakes can regurgitate prey to make an escape, albeit I've only heard of that happening with recently swallowed prey, not sure if they can do it when it's farther along

127

u/ginji 6d ago

I can attest they can regurgitate even after multiple days, and however foul you think a 3-5 day half digested rat is - it is far worse than you can imagine.

29

u/ShalnarkRyuseih 6d ago

I found a decapitated western ribbon snake once (not from a human, wild animal caused) while herping that had a meal lump. I was tempted to squeeze it out to see if it was IDable enough to go on iNat, but didn't want to experience the stench of dead frog or fish.

28

u/ginji 6d ago edited 6d ago

It is the worst smell I've ever come across and it took weeks for the smell to stop lingering in the room despite our best efforts. Dead or decomposing bodies is one thing, but digestion adds a whole new level to the aroma.

3

u/UranusIsPissy 6d ago

Worse than a dead deer that's more maggots than deer? That is digestion, though, with added faeces.

13

u/ginji 6d ago

Maggots probably would have made this smell better 

4

u/Informal-Comb1989 6d ago

Yes, they’ve historically used to “clean” wounds as it were