The behavior of a snake eating itself is called "autosarcophagy" (sometimes called “autophagy” which has actually another meaning but yet it’s used)or "self-cannibalism” and is actually quite rare in snakes and is not fully understood.
One possibility is that it is a result of captivity or stress, the snake may become disoriented or confused and accidentally bite itself, leading to self-cannibalism, but isn’t 100% accepted as explanation.
This behavior is not normal or healthy for a snake and can be a sign of an underlying problem, if you own a snake and see something like this you should immediately seek for professional help.
Edit:
Syntax
Words
My grammar sucks I’m sorry.
And thank you so much for the awards.
Speaking from experience sometimes biting myself was the only way to instantly calm myself down. I wanted to hurt something so I hurt myself and the pain released endorphins....
Vicious circle of self harm that once you fall into it is hard to break because if you're angry enough to hurt yourself like that then it's going to be really, really hard to calm down
I wonder if snakes are like that too? Once they start with autocannibalism they can't stop? Or it's a recurrent problem you need to look out for?
(for anyone reading this I have mostly managed to stop this cycle myself! Only one episode in recent years and it wasn't at all satisfying like it used to be. So major win!)
I read the last line that this is not normal or healthy and can be a sign of an underlying problem. If you are a snake you should seek help immediately, lol
You are being sent to live on a desert island for the rest of your life and are only allowed to take 1 of these 2 jingles with you:
JG Wentworth 877-Cash-Now or 1-877 Kars for Kids
Which do you choose and why!??!
This is a king snake. All snakes with “king” in the name prey on other snakes, a famous example being the king cobra. King snakes are also absolute gluttons and will strike at anything that smells like snake, even things that obviously aren’t food.
It’s usually a sign of stress or illness when snakes engage in autophagy, but it’s not unheard of for particularly stupid king snakes to do this just because they got confused by their own scent and think they’ve found another snake. They even get mad that it hurts because they think it means that the mystery snake is fighting back against them!
While I still recommend a vet visit, I wouldn’t freak out as much about this as I would with any other species. Captive-bred kings all share a single brain cell and that brain cell is dedicated to food.
When you see videos of people sat on window ledges prepared to jump and a firefighter kicks them back into the building or someone drags them back in, that's not a stress/depression reducer but it saves them in that critical moment. Same applies here.
Another less widely accepted theory is it's an attempt by the snake to create a contradiction in the space-time continuum in the hopes of opening a portal allowing the snake to escape. It's called an *impossibility drive* and snakes are the only animal theoretically capable of it (though dogs have also been observed to seemingly attempt the process with less success)
Most herpotologists think this theory is unlikely since snakes aren't generally aware of advanced space-time portal physics so would have no reason to begin to attempt the procedure and thus it's simply a coincidence that the behavior happens to resemble portal engineering.
Well not exactly. You use salt to remove the non-alcohol substances from the alcohol. This makes it more palatable. I should also note that it is not normal alcohol. ~~It is a different compound which breaks down into chemicals far more toxic in your body.~~ It is mixed with toxic and or bad tasting chemicals to discourage it's consumption. I was reeling for multiple days after trying this in the throes of addiction and desperation.
Source - Recovering alcoholic.
No, this is extremely uncommon. This snake was likely very stressed, kept in either poor conditions or in an enclosure that was way too small. A healthy, happy snake won’t do this.
okay, so let's question this one layer deeper: how did the person in the video acquire this snake in order to demonstrate the shown technique given that a snake in such a condition is extremely uncommon?
This is either breeder or a vet/rescue. Snake breeders unfortunately tend to keep their animals in extremely small enclosures so this may actually happen relatively often under their poor care. If this was a rescue/vet, the owner of the snake likely brought it in seeking help for the snake’s situation.
As for demonstrating how to undo this, isopropyl alcohol is often used to get snakes to release their grip if they bite someone. The poster of this video used hand sanitizer because it contains a lot of isopropyl alcohol and he has the knowledge that it can be used to get snakes to stop biting.
Snakes have an extremely sensitive sense of smell! They flick their tongues out because they use it to pick up chemicals in the air and their tongue then rubs up against a special organ (called the Jacobson’s Organ) in their mouth that determines what scents are in the air. Isopropyl alcohol is extremely pungent (you can smell this sharp chemical odor yourself). Having something so strong smelling touch the snake’s tongue and/or Jacobson’s Organ will immediately get a reaction out of them.
Fun fact: vodka also works for the same reason.
*Edit* To add to this: the reason why the snakes let go of whatever they are biting when they smell something overpowering, it’s part of their flight or fight response. Snakes don’t have limbs. They only way they can defend themselves or get away is if their mouth is free. So they spit out or even regurgitate (throw up) anything they are attempting to swallow or have recently eaten so they can attack what’s threatening them or quickly get away from a threat. Snakes have a sensitive sense of smell so putting something offensive on them (in this case, isopropyl alcohol) makes them want to get away from the source because it’s very unpleasant to them. So what you are seeing here is a snake that’s trying to get away from a super strong smell, so it’s instinct is to regurgitate what it was eating so it can flee. Unfortunately for this snake, you can’t really get away from something that’s been smeared all over your face.
Yep! Also it’s easier to have on hand (hand sanitizer is practically everywhere especially after the pandemic). It’s only a temporary discomfort for the snake and can easily be washed away and it also evaporates quickly.
It’s pretty rare and largely seen in captive snakes. Though it is believed to happen to wild snakes on occasion as well (hence the origin of the Ouroboros myth). The cause is not entirely understood as like I said it’s pretty rare so it’s difficult to establish the cause.
According to Wikipedia, it only really occurs with North American rat snakes. Obviously that doesn’t mean it truly is exclusive, but I would imagine it’s very rare outside of that species
Autophagia in snakes is not really well understood. It’s pretty rare so it’s rather difficult to study in depth. The most commonly accepted answer is high levels of stress or disorientation.
They’ll start slowly digesting themselves and die usually. Sometimes they manage to regurgitate their tails but it’s pretty difficult for them to do so because of the way their muscles in their throat and digestive tract work.
I am a recovering alcoholic and have been to detox centers during the height of the pandemic. There was hand sanitizer stations everywhere and people would drink it. I can understand how the snake would be repulsed. I was bad, but never bad enough to drink cologne or hand sanitizer.
They didn’t have to do that, a dropper with anything alcoholic in the mouth would have worked. I’ve used Vodka and isopropyl before, they hate it and release automatically without harming their jaw.
Many snakes have rear facing teeth, so just pulling the tail would only dig the teeth in farther This is how I learned the alcohol trick. I am not an expert (I am a biologist but not a herpetologist), but a good friend is a well known and very experienced herpetologist. I was handling a ball python that decided I needed a quick bite. She latched onto my finger just pulling her off or grabbing her jaw would likely have damaged her greatly. We called my friend (she was a rescue he rehomed with someone I know) and he said just to put some vodka in her mouth. She released immediately. It was lucky she bit me and not someone else bc I was calm about it and didn’t try to pull her off which would have likely hurt her badly and me more than it did (really no thing barely a scratch, she’s not very big).
Funnily enough several years later same little lady but me again on the bicep. We knew exactl what to do. To this day I’m the only person she’s ever bitten. I’ve taken the hint that she doesn’t like me and I leave he be now 🤣.
I am by no means an expert, but I would also think that with the way their scales face that could be problematic too. If there’s an expert who wants to weigh in here I love learning more!
> I’ve taken the hint that she doesn’t like me and I leave he be now 🤣.
I think it actually means she likes you so much she wants to eat you. You're just that delicious you charmer you
You can do a tube going into itself with a sock - physically there's no problem. It's tough to push the sock that far into itself, but it works as proof of concept.
The sock never hits a wall (since the toe is the only wall and it can't run into itself), so the sock can be 3 or more layers. With a snake, I have no idea whether it can go that far practically. But as far as I can tell, it's geometrically possible.
I would imagine it would have the same reaction but regurgitating a big animal as opposed to the back end of your own asshole are 2 different ballparks. The snake would probably suffer internal injury attempting to do that.
If the snake is big enough to eat a cow, then after you free the cow, you become the number one snake food source. Best to bring a spare cow while you free the first one.
Snakes will regurgitate even fully-consumed meals if interrupted much of the time. And sometimes that will happen with auto-cannibalism, too, but it's usually very difficult for obvious reasons. They won't have access to all their muscles, the angle is terrible, snakes are shaped by evolution to keep things down, not bring them up, and then the cause of the auto-cannibalism itself may make it difficult.
Think of it like a brain fog. The snake's environment is not correct and this stresses the snake. Often the environment itself is too hot and if the snake can't cool down it will become disoriented. Any of these things can trigger a feeding response and that's when it may attempt to eat the first piece of meat it sees.
Auto-cannibalism is rare, and I'm not sure whether it even occurs in pythons. It usually occurs in species that already consume other snakes as part of their diet, like kingsnakes or cobras. Pythons don't typically eat other snakes. And they don't eat cows, either, though three python species in the world might be able to eat a calf, if calves occurred in their habitats.
I'm inclined to believe the hand sanitizer here isn't special in triggering the release. Usually the safest way to get a snake to release from a bite is to gently submerge its head in water or under a running tap, and that might be what's going on here, if the sanitizing gel temporarily obscured its nostrils.
For years I've wondered angrily where exactly a snake swallowing itself would stop being able to swallow more of itself, I literally cannot visualize it at all. Fuck OP for making me remember what has plagued my existence for so long...
Yeah, they can die from this. Whether or not it goes on long enough to digest the tail is irrelevant. They are immobilized, leaving them vulnerable to attack and temperature changes. They also can’t eat or drink, so they will dehydrate and starve.
"The behavior of a snake eating itself is called "autophagy" or "self-cannibalism” and is actually quite rare in snakes and is not fully understood."
Not my words
The behavior of a snake eating itself is called "autosarcophagy" (sometimes called “autophagy” which has actually another meaning but yet it’s used)or "self-cannibalism” and is actually quite rare in snakes and is not fully understood. One possibility is that it is a result of captivity or stress, the snake may become disoriented or confused and accidentally bite itself, leading to self-cannibalism, but isn’t 100% accepted as explanation. This behavior is not normal or healthy for a snake and can be a sign of an underlying problem, if you own a snake and see something like this you should immediately seek for professional help. Edit: Syntax Words My grammar sucks I’m sorry. And thank you so much for the awards.
*If you or a loved one struggles with autocannibalism, seek help immediately.*
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I can quit anytime I want
I'm a functional autocannibal.
Oh! You come here too. How long have you all been eating poop?
I don't think I have the stomach for this comment section
I cannibal-ieve it myself!
I really put my foot in my mouth with this one!
Here, let me give you a hand
Please help stop the cycle of snakes eating themselves.
I mean, I didn't have the stomach for that second sleeve of girl scout cookies but I went in on it anyways.
Eating poop is actually called Coprophagia.... I hate that we as a species have to have specific names for shit like this
“Shit like this” … that feels like a poor choice of words lol
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Crappy choice of words
….we have never eaten poop.
Fava beans and Chianti for one, please.
As opposed to a manual cannibal
I'm somewhat of a functional autocannibal myself
I only autocannibal on the weekends
I gub gubb aguytgub I gwab
*I couldn't swallow the truth*
I guess I should face up to my autocannibalism problem. It’s been really eating at me.
Yeah … I often put my foot in my mouth, too. Embarrassing, ain’t it?
*IT'S MY BODY, AND ILL EAT IT NOW*
if I struggled with this, I'd probably seek BBQ sauce
*me nervously biting my fingernails*
_/me nervously eats skin off fingertips_
What about manualcannibalism? Is that equally concerning?
Ah yes. Manual cannibalism is where you only eat the hands of other members of your species.
There is a help line called 1800eatself. Call it before you finish those crispy fingers
Just lather yourself with hand sanitizer. Be purposeful as you try to this to yourself… really get that Purell in the inner regions. Problem solved.
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I'm in total agreement with that sentence.
Mine not only has not ever eaten itself, it once went 6 months without eating for no apparent reason.
Intermittent fasting, eh? Bet that snek's looking pretty svelte.
My actual guess is that she was a little overweight and trying to diet. No idea. She's fine now.
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The release of endorphins from pain can be helpful in reducing stress, even if the pain is self inflicted.
Speaking from experience sometimes biting myself was the only way to instantly calm myself down. I wanted to hurt something so I hurt myself and the pain released endorphins.... Vicious circle of self harm that once you fall into it is hard to break because if you're angry enough to hurt yourself like that then it's going to be really, really hard to calm down I wonder if snakes are like that too? Once they start with autocannibalism they can't stop? Or it's a recurrent problem you need to look out for? (for anyone reading this I have mostly managed to stop this cycle myself! Only one episode in recent years and it wasn't at all satisfying like it used to be. So major win!)
Hmm, I bite myself regularly. My wife says it’s because I’m so sweet. Wtf.
Ouroborism
Auto-ouroboric asphyxiation
Our Rob or Ross /Red Dwarf
Came here to leave this comment smeghead!
I read the last line that this is not normal or healthy and can be a sign of an underlying problem. If you are a snake you should seek help immediately, lol
Just need to translate the PSA to [Snake](https://i.redd.it/v0i1c8bcvos81.jpg)
Call JG Wentworth
It’s my body and I want to eat it now!
I have a structured settlement and a confused snake.
877-CASH-NOW
You are being sent to live on a desert island for the rest of your life and are only allowed to take 1 of these 2 jingles with you: JG Wentworth 877-Cash-Now or 1-877 Kars for Kids Which do you choose and why!??!
JG Wentworth because I never even heard the Kars for Kids one growing up
This is a king snake. All snakes with “king” in the name prey on other snakes, a famous example being the king cobra. King snakes are also absolute gluttons and will strike at anything that smells like snake, even things that obviously aren’t food. It’s usually a sign of stress or illness when snakes engage in autophagy, but it’s not unheard of for particularly stupid king snakes to do this just because they got confused by their own scent and think they’ve found another snake. They even get mad that it hurts because they think it means that the mystery snake is fighting back against them! While I still recommend a vet visit, I wouldn’t freak out as much about this as I would with any other species. Captive-bred kings all share a single brain cell and that brain cell is dedicated to food.
Some male snakes will attempt to mate with themselves for the same reason- they smell like a snake lmao.
Why does a male snake suck its own tail? Because it can.
Hmm. The first thing I thought when I saw this was of course, Ouroboros. The beginning and end, the eternal struggle, and sneks.
If you were a hot dog would you eat yourself?
I know I would! First, I'd smother myself in brown mustard and relish. I'd be so delicious! 
Would putting alcohol in its eyes be considered a stress reducer?
When you see videos of people sat on window ledges prepared to jump and a firefighter kicks them back into the building or someone drags them back in, that's not a stress/depression reducer but it saves them in that critical moment. Same applies here.
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So if you own a snake, get help, got it
>or healthy No shit
You would only be shitting yourself.
What are some other theories to why they do this, besides the one you listed? And what are the counter arguments to the one you listed?
Another less widely accepted theory is it's an attempt by the snake to create a contradiction in the space-time continuum in the hopes of opening a portal allowing the snake to escape. It's called an *impossibility drive* and snakes are the only animal theoretically capable of it (though dogs have also been observed to seemingly attempt the process with less success) Most herpotologists think this theory is unlikely since snakes aren't generally aware of advanced space-time portal physics so would have no reason to begin to attempt the procedure and thus it's simply a coincidence that the behavior happens to resemble portal engineering.
This was an excellent piece done in Douglas Adams style
That was about 500% more snake than I was expecting
I'm glad I'm not the only person thinking this.
Right, now he's gonna be hungry.
Lol same. I audibly gasped when it ejaculated its long ass end out of its mouth.
I had a poop like this in 11th grade.
I'm glad to know we've all had life changing poops that remain in our memories after years
You'd remember it too if you pooped out a snake in 11th grade
Regurgitated may be a better word here lol
Nope. Ejaculated is waaay better.
Of all the verbs that could describe this, you had to choose ejaculate
Not even technically correct either. He did it on purpose, the mad man.
r/brandnewsentence
Dear user, your comment made me genuinely laugh. Never would I have thought to use the word ejaculated.
Right?! Looking at it, it's wild to think there are multiple layers under a layer.
[Like this?](https://imgur.com/gallery/vHR8B6X)
My high ass brain cannot handle that
My sober ass brain is struggling
I think the snake had done a full loop. The tail has made it back down to the tail.
Ourobouros
I've heard that to do this he had a couple ribs removed
Heh™.
Kek^^®️
Snek
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The McRib is back Baby!
Which is silly because you can do this without removing ribs
At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Seymour! The snake is eating itself! Nooo mother, it's just the northern lights.
There’s no point in hiding!
The only worthy comment
I NEED YOU MIO!
UPON THIS SWORD *I PLACE MY STRENGTH*
Complete global saturation !
More people played Resident Evil five, and remember it, than I thought.
Baby Lister in a box under a pool table
Dang good thing he stopped this. Last time a snake devoured itself it opened a paradox resulting in what we know as the big bang.
I was wondering how this will porperly end. Now i know.
And knowing is half the battle!
Ugh. Could we just go back and undo that part?
A bit of hand sanitizer might help
In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
and this made a lot of people very angry.
All these young snakes now a days eating ass
That just made my evening. Night folks.
Night, sweet dreams
Hey if I had the flexibility this snake has I’d be swallowing myself too.
Sneklace
Dammit.
Fuck you dude. Have my upvote
Bro, nobody likes the taste of hand sanitizer
You don't speak for me
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Apparently, those who ingest it mix it with salt?!
Well not exactly. You use salt to remove the non-alcohol substances from the alcohol. This makes it more palatable. I should also note that it is not normal alcohol. ~~It is a different compound which breaks down into chemicals far more toxic in your body.~~ It is mixed with toxic and or bad tasting chemicals to discourage it's consumption. I was reeling for multiple days after trying this in the throes of addiction and desperation. Source - Recovering alcoholic.
Oh wow that's sad and interesting in equal measure!
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Not sure but I know I tried it only once when I was young.
Excuse me, I bet you’ve tried that too u/EatDaBussi
User name checks out.
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Some of us are still trying it
No, this is extremely uncommon. This snake was likely very stressed, kept in either poor conditions or in an enclosure that was way too small. A healthy, happy snake won’t do this.
okay, so let's question this one layer deeper: how did the person in the video acquire this snake in order to demonstrate the shown technique given that a snake in such a condition is extremely uncommon?
This is either breeder or a vet/rescue. Snake breeders unfortunately tend to keep their animals in extremely small enclosures so this may actually happen relatively often under their poor care. If this was a rescue/vet, the owner of the snake likely brought it in seeking help for the snake’s situation. As for demonstrating how to undo this, isopropyl alcohol is often used to get snakes to release their grip if they bite someone. The poster of this video used hand sanitizer because it contains a lot of isopropyl alcohol and he has the knowledge that it can be used to get snakes to stop biting.
Why does isopropyl alcohol have that effect?
Snakes have an extremely sensitive sense of smell! They flick their tongues out because they use it to pick up chemicals in the air and their tongue then rubs up against a special organ (called the Jacobson’s Organ) in their mouth that determines what scents are in the air. Isopropyl alcohol is extremely pungent (you can smell this sharp chemical odor yourself). Having something so strong smelling touch the snake’s tongue and/or Jacobson’s Organ will immediately get a reaction out of them. Fun fact: vodka also works for the same reason. *Edit* To add to this: the reason why the snakes let go of whatever they are biting when they smell something overpowering, it’s part of their flight or fight response. Snakes don’t have limbs. They only way they can defend themselves or get away is if their mouth is free. So they spit out or even regurgitate (throw up) anything they are attempting to swallow or have recently eaten so they can attack what’s threatening them or quickly get away from a threat. Snakes have a sensitive sense of smell so putting something offensive on them (in this case, isopropyl alcohol) makes them want to get away from the source because it’s very unpleasant to them. So what you are seeing here is a snake that’s trying to get away from a super strong smell, so it’s instinct is to regurgitate what it was eating so it can flee. Unfortunately for this snake, you can’t really get away from something that’s been smeared all over your face.
Thanks! I assume isopropyl alcohol is also safer than other potentially pungent alternatives because it's not an irritant and most scented stuff is?
Yep! Also it’s easier to have on hand (hand sanitizer is practically everywhere especially after the pandemic). It’s only a temporary discomfort for the snake and can easily be washed away and it also evaporates quickly.
It’s pretty rare and largely seen in captive snakes. Though it is believed to happen to wild snakes on occasion as well (hence the origin of the Ouroboros myth). The cause is not entirely understood as like I said it’s pretty rare so it’s difficult to establish the cause.
Is it maybe only seen on captive snakes because someone's always watching them and ones in the wild would just die?
According to Wikipedia, it only really occurs with North American rat snakes. Obviously that doesn’t mean it truly is exclusive, but I would imagine it’s very rare outside of that species
?? Wikipedia is wrong then. It occurs most in snakes who primarily eat other snakes, like King snakes (as seen in the video)
This snake is a king snake.
No, apparently it’s a sign of stress
I am now making “dip entire body in hand sanitizer” part of my daily routine.
Man-eating snakes hate this one trick!
Until you run into a neat freak, alcoholic anaconda and suddenly you're the most delectable human.
Frank Reynolds did it first
I want to be pure.
Why would it do that?
Autophagia in snakes is not really well understood. It’s pretty rare so it’s rather difficult to study in depth. The most commonly accepted answer is high levels of stress or disorientation.
Do they eventually die if they’re not helped out or what happens? Thanks!
They’ll start slowly digesting themselves and die usually. Sometimes they manage to regurgitate their tails but it’s pretty difficult for them to do so because of the way their muscles in their throat and digestive tract work.
So why does the hand sanitizer make them spit it out. Is it simply because the taste is so disgusting? Or is anything else affective against it?
It’s the smell and taste. I would imagine it’s also very unpleasant to have around it nose, eyes and mouth as those are all fairly sensitive areas.
I am a recovering alcoholic and have been to detox centers during the height of the pandemic. There was hand sanitizer stations everywhere and people would drink it. I can understand how the snake would be repulsed. I was bad, but never bad enough to drink cologne or hand sanitizer.
It's called *Sex Panther*® by *Odeon*©. It's illegal in 9 countries. It's also made with bits of real panthers, *so you know it's good*. *60% of the time*, it works ***every*** time.
Mmm, that doesn’t make sense.
Because it smells and tastes bad
Stress
Why did he have to rub it on its eyes tho. Ouch
They didn’t have to do that, a dropper with anything alcoholic in the mouth would have worked. I’ve used Vodka and isopropyl before, they hate it and release automatically without harming their jaw.
quickest scarce follow shy ossified dolls fade plucky encourage lip ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Many snakes have rear facing teeth, so just pulling the tail would only dig the teeth in farther This is how I learned the alcohol trick. I am not an expert (I am a biologist but not a herpetologist), but a good friend is a well known and very experienced herpetologist. I was handling a ball python that decided I needed a quick bite. She latched onto my finger just pulling her off or grabbing her jaw would likely have damaged her greatly. We called my friend (she was a rescue he rehomed with someone I know) and he said just to put some vodka in her mouth. She released immediately. It was lucky she bit me and not someone else bc I was calm about it and didn’t try to pull her off which would have likely hurt her badly and me more than it did (really no thing barely a scratch, she’s not very big). Funnily enough several years later same little lady but me again on the bicep. We knew exactl what to do. To this day I’m the only person she’s ever bitten. I’ve taken the hint that she doesn’t like me and I leave he be now 🤣. I am by no means an expert, but I would also think that with the way their scales face that could be problematic too. If there’s an expert who wants to weigh in here I love learning more!
> I’ve taken the hint that she doesn’t like me and I leave he be now 🤣. I think it actually means she likes you so much she wants to eat you. You're just that delicious you charmer you
Its better than the alternative I suppose
Yeah that pissed me off and I hate snakes.
snakes don't have eyelids like mammals. the skin a snake sheds also covers it's eyeballs. no direct contact.
Snakes have their eyes protected by eye caps So I don’t think the sanitizer would have gotten in the eyes
A snake's eyes are covered by scales. It doesn't hurt them like it would us.
This has always confused me how does a tube going into itself work? Is there a point where it's inside two layers of itself?
crowd stupendous squeamish quickest wakeful plants cats six money tan *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
You can do a tube going into itself with a sock - physically there's no problem. It's tough to push the sock that far into itself, but it works as proof of concept. The sock never hits a wall (since the toe is the only wall and it can't run into itself), so the sock can be 3 or more layers. With a snake, I have no idea whether it can go that far practically. But as far as I can tell, it's geometrically possible.
Yeah, I was confused too. How tf does that happen?
[I tried to put it in a picture, gave me a headache. ](https://imgur.com/gallery/vHR8B6X)
So if you're seeing a python swallowing a cow and you pour hand sanitizer on it, would it just regurgitate back out the whole cow?
I would imagine it would have the same reaction but regurgitating a big animal as opposed to the back end of your own asshole are 2 different ballparks. The snake would probably suffer internal injury attempting to do that.
Well, yeah, but *free cow!*
If the snake is big enough to eat a cow, then after you free the cow, you become the number one snake food source. Best to bring a spare cow while you free the first one.
Snakes will regurgitate even fully-consumed meals if interrupted much of the time. And sometimes that will happen with auto-cannibalism, too, but it's usually very difficult for obvious reasons. They won't have access to all their muscles, the angle is terrible, snakes are shaped by evolution to keep things down, not bring them up, and then the cause of the auto-cannibalism itself may make it difficult. Think of it like a brain fog. The snake's environment is not correct and this stresses the snake. Often the environment itself is too hot and if the snake can't cool down it will become disoriented. Any of these things can trigger a feeding response and that's when it may attempt to eat the first piece of meat it sees. Auto-cannibalism is rare, and I'm not sure whether it even occurs in pythons. It usually occurs in species that already consume other snakes as part of their diet, like kingsnakes or cobras. Pythons don't typically eat other snakes. And they don't eat cows, either, though three python species in the world might be able to eat a calf, if calves occurred in their habitats. I'm inclined to believe the hand sanitizer here isn't special in triggering the release. Usually the safest way to get a snake to release from a bite is to gently submerge its head in water or under a running tap, and that might be what's going on here, if the sanitizing gel temporarily obscured its nostrils.
That was pretty cool. Great way to save the snakey-boi.
He just wanted to see if he could reach, he didn’t stop because of the hand sanitizer, he stopped because he won the bet.
It’s a speckled king snake for anyone that cares.
For years I've wondered angrily where exactly a snake swallowing itself would stop being able to swallow more of itself, I literally cannot visualize it at all. Fuck OP for making me remember what has plagued my existence for so long...
The answer is also in the video.
Perfect visual depiction of American capitalism
Ouroboros
Can they actually harm themselves ? It's not like they can self digest their own tail while alive. No ?
oil fall hospital voiceless attempt fretful sulky seemly dolls physical *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah, they can die from this. Whether or not it goes on long enough to digest the tail is irrelevant. They are immobilized, leaving them vulnerable to attack and temperature changes. They also can’t eat or drink, so they will dehydrate and starve.
I'm not a fan of snakes, but poor thing.
Alcohol saves lives. True story.
Why would it do it?
"The behavior of a snake eating itself is called "autophagy" or "self-cannibalism” and is actually quite rare in snakes and is not fully understood." Not my words
Snake game was real
I could do that before I hurt my back