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[Texas Rattlesnake]

Originally Posted by razeraze

Improper basking spots cause food to rot in a snake, or a snake to throw up. Recently because of the endless boa bickering I have been asking some herpetologists about large meals in any reptile. Guess what? Among the 3-4 I have asked all believe it is husbandry, not meal size or frequency. Now since multiple prey items can be consumed in the wild (especially bats a favorite prey of boas) and large meals can be consumed (such as iguanas) odds are it is the low basking spots and temperatures causing all these regurgitation problems and stomach rot. Here is a quote from an herpetologist on retics, but it applies to any ectothermic animal:

"In other words, the toxic effect of the prey item possibly results in the snake's death when the prey item is not digested fast enough to stop this toxic build up. So as a matter of reasoning, it would appear that the rotting, which creates a toxic effect, of the large prey item causes the death in these cases, where the toxins become greater than the sizable liver of a snake can handle.
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This is much more likely to occur in captivity, because of the limited ability for a snake to find the optimum conditions in which to metabolise and digest their prey. In nature, they have greater ability to find the microclimate that would afford them the maximum opportunity to metabolise and digest their prey, but it is possible that these conditions cannot be found and that the prey item is just too large to properly digest before the toxic effects overwhelm the ability of the snake to cope with it."

Interesting stuff, Raze. Thanks for sharing.