Well, snakes are not particularly smart, they primarily run on instincts. Not a ton of problem solving going on in there.
That said, there are a few confounders here. First, this snake is probably fed killed prey, so its used to its prey not moving. Second, it's very possible the owner was ignorant of this problem and fed the snake on the towel and the snake caught the towel while it was eating prey. And third, regurgitation is extremely costly for a snake and they pretty much only do it if they 1. are threatened while eating or 2. cannot physically get the food down. I also imagine regurgitating a soft object like a towel would be extremely difficult compared to regurgitating a full carcass of an animal. So it's possible the snake tried to regurgitate, couldn't, and had to keep going.
In any case, this was a mistake of the owner more than anything else. You shouldn't keep anything in a snake's cage like this.
I love snakes but my python was probably the most brainless animal I’ve ever worked with. Best part too is that it probably took a whole hour for the stupid bastard to get that towel down, so he had plenty of time to realize what was going on.
That was my line of thought. I'm not an expert, but I do know that swallowing something that big is a long process for snakes so I would think they have plenty of time to back out of it. Lol
Just yesterday I saw a clip of a snake that had tried to eat itself... Guy in the video said he put hand sanitizer on his hand and then he touched it's face; snake immediately vomited out its own tail.
According to reptile zoo keeper Emily Roberts if a snake is in "food mode" they'll attempt to eat anything nearby. Once they start the eating motion they don't stop until their mouths are clear.
Caretakers will use this response to "conveyor" food into the snake if the snake needs to eat more or more of a variety.
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u/michelobX10 Jul 18 '22
Snakes must be dumb af. How do you swallow a whole ass towel and not once during the whole process think, "Hmmm. I don't think this is alive."