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How do Indigos sense food?

L

Lombax_Dude

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I've been watching my Indigo hunt, and I'd like to get some feedback from the forum. Clearly, they have an excellent sense of smell. Beyond that, however, I'm not sure what other senses they use to hunt. My little yearling doesn't seem to hunt by sight. He appears to look right through the mouse, even though he goes to the area where the food is..

I've even seen his body come into contact with the frozen/thawed mouse, and is apparently unaware. Could it be they are looking for the prey's heat signature, but the mouse I'm providing is room temperature?

This is the first snake I've ever owned, so maybe there are other factors in play.

Patrick
 
Like any reptile the first thing they notice is movement. So your snake brushing against its food and not noticing it happens because it isn't moving. They realize that there is food in the cage almost immediately from the smell. Then they will search for it. If you want to speed up the process get some forceps(long ones depending upon the size of the snake) and wiggle the food item. I bet you'll see some fast action.
 
Drys are actually-

Sight hunters, meaning they hunt primarily by visually search for potential prey, though they do not harbor the best sight for the task. I believe such is one reason they were once classified as a member of the genus Coluber. Drymarchon also utilize smell to locate prey, but to a lesser extent and I have observed wild D. couperi using a variety of objects, to gain a height advantage, while foraging for prey.
It has been suggested that Drymarchon spp. harbor an anticoagulant property within their saliva, which would create profuse bleeding to a prey item which were to escape, a rare event I'm sure. If this be the case, a blood trail would provide an easy path for a Dry to follow utilizing smell alone.
Keep in mind, not "all" reptiles utilize “sight” to locate food, as many utilize smell as the primary sense while foraging, especially vegetarian and fossorial species...

Best regards,

Jeff
 
Hunting by sight, looking for movement...

Thanks for your input - I had not considered the effect of motion on my snake's hunting.

Now, can someone help me understand this scenario: when I first brought him home, I put in a clear container of water with a live goldfish. He never touched it, and I removed it from his cage after 24 hours. This fish was definitely moving, and I was out of the room for long periods, so I don't think that he was being shy when he refused to eat it. The water was fairly shallow, the container was not that big, and that fish could not have escaped a hungry indigo.

I was assuming that 'fish' would be hardwired into his brain as a food item. Could it be that he'd never been offered a goldfish before, and therefore didn't consider it food? Or maybe the whole environment was too new for him? He had just shed, was very hungry and did eat a goldfish-scented mouse just a few hours later.

Thanks for your sage advice! I love this place!!
 
It could be due to any number of reasons. I have some yearlings who won't touch a fish now. But that's what it took to get them started in the beginning. But for some reason, now they don't seem to recognize it. They take one eager sniff, and say "YUCK, I'm not eating that"! I think that fish as prey is a temporary program which deletes itself automatically after a certain time, or if the snake does not find any fish before a certain age. Some indigos will begin feeding on unscented mouse pinks, and never see or smell a goldfish. Yours may be one of those. Ask Robert. My adults, however may hesitate at first, but by that age, they have been conditioned to take whatever I offer. And an adult wild indigo cannot afford to be picky. They must take whatever they can get in order to sustain themselves. I suspect that wild hatchling indigos might hunt minnows, and tadpoles in shallow waters to get started. But as they grow, they move on to other, larger items. And as they move on, or {graduate} from one prey item to the next, they just forget about the previous menu. Even though the rodent was goldfish scented, he could still smell the rodent. But I'm sure you could continue to scent prey and work with him to get him to take goldfish. And if you constantly switch and bait,...eventually he'll eat whatever hits the floor. Especially since that is what seems to be the natural order. My advice is,...don't worry about it. Just keep feeding him mice, and occasionally try new things like rat pups, quail, chicken hearts, gizzard pieces, PRE-frozen frogs, etc. Eventually he'll turn into a little garbage disposal/landshark, and will eagerly devour anything you offer. He'll outgrow his pickyness. Trust me!
T.
 
They hunt by movement. Tie a goat up to a fence and the indigo will stomp over and eat it. Sorry that's the T-rex. My apologies, I couldn't help throwing that in.

They do seem to have eyes with semi binocualr placement when compared to other snakes however.
 
Hmmmm

I am sure most indigos will accept goat, so long as it is offered in sizeable portions! ;0)
I am curious as to your definition of "semi-binocular", as I believe all snakes with two eyes have well adapted to the use of such...

Jeff
 
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