Digesting

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On Sunday, I found Emory in this odd position with part of her body draped over her rock hide. I had a theory as to why. The clues were as follows:
  1. The rat snake ate a tasty mouse the day before.
  2. A snake's stomach is about one-third of the way down their body.
  3. This rock was the warmest place in her habitat, directly under the heat lamp. 


If her full stomach was placed in the warmest spot, she must have been working on digestion! There's even a technical term for this behavior: post-prandial thermophilic response. 

For the word nerds out there...
  • Post = after
  • Prandial = relating to a meal
  • Thermo = heat
  • Philic = loving
  • Post-prandial thermophilic response = after-meal heat-loving!
Basically, snakes seek out a warm spot after eating to help with digestion. Reptiles can't produce their own body heat so they rely on the environment to get the perfect temperature. The warmer they are, the faster their meal is processed. Higher temperatures may also mean more efficient uptake of nutrients. 

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