Sizing up to eat: Myth?

It's a myth, have you ever seen a snake size up a rat like that? Also in the wide prey items wouldn't hang out and let them get that close. Have you ever accidentally/ purposely scared a rabbit? They take off like hell, it's a prey response and it generally works out well for them if they notice the predator.

The amount of times I've heard this exact myth is staggering. I usually point out that no prey animal would allow their predator to measure them. I usually ask them to observe what happens when a dog or cat is anywhere near an animal that they could eat.

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Originally Posted by Vipera Berus

The amount of times I've heard this exact myth is staggering.

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does anyone else ALWAYS get told the "girl sleeping with snake" story? i swear to glob any time people learn i own snakes they always tell that SAME story!
i always tell people it's a myth but others just eat that stuff up! :taz:

http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/measured.asp

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

does anyone else ALWAYS get told the "girl sleeping with snake" story? i swear to glob any time people learn i own snakes they always tell that SAME story!
i always tell people it's a myth but others just eat that stuff up! :taz:

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Yeah my sister told me that one when I got my first snake.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

does anyone else ALWAYS get told the "girl sleeping with snake" story? i swear to glob any time people learn i own snakes they always tell that SAME story!
i always tell people it's a myth but others just eat that stuff up! :taz:

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All the time. Theres a pjcture floatimg aroumd on lime of a girl layimg with a snake and the caption tells that story. People tag me on it on fb all the time. They always ask what I'm gonna do when my snake gets that big. And they always say that snakes get as big as the tank you keep them in

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A myth yes.. But its the first time I've heard that myth with a 2-3 foot Ball Python involved lmbo.
Usually thats said with a 14-20 foot Giant Python or Boa.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

does anyone else ALWAYS get told the "girl sleeping with snake" story? i swear to glob any time people learn i own snakes they always tell that SAME story!
i always tell people it's a myth but others just eat that stuff up! :taz:

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Oh yes that story, I've had four people in one day independently tell me that story. Every single one thought my still not more than 3ft ball python would do this.

I was at a party tonight, and someone swore to me that this happened to their friend! That was a new take on it, usually I've heard it as a rumor kind of thing. She said her friend had a snake (didn't specify what kind), and that it stopped eating and would stretch out next to her in bed, and she eventually learned that her snake was "starving itself" and sizing her up to eat her. I told her that that's a story that's been going around for forever and is just a myth, but she was skeptical. I even told her that it doesn't make much sense, because of the whole thing about what prey would sit their and let a predator measure it, so why would an animal ever behave this way? She said maybe the snake learned it as a pet (to which I thought, oh, it learned it? Did it eat some other people before, and the owners took THAT long to wise up to what was happening?). In all honesty, IF (and it's a big if) that did indeed happen to her friend, then the reason the snake was stretching out next to her in bed was probably because it needed the warmth (letting a snake chill with you in bed for any extended period of time, outside of the regulated temperature and humidity conditions of the tank, would certainly not meet all of the animal's husbandry needs), and the reason it wasn't eating was probably because it was stressed that it was not being kept in adequate conditions, as suggested by the first point!

It's crazy how widespread this myth is! :rolleyes:

Yeah, pretty much all snakes are ambush predators. They don't even go looking for prey let alone try to size one up. It's really a myth that's very counterintuitive. By the time the snake is "sizing it's prey up", the prey would've run away by then, hell, it run away at the first sight if the snake. Prey isn't just going to wait to be measured by its predator.


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