Where does the tongue come out?

[JimJam]

I never see my guy flick his tongue. Ever. He seems happy, is exploratory and easy to handle. He "sits up" and puts his head about 4-6 inches off the ground and looks around often. Is he trying to utilize his sense of sight to make up for no smells?

Ive never checked his mouth before but where would I look to see his tongue? I watched a YouTube video that shows where they breath from and how it opens and closes when their mouth is open.

I hate having to stress him out to look inside his mouth, but do I need to see a tongue to know he's healthy? He has eats and sheds well. Even when the mouse is in front of him I don't see a tongue. And he ALWAYS eats. Quickly.

Should i I be worried? Sorry about all the posts lately, I'm learning as much as I can as I go. Trying to be a good snake dad.

[Herpo]

It's good that you're asking questions! Just don't stress too much, it's not good for you or the snake!

If he's feeling, I don't think it's a problem personally!

[Yodawagon]

I'd just leave it be. He's fine.

[Herpo]

Just re-read my post. I meant feeding not feeling XD!

[DennisM]

No, you should not be worried. You won’t see the snake’s tongue if you pop its mouth open because it will be retracted. Admittedly, it’s odd that you haven’t seen the snake flicking it’s tongue, but the fact that it is feeding is a pretty good sign that it is there and functional. Handle the snake, if it’s tongue is not flicking, that would be unusual. As for looking around to compensate for his lack of smell, no, this is normal BP behavior.

[Coluber42]

If you look at the front of your snake's snout, you'll see a little notch in the upper lip. That's where the tongue comes out. Actually, that's one of the differences between snakes and legless lizards; some lizards have forked tongues, but they don't have that notch, which means they have to open their mouths a little to flick their tongues out. When not flicking around, the tongue is inside a sheath that sits on the bottom of the mouth.

If you don't ever see tongue flicking, I can think of three possible reasons. One is that, for whatever bizarre reason, the snake either doesn't have one or can't/doesn't use it.
The second is that the snake is actually terrified of being out in the open, and just looking for a dark place to hide. Sometimes it's hard to tell because they'll still be moving slowly or holding still some of the time. But watch how fast they're breathing. They're just like us, in that they breathe faster when nervous or scared.

The third possibility is that the snake is flicking it's tongue, but you aren't seeing it. Ummm, have you had your vision checked? A friend of mine just got glasses for the first time in his life after he put on someone else's as a joke, then realized he could see much more clearly and hadn't noticed how blurry the world had gotten!
Anyway, the tongue flick doesn't look the way it does in a video. It's small, and very fast. It looks different in videos because it's fast enough that it's going in and out of phase with the frame rate of the video. So in a video it often looks much slower than it does in real life. In real life, it's a small forked blur, especially with a small snake.

[Sauzo]

I wouldn't worry about it. If the snake is acting normal and feeding, count your blessings. No need to try and open the snakes mouth just to see its tongue which you wont see if you open the mouth anyways. Just watch closely when you feed him, I'm sure he is flicking it. My Bp doesn't flick her tongue that much either, she is just content to cruise around. Both my boas will flick their tongues at anything. they especially love to do rapid fire flicking on my hand as I pet them on their heads.

[JimJam]

Haha, well my eyesight is fine. I see my boas tongue go a million times a second when she's out and about. I've fed this guy several times now and I'm 100% positive the tongue never comes out. When I handle him he seems content and will actively crawl around, both away and toward me. Sometimes just sit with me, but he's still young and an explorer. He's feeding and shedding so I guess all is good.

Is the tongue hidden in the same hole that he breathes out of?

[piedlover79]

This picture from rcreptiles.com shows a ball python reconnecting it's jaw, you can see a hole (that leads down into the lungs) in the pink fleshy part of the bottom of his mouth, tongue hides under and just in front of that. The tongue retracts into the sheath to protect it. You will not see a tongue when a snake yawns or if you pry it open.

My female ball python is very active with her tongue, my male almost never flicks his tongue (I've only seen it a few times). My hognose sticks his out and waves it around! It's just their personality.

[SmoothScales]

I used to think Mon Cheri didn't flick her tongue when we first got her. The truth is closer to - she's lazy. She'll flick, but just the very tips will come out so it's really easy to miss. Unless she finds something worth her interest, then you'll see the WHOLE thing flapping around. But that's on very rare occasions. Even on feeding day, she'll only show the tips.

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