What do snakes eat? All snakes eat animals (that is, they're zoophagous). There are no vegetarian snakes. Snakes are carnivorous reptiles. Large snakes eat large animals. Small ones eat small ones. The smallest snakes eat insects and other invertebrates.
Most snakes eat rodents or birds after either killing them with venom or squeezing them to death in constricting coils (see picture, left). The largest snake in the world, the green anaconda, which kills by constricting, can eat animals as large as a human being or pig.
Many snakes also eat eggs. But eggs, too, are animals (at an early stage of development). Birds, especially young birds in the nest, are also a target.
Non-constricting, non-venomous snakes generally eat smaller prey such as insects and small rodents that they can easily seize in their mouths and swallow.
There are also snakes that eat other snakes. Well-known examples are the king cobra and the various king snakes (such as the scarlet king snake, which eats rattlesnakes) — king refers to the fact that these snakes dominate and eat other snakes.
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Common egg eater — Dasypeltis scabra
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