How long a snake can go without food depends on the size of the snake, the size of it's last meal, and the weather.

In winter a snake may hibernate or brumate(short sleeps), and will drop it's metabolism so it does not use any energy and does not need to eat.

In the summer or warmer climate, a large meal may keep it happy for two weeks to over a month.

A younger snake eats more often, as it is growing.

So there are many factors to consider. If you have a pet snake it will not eat if it is not hungry, or if it is sick.

If you can see ribs on a snake it is sick or starving. If a pet, take to a suitable doctor. If a wild snake is trapped or there is a drought, it can starve to death, but will still cope longer than a mammal as it can put itself into a brumation to help make it through.

Never pick up your snake directly after feeding it as it will disgorge, or vomit up it's meal. Do not feed prey too large for the snake to make it last longer, as a too large prey item can kill it.

These feel like two separate questions, so I’m going to answer them separately.

Do snakes have no bond with their owners? Well, that depends on what you mean by ‘bond.’ Snakes do not have friends, nor do they bond with mates. Their care of their young is limited and brief, if there is any at all. So, they feel no emotional affection for one another (or anything else). However, they do become accustomed to the things and beings in their environment, and register them as safe and normal. Things which upset the normal can be disconcerting for a snake. Snakes are content when things are familiar and normal. So, snakes can be quite content with their owner’s presence, and nervous in their absence, or around new people.

The next question is, will snakes attack their owner whenever they feel like it? Well… yes. Any animal will attack anyone or anything whenever they feel like it. Even humans will do that. The real question, is, WILL THEY FEEL LIKE IT?

That depends on the individual snake, and how habituated it is to being handled and worked with. Snakes all have different personalities, just like any other animal with a brain. Some snakes are nervous and defensive, and likely to bite when they feel uncomfortable. Some snakes are calm and docile, and never strike defensively their entire life. Knowing the temperament of your pet, you can make allowances for how it’s likely to react. Snakes generally telegraph their mood with their body language, if you’re paying attention. You can tell when they’re calm or nervous.

Snakes only attack their food, however. They may lash out at things which scare them, but they don’t technically attack them. So a typical snake will never ATTACK its owner. It will only nip them in self-defense, if it gets scared.

Of course, owners sometimes receive bites for other reasons — even less of an ‘attack’ than a defensive nip. These are accidents. Many snakes have relatively poor eyesight, and navigate their world using their sense of smell, and heat receptors. It’s how they identify what’s in front of them. If an owner handles the snake’s food (mice, rats, etc), and forgets to wash their hands, then the snake may sense a warm, mousy-smelling thing in front of them and WHAM! — the owner’s hand is bitten by an enthusiastic snake, which hangs on and tries to engulf the ‘prey.’

Oops. Not the snake’s fault. Completely the owner’s fault, and readily prevented. The majority of cases where a huge constrictor has killed their owner have been down to this mistake. The snake was expecting to be fed, and mistook what was in front of it. Of course, the snake cannot eat a human, and usually doesn’t even try. It never meant to try. It was all just a case of mistaken identity.

(Never try to work with any constrictor over 8 feet long without another person present to help in case of accidents).

I’ve had a ball python wrap my hand for this reason — it missed the rat, and began climbing the side of the rack, searching for it. I grabbed it to return it to its bin, and it turned and grabbed me, of course, and wrapped my hand right up in its coils — it was looking for that rat I’d just offered, after all. lol

The snake was so sheepish after we got things sorted out that it refused to eat that day. Oh, well.

Bites from snakes don’t hurt much. Their teeth are very, very sharp, and thin like needles. So, they just leave a row of pinpricks that bleed a bit, but there’s little pain, and they heal up quickly. A kitten will hurt you far worse. I’d rather be bitten by a snake than any sort of mammal.

All of that said, any animal with a mouth CAN bite, and probably will at some point — including dogs and cats. Even the most docile snake might become startled or upset one day, and give a nip. People who own animals have to expect that as a hazard. But it’s no big deal.

You mean poop?

Snakes have a cloaca, where they defecate and breed from. It’s covered up by a scale, but under that there is the opening.

Everybody poops. Even snakes.

Because they’re cold-blooded. Or, to use the proper term, they’re ectotherms.

Warm-blooded animals (endotherms) maintain a constant body temperature; cold-blooded animals’ body temperature depends on their surroundings. Whereas a warm-blooded animal can continue to operate in cooler temperatures, a cold-blooded animal needs warmth from an external source for certain metabolic processes—like digesting their food—to function, or just to be active. This is why you see reptiles basking in the sun: they’re warming themselves up to the temperature they need to function properly.

But what has that got to do with eating only once or twice a week?

Maintaining a constant body temperature takes a lot of energy. It’s metabolically expensive. Something like 90 percent of our food intake goes to keeping ourselves warm. Being cold-blooded means you don’t need nearly as much food, because you’re not wasting nine-tenths of it just on keeping the body’s furnace going.

So, because they’re cold-blooded, snakes are extremely metabolically efficient. But they take it one step further. Snakes have one of the most effective digestive tracts out there. They digest almost every part of the animal (except fur and other keratinous bits); very little goes to waste. So they get a lot more out of their food than other animals do.

All of which is to say that snakes don’t need to eat as often as other animals. In fact, depending on the snake and what they’re eating, once or twice a week might actually be too often. Some of my snakes get fed every three weeks, and looking at them you wouldn’t say they’ve been starved. Once or twice a week would make sense for a snake eating prey items that aren’t very nutritious or energy-dense, like earthworms, insects or fish (mostly water, you see), but otherwise a snake who ate that often would get pretty fat pretty fast.

A large snake eating large, nutritious prey would not need to eat very often at all: some of the giant snakes would be able to get away with eating a big meal only a few times a year, and ball pythons have been known to go as long as a year without eating.

Snakes are cold-blooded, or to put it more properly, ectothermic. Endotherms burn extra energy to warm their bodies. This allows them to be active in a wider range of temperatures. This is why mice are running around doing mouse things while lizards have to lie on rocks for hours to get themselves going. Obviously, this ability to be active in the cold is very useful, but it comes at a cost. Endotherms need to eat vastly more than ectotherms to keep their more active bodies running.

Ectotherms can get by on very little food for their body weight. If you have a pet snake, you will probably notice how inactive it tends to be. This saves energy as well. Some larger snakes can go an entire year without eating if they take a large enough meal.

They’d be very frustrated, because they’d kill it & try very hard to swallow it. Snakes are actually not logical about choosing prey they know they can swallow, in part because they’re just not that visually oriented to begin with. And incidentally, the old yarn about a snake lying next to a human to “size them up” as a meal is utter nonsense. They might be attracted to our warmth, but they sure aren’t “measuring” anything!

Depending on the type of prey, they might even be injured or killed if they succeed if the prey was such that caused them internal injuries or if it was too closely matched to them in size, but in most cases they’ll just try to swallow it, & then give up.

There have been cases in the wild where snakes have swallowed prey that was too large & they both ended up dying, both prey & predator. This has even happened with ophiophagus snakes, that is when one snake consumes another. Sometimes if they’re lucky, they can manage to regurgitate the excessive meal, but not always.

I personally know of a case where a wild gopher snake killed an adult rabbit: probably the snake had been used to catching only the baby rabbits so this smelled familiar, but after trying to swallow it, the snake just couldn’t get past the rabbit’s head. The dead rabbit was found with snake saliva on the head only, where the snake had to call it quits & leave hungry.

Snakes are pretty simple creatures. Theirs is a world of food, warmth, comfort, and secure hiding spots.

They don’t really bond with their owners so much as get used to their owners. The snake learns that the human is like a nice warm tree to climb up and lay across, and that the human will not hurt it. It will probably learn other things like, “If the lid to my terrarium is opened, I am likely to get a mouse or to be picked up to climb on the warm human.”

They aren’t like dogs or cats; they’re like snakes. They act on instinct. When something that smells like food moves in front of them, they strike and grab that food. When they get cold, they seek out warmth.

An experienced handler is unlikely to be badly hurt by a snake which has life-long experience with humans. Such a snake will be familiar with being fed and handled, and will not feel like it needs to defend itself against a human. It knows the human is a source of food, and knows the human will be gentle.

On occasion, pet snakes do bite accidentally. And I mean “accidental” here in the sense that the bite isn’t aggressive; the snake isn’t setting out to do harm to a human. They’re generally a misunderstanding.

The most common type of accidental bite that snake owners get happens when the snake mistakes their hand for prey. Maybe they’ve been handling the snake’s food and haven’t washed their hands; then they reach into the snake’s terrarium. The snake sees only a moving thing that smells like mouse, and strikes. A moment later it’s very confused because it doesn’t taste mouse, and generally lets go. The injury tends to be minor.

If you were to accidentally hurt or startle a snake, it might try to “defend” itself against you. The more easygoing snakes won’t do even that much; they’ll just try to get away. But that can be prevented, too, if you’re always gentle and careful with your snake.

Snakes live simple lives. Their behavior is simple, too. They eat edible things, climb climbable things, slither under things they can get under, and sun themselves for warmth. If threatened, they defend themselves; if given the opportunity, they mate. They don’t randomly attack people they’ve learned are safe.

EVEN if they can successfully swallow the prey, they can also regurgitate it later if cornered frightened or trying to escape being captured.

Why Do Snakes Regurgitate? | Animals - mom.me

“””” Common Cause of RegurgitationThe most likely reason a snake regurgitates its food is that it's handled too soon after eating or is otherwise subjected to stress.

The stress triggers a natural reaction in a snake, which is to relieve itself of the bulk of its meal in the event it needs to flee””””, nimals.mom.me › snakes-regurgitate- .

We’ll never know. Every snake that’s ever tried this choked to death before getting halfway.

Then they get bronzed and made into jewelry.

Imagine what the ancient Titanoboa could eat.

First of all, let me dispel a common myth: snakes do not dislocate their jaws to swallow large prey.

Snakes have a much more elegant and flexible solution: their jaws are loosely connected by stretchy ligaments and muscles that allow them to open wide and move independently of each other.

This means they can literally walk their mouth over their prey, inch by inch, using their backward-pointing teeth to grip and pull it in.

Snakes also can stretch their ribs and body to accommodate the large animal they feed on.

Snakes don't have a rigid skeleton like we do; their ribs are connected by elastic tissue that can expand and contract as needed.

This allows them to create more space in their chest cavity for their meal, which can sometimes be several times bigger than their own body.

Of course, swallowing large prey is only half the battle; snakes also have to digest it.

And that's no easy feat, considering they don't chew their food and rely on chemical digestion only.

Snakes have powerful digestive enzymes that can break down almost anything, from bones to fur to scales.

But this process can take a long time, depending on the size and type of prey. Some snakes can digest a meal in a few days, while others may take weeks or even months.

That's why snakes are very selective about what they eat and when they eat it. They don't want to waste energy or risk injury on something that's not worth it.

They also want to avoid putrefaction, which is when the prey starts to rot inside their body before it's fully digested.

That can cause serious problems for the snake, such as bloating, infection, or even death.

Now, some snakes have developed special adaptations to deal with slow digestion. For example,

pit vipers have venom that not only kills their prey, but also helps to liquefy it and speed up digestion.

Other snakes may regurgitate their meal if they feel threatened or uncomfortable, or if they find a better opportunity for food.

But the most impressive adaptation of all is how some snakes can compress their prey's vertebral column into waves and bend it like an accordion.

This allows them to fit it more easily into their gastrointestinal tract and reduce the risk of putrefaction.

This is especially useful for snakes that eat other snakes, which can be as long or longer than themselves.

So there you have it: the secrets of how snakes eat large prey.

A common misconception among novice exotic animal keepers is that there will always be a zoo or other institution willing to take their animal when for whatever reason they can no longer take care of it. They quickly discover that this is not the case.

The reason for this mistake is that they’re naïve and inexperienced. They don’t understand just how common their animal is. From their perspective, that green iguana, Burmese python or even spectacled caiman is impossibly exotic and mysterious. It’s why they got it in the first place. But from the perspective of the pet trade, it’s one of thousands or millions they breed or import every year.

There are a lot of these animals out there.

And for obvious reasons the big ones are abandoned more often. It may be unique and exotic to you, but from the perspective of zoos, animal shelters, educational facilities and reptile rescues, it’s one of dozens or hundreds they’re asked to take in. By and large they do their best to do right by the animals, but it’s got to be discouraging work. I knew a guy who ran a turtle rescue: he would come to reptile shows, set up a table, and take all the turtles (almost always red-eared sliders) that people brought in to the show to give away. At one show he received a total of 65 turtles. I know a reptile zoo whose crocodilian population was at one point just short of a hundred, and I think most of them were rescues. How they found homes for all these animals I have no idea.

This is why most of us engaged in the reptile hobby try our hardest to nip this problem in the bud at the point of acquisition. “You do realize this could get up to six or eight feet long, right? And that will require a cage at least this big, right?” What we don’t want to hear, down the road, is this: “I had no idea it would get that large!” Well, that’s because you didn’t do your homework, or were in denial, or the nice person at the pet store lied through their teeth.

But mostly I suspect the problem is people deluding themselves into thinking that they can keep the animal for a little while and give it away—or worse, release it into the wild—when it gets too big. That this is somehow an acceptable thing to do.

Because it isn’t. A good rule of thumb is that large reptiles live longer than small ones. Large boas and pythons can live a few decades, crocodilians even longer than that, and let’s not get started about turtles. These animals will easily outlive your cat. By a factor of at least two. They are not remotely disposable.

Lol! This is a trigger for snake keepers that originated with a social media meme in which a veterinarian claimed that a pet snakes behavior wasn’t friendly but rather he was continuously measuring his female owner to see if she could be eaten. Of course this simply isn’t true. I keep Anacondas, one of maybe two, or three species that get big enough to eat a human. They can be very food aggressive and quick. I can say that I have been bitten while feeding them more times then I care to admit. When accidentally mistaken for food they are quick to release me because they know the difference between me their keeper who brings the food and the rabbits they eat, though it may take some time for them to realize that mistake. But don’t be confused large snakes are dangerous, anacondas, reticulated pythons, Burmese Pythons and Indian pythons can get big enough to be a threat to human life and a few deaths have been attributed to them. They just aren’t constantly looking at you as a meal. They are triggered by routine and scents. If they are fed at the same time every week and instead of food your hand comes into the cage they aren’t going to realize that right away. Or if you have been handling their food and they smell it on you, they may attack before seeing that you are not the meal they are looking for. There have been cases of people being eaten by large snakes mostly in the wild, and typically very small people or children. So to answer your question honestly, no, but if a snake plans on eating you it will measure you, but probably not until it has killed you first. When they feed they strike first and answer questions later. I have seen large snakes give up on a meal after it’s been constricted and rarely before. Large snakes are dangerous and need to be handled with care. When they get a scent of food or are expecting to be fed, you are in danger of being mistaken for food. For these reasons large snakes are never handled alone. At what size do they become dangerous? Many say around 6 feet. I agree that a 6 foot snake has the ability to choke out a human being but only if that person doesn’t resist or is extremely petite. I would say that at around 15 feet for python and 10 feet for an Anaconda. I had an 18 foot Burmese python that had my roommates cat jump in his cage. In the process of saving the cat the snake tried to constrict me instead. I was careful not to hurt the snake and that probably increased the odds that I could have been killed in the tussle, luckily my roommates came home and helped me manage the snakes coils. A snake that size has more coils then you have hands. I had one hand in the snakes mouth and one pulling coils off my neck. As soon as I pulled one coil off another would replace it. Once the snake was under control it took about an hour for it realize that I wasn’t food and released me. It had swallowed my arm up to the elbow. So the real danger of a large snake isn’t that they will eat you but rather accidentally kill you before they realize that you’re not food. This snake could have choked me out if I wasn’t careful, even though it couldn’t have eaten me. Humans are difficult meals for snakes because of our wide shoulders. The snake has to be big enough to compress your shoulders close to the size of your neck. This requires a very large snake and a very small person. A snake is not going to measure its prey before an attack, in the wild they have to strike fast or the prey escapes they don’t have the luxury of measuring. All that said, people suffer more from poodle bites then from even the largest snake bite and about 433 have been killed by their dogs in the last 13 years, and during the same time period about 12 snake owners have been killed by their snakes, just to put things in perspective.

Keeper and breeder here for over 30 years venomous, boas, pythons, also some amphibian and insect eaters. Is this a question of curiosity or do you own one? Please dont feed less to keep smaller or save money.

Big pythons or boas can have a slow metabolism a 16′ python might eat and survive off 1 huge meal one year might have 5 next.

Wild corns, kings, bullsnakes might eat once a month a study on rubber boas a sub adult female found the nrst ate 9 babies and mom.

Another factor is temp they lay on warm surfaces or bask to break down meals.

In captivity most people feed once a week, we overfeed. I feed babies 2 pink mice a week, females i breed 1 large meal 7–10 days. Males usually twice a month. It depends on species . Theres a lot to this if you have any specific questions lmk

If it was constricting as hard as it could, and was over say…7 or 8 feet, it would be very fast. A matter of less than a minute at most. Constrictors don't generally kill by suffocation, they kill by cutting off blood supply and circulation. A ball python can kill a mouse in about 15 seconds. I know, I’ve watched our ball python, Monty do just that. A snake constricting you around your neck will cut off the blood supply to your brain. After that, unconsciousness will happen in seconds, then death shortly after. A ball python is easily removed before this can happen if you have reasonable stregnth. Ball pythons are also normally such placid, easygoing, even timid danger noodles they will very rarely constrict around your neck beyond a gentle grip to make themselves feel secure.Anything bigger and…Just don't do it. Never leave a child or weakened adult alone with any snake.

Snakes can be pretty fussy eaters and may get hungry more frequently than you might think. Regarding feeding time, snakes typically wait until dusk or nightfall to hunt down prey. This means they need to be constantly sated so they don't consume dangerous items during the day.

Some snakes' favorite food items include rodents, birds, small reptiles, frogs, and other snakes! A study found that 85% of all snake bites are caused by predation on their species. So make sure not to wander around near wild animals without wearing protective gear (like gloves) if you're anything but fond of getting bitten!

Rarely, and usually because the owner has made an avoidable mistake.

For example, keeping a giant python species in an enclosure that is not secure and escape-proof is an avoidable mistake, and there have been some notable situations where an animal that was not being securely kept has escaped the enclosure and killed a human being.

Or a handler drapes a large animal over their shoulders / around their neck, and the animal, feeling insecure, grips tighter around the handler’s neck, causing them to lose consciousness, fall and often hit their head on the way down.

Or a handler underestimates how quickly a hungry large python can react to the presence of potential food items and puts themselves in a position to be grabbed by the snake instead of the food item.

Many of these things can be avoided simply by being mindful of the animal’s behaviour and natural capabilities - make sure the snake’s kept in a locked enclosure that cannot be escaped from and ideally in a separate closed room so that if the enclosure is damaged, the snake is still contained in that room. Keep the snake at waist level - don’t allow it up near your face and don’t let it wrap around your neck. Don’t try to handle the snake when you have been handling its prey, use suitable tools like long tongs to present prey to the snake (and use the enclosure door to block the snake from accessing any part of you while you’re feeding it) and make sure you’ve got another experienced handler that, if something goes wrong, will be able to step in and start unwrapping the snake from the tail.

If we had a giant python, that animal would always have two experienced handlers present if the enclosure was open - feeding, cleaning, handling. To be honest, I’d prefer three, and we don’t have three, so I don’t have giant pythons.

Eight months is too long, something is not right.. Yes they go without food in the wild for a long time, but in captivity they should accept food.. Are the temperatures correct, the humidity, any injuries, check his mouth and teeth, stomatitis, last bowel movement, shedding issues, stuck eye caps will cause stress because of vision loss,, has his home been moved to a noisy traffic location,, any changes that may cause him stress, excessive handling, circadian rhythm, how much weight has he lost, any lumps or bumps on his coils tumors? vitamin deficiency ,metabolic problems, , There are numerous reasons for going off food….

Get him to a vet and have him checked, he may have onset of kidney or liver failure, or another internal disease, internal parasites will affect feeding, He needs to see a vet now. If nothing is found, they may need to force feed to stimulate the digestive system again.. That happens, the system just shuts down if they go off food for a significant amount of time/ they just quit eating and literally starve.

I wish you and him the best of luck, please let me know how he does..

Not in the sense of the way humans perceive these feelings.

Many reptiles recognize those who regularly hold or feed them-

But reptiles emotions are more like… ‘hostile or not hostile’

Happiness would be closer to what we consider ‘relative contentment’

Sadness would be ‘bored’

While no snake is going to start crying of boredom, it may become more hostile or predatory.

All creatures need to ‘do’ things. Otherwise they have no purpose.

I have heard stories of reptiles, just like many creatures, dying or getting sick when they have nothing to do, and it is equated to depression…

The depression is not ‘sad’. It just leads to the creature essentially turning off.

This is most common in [American] Humans.

Snakes in cooler climates do something similar to hybernating called brumating, often in big dens with hundreds of snakes in some instances. During this time, they do not eat, because they require heat to digest their food. However, if there is a warm spell, they might come out to warm up, but they don't usually eat during this time.

Snakes are cold blooded, and can go a long time without food since they don't spend all their energy regulating their body temperatures.

In some captive species, the process of brumation is necessary for breeding, and some species often fast during the winter in captivity as a leftover instinct from this in captivity.

Many wild animals have behavioral preferences to certain prey items. I work with Sonoran desert “herps” plus a mix of cast offs I’ve taken into my world. Longer story short, that is the main reason we herpetology persons resist keeping many interesting snakes in captivity. Fortunately many happily eat “frozen/thawed rodents”. Some have to be eased into accepting this type of meal. Most snakes do best when they are left alone and handled only occasionally. They stress hugely in high traffic environments. That’s why they’re so many corn snakes and ball pythons in stores. I do not see snakes as my “pets”, no self awareness or emotional abilities. Other than very interesting instincts etc., most are best left outdoors, take a picture. Blessings

Q: When should I be concerned about my ball python not eating? His behavior is completely normal but he won’t eat (I’ve had him for 8 years and he’s always eaten frozen without a problem). He hasn’t eaten in 8 months - since November.

Its time to worry now! 8 months is a couple of months too long to wait.

First try feeding him live. If there is no reaction or interest at all, its time for number two.

Second, find an exotic pet vet that has experience with constrictors, especially with pythons or boas and get him checked out immediately. Ball pythons live for 20 to 30 years, so its not old age if he is only 8.

I assume you've checked inside his mouth and gums etc and haven't found anything. And, if you've had him 8 years, you must know the optimum temperatures and moisture levels, etc. So, if nothing has changed in his life in the last 6 or 8 months, something is seriously wrong with him.

Good luck to you and your pet. Keep me posted, please.

Snakes' Feeding Behavior: The Influence of Metabolism and Environment

Snakes are ectothermic animals, which means that their metabolic rate and energy needs are lower compared to warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds. As a result, snakes can survive longer without food and do not require frequent feeding.

Selective Feeding Behavior of Snakes

Unlike some animals, snakes are selective in their feeding and do not have a strong feeding response where they will eat anything presented to them even if they are not hungry. They may refuse food if they are not hungry or if the food does not appeal to them.

Reasons for Snakes to Eat When Not Hungry

However, there are instances where snakes may eat when they are not hungry. This can be due to factors such as opportunistic feeding, environmental cues, or captivity conditions. For example, captive snakes may eat more frequently as they do not need to hunt for their food and are fed regularly.

Conclusion

While snakes can eat when they are not hungry, their feeding behavior is largely influenced by their energy requirements and the environment. Snakes do not have a strong motivation to eat when they are not hungry, and their selective feeding behavior plays an important role in regulating their food intake.

I had a pet garter snake names Stripes in the late 70s. I mostly fed her earthworms that I found in the back yard twice a week. Out of curiosity, I experimented with something called “tubifex worms.” In their freeze-dried forms they look a bit like this:

I just fed her a few squares and she gobbled `em right up.

Snakes are not all the same, hunt the same or have the same senses.

Some are active hunters, some are ambush hunters, some have good visual acuity and some may even have extra sensory organs.

All snakes have the Jacobson's organ, a chemoreceptor organ that can sense prey and predator scent and also give them the ability to follow these trails left by the prey. It can also sense pheromone activity and some snakes like blind snakes can follow the pheromone trails left by ants back to their mounts.

Snakes have varying levels of visual acuity from almost blind (blind snakes can only sense the difference between light and dark with their almost vestigial eyes), while active hunters will have much better eyesight and will heavily rely on it to find prey. It will ofcause also matter if the snake have nocturnal or diurnal habits. The shape of the pupil, vertically elliptical (cat-like) compared to round, has reference to the snakes’ behaviour. Generally, snakes with vertically elliptical pupils are nocturnal and snakes with round pupils are diurnal. The vertical pupil can still dilate and contract based on the amount of light available.

Some snakes like the Boomslang (Dispholidus typus) have binocular vision, allowing the snake to accurately perceive its prey in complex surroundings, while most others have monocular vision.

Most snakes do not see as well as humans, but pick up movement and react accordingly.

Pythons, boas and some vipers (pit vipers) have extra sensory organs called pit organs that is sensitive to infrared radiation and it give them the ability to hunt warm blooded animals in almost complete darkness.

I assume you mean extremely large 100+ pound pythons, such as adult Burmese or Reticulated pythons, and not 3 pound adult ball pythons. lol.

Pythons are a group of snake species, not a species. It’s like talking about apes - is it a 12 pound gibbon or a 300 pound gorilla?

That out of the way, the answer, for the very largest of species, is… any extremely large animal can pose a threat to a human. How much of a threat it poses depends on how knowledgeable the human is and what risks they take, and on the individual personality of the animal. In general, people who keep giant pythons are less likely to be killed by their animal than someone who keeps horses is likely to be killed by a horse.

This is because pythons are relatively predictable animals, and common-sense precautions involve watching out for the pointy end, being cautious while feeding the animal (they have poor eyesight and aim by scent and heat sensing), and having a second person present to help in case of a problem.

A very large python’s enclosure should be secure and lockable, and it should not be opened unless another person is present. It’s surprisingly easy to prevent a serious injury or death from a python if the other person knows how to wrangle the animal. While extremely strong, a python can be prevented from coiling around a person, and can be unwrapped starting from the tail end, because each section of the animal’s body doesn’t have great leverage.

In almost all cases, pythons will only try to wrap a person up (the only serious threat to life) if they mistake the person for food. This is always the result of error. Pet snakes don’t see humans as prey. The most common error is that the person handled food items without washing their hands first, or was in the middle of preparing food, and the snake can smell food when the person stuck their hand in the enclosure.

Constrictor snakes are wired to strike, hang on, and wrap their food, and to not let go until it stops moving (because otherwise they might be injured). If they grab the wrong thing, they tend to follow through on the action and that’s when a problem can occur. The snake isn’t doing this maliciously, or because it actually wants to eat a person, and that helps a lot - because, when the action is interrupted, it’s not going to try again, it’s going to just be confused. (They are not the brightest of creatures).

Back to horses - a horse may be startled into kicking, because it’s a prey animal, and one kick to the wrong part of your body, and you’re dead. It can also become irate because of something that happened with another horse, and lash out. A second person present cannot save you from a horse kick. Horses are thus much less predictable than pythons, and the circumstances under which they will try to kill you are less obvious and controllable.

So, the answer to your question is, ‘rarely.’ The total number of deaths in the US from all captive reptiles combined is 0.5 per year. That includes venomous snakes and crocodilians, not just giant pythons! Deaths caused by large pythons are quite rare. It happens, but it’s not too terribly likely.

Horses kill roughly 100 people per year, by contrast. It may be argued that more people own horses, but I would question that this is actually true. A horse requires a barn, a sizeable amount of land, and quite expensive upkeep. It needs to be groomed regularly, costs $100 to $250 to feed each month, and must be cleaned up after every day (which is quite hard work). It has to be attended every day.

A giant python requires only a small room or walk-in closet-sized enclosure, perhaps $80 per month in food, and can be cleaned up after in an hour or so each week. Apart from making sure it has clean water, it doesn’t require daily attention. As a result, people can and do keep these animals in the heart of cities, in apartments, etc. Baby pythons are frequently seen in pet stores, and they are very long-lived animals. Properly cared for, a Burmese python may live to be 20 or even older.

So I believe there are quite likely more giant pythons being kept than there are horses, at least in countries like the US. Given that there is virtually no regulation of such things, the very low rate of accidents with these animals speaks for itself - they are not particularly dangerous.