Did you notice how some times you see your pet snake mouth opens really wide? It can look like they are yawning. But really, do snake yawn? and what do they mean? Are they tired?
When snakes open mouths to yawn, it can mean many things but definitely not because they are tired.
Reading: Why do snakes open their mouths
- They yawn when they are getting ready to eat, or after eating, they are realigning their jaw.
- They yawn when they are picking up chemicals in the air that provide information about the environment.
- Or they can also yawn because they are feeling ill.
It’s important to figure out why your snake is yawning because if your snake is sick, the sooner you recognize the symptoms, the greater the chance that you may save your pet’s life.
We will elaborate more below on the reasons for yawning in cold blooded creatures like the snake.
But before that let’s look at..
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Fun fact: How Wide Can a Snake’s Mouth Open?
You’ve probably noticed that snakes can open their mouth really wide — up to a 150-degree angle. Think about that: 180 degrees equals a straight line! There’s a good reason that nature designed snakes’ mouths to open wide: their jaw must be able to swallow their prey whole.
Some people mistakenly believe that snakes can unhinge their jaws, but that’s not what’s happening. Snakes can open their mouths wide because their jaws are two separate pieces of bone that are only attached by stretchy ligaments that hold the lower jaw in place.
These ligaments stretch to allow snakes to open their mouths extraordinarily wide to swallow animals as large as a goat or an alligator (in the case of a python). An anaconda can eat a human being.
Understanding snake yawning or mouth gaping
In order to understand the reasons snakes open their mouths to yawn or mouth gaping, it helps to understand what a yawn is — in terms of humans and other species.
There are several theories regarding the human yawn. The most recent theory is that yawning increases blood flow while at the same time cooling the blood with air that is a lower temperature than the body’s temperature.
If this theory is correct, it illustrates why snakes do not yawn when they’re tired. Humans are warm-blooded, so it makes sense that we may yawn when we’re too warm to cool down our blood. But snakes are cold-blooded animals, so they would not yawn for this same reason.
What makes yawning even more confusing is that different species apparently yawn for different reasons. For example, fish yawn to clear the water from their gills, or in some cases, as a show of aggression.
Why Do Snakes Yawn?
There are three reasons why they open their mouths.
#1 To realign their lower jaw after eating or as a warm-up before eating.
Snakes do not have the kind of teeth necessary to chew, they have to open their mouths wide to take in their prey whole.
Before they eat, they need to get ready their jaw. Just like a warm-up stretching exercise before the real deal.
After they eat or swallow their prey whole, they also have to “yawn” to realign their jaw.
#2 They use their mouths to get information on their surroundings
Snakes may open their mouths and flick out their tongue to take in chemical particles of scent that give them information about their surrounding environment.
#3 Sign of illness or diseases
Snakes may yawn because they are ill. In some cases, a snake will open its mouth wide because it’s having trouble breathing through its nose.
Snakes Open Their Mouths Before and After Eating
If you’ve just dropped food into your snake’s habitat, and you see your snake opening its mouth, it’s getting ready to swallow its dinner.
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If you haven’t delivered a meal, it may be that your snake is trying to tell you something by yawning: I’m hungry! Feed me!
A snake will usually need three to five days to digest their food, depending on the temperature of their body, which changes in relation to their environment. The ideal environmental temperature ranges from 82° to 86°F. If it’s been five days since you last fed your snake, your snake is yawning because it wants to eat.
Snakes have to open their mouths wide to swallow their prey whole because they don’t have the kind of teeth that can chew. They have fangs, but not molars or incisors. Snakes open their mouth wide in what appears to be a yawn in order to suck large prey in using their uniquely hooked teeth and the powerful muscles of their body.
What snakes do have to help them eat is an upper and lower jaw that are only connected by ligaments that stretch. This allows snakes to open their jaws extremely wide. Some people mistakenly believe that snakes can dislocate their jaw, but that is not the case. Their upper and lower jaw are not connected by bone.
However, after eating a meal, you may see your snake with its mouth open because it’s realigning its lower jaw to a more comfortable placement. Snakes also yawn after eating a meal if they have taken in too much air, so the yawn is essentially a snake’s way of burping.
Why Do Snakes Randomly Open Their Mouths?
A snake may open its mouth in an act of detection. By opening the mouth, snakes receive chemical information about their environment.
Snakes receive sensory information from their environment mostly through smell, and they have more than one way of receiving scent. The snake’s nose handles scents that are carried by air.
Snakes also receive scent through an organ on the roof of their mouths called the Jacobson’s Organ or the vomeronasal organ. This organ is designed to detect non-volatile chemical substances or substances that do not travel through the air, in a process called “chemoreception” that allows snakes to respond to chemical stimuli in the environment.
A snake may yawn to expose the vomeronasal organ to chemical clues about their surroundings. They use their tongue to “taste” the air by capturing particles of scent. The tongue then transports those particles to the Jacobson’s Organ.
This organ detects chemical odors that are carried by moisture. However, if they do smell an air-borne substance through their nostrils, it triggers the snake to open its mouth and flick its tongue out to capture any corresponding scent carried by moisture.
Since snakes have poor vision and minimal (if any) hearing, it makes sense that they have two organs to detect odors.
If it looks to you like your snake is tasting the air, you are partially right. The snake will open its mouth so its tongue can sample the air. The tongue then brings the chemical particles in to the Jacobson’s Organ on the roof of the mouth. The organ can then translate the chemicals to alert the snake to prospective prey, threats, or mates in the area.
Is a Snake with an Open Mouth a Sign of Disease?
The worst-case scenario — especially if you see your snake yawning excessively — is that your snake is yawning because it’s sick.
The most common illnesses are respiratory infections, including pneumonia, and Infectious Stomatitis or Mouth Rot.
Respiratory Tract Infections (RTI) are caused by bacteria in the lungs. One of the symptoms is a snake that breathes with its mouth open wide.
Respiratory infections generally happen because of inadequate or incorrect environmental conditions: the environment is too cold, too wet, or the temperature is kept at a single temperature rather than the thermal gradient (or range of temperature) snakes require to maintain proper health. Low temperature, too high humidity, and poor nutrition makes snakes more vulnerable to respiratory infections and the bacteria that causes pneumonia.
Other factors that make snakes more vulnerable to RTI are improper care, such as an irregular feeding schedule, a dirty enclosure, or anything that creates a stressful social or physical environment.
Any respiratory illness will make it more difficult for your snake to breathe. In this case, your snake is repeatedly yawning because it’s trying to get air into its lungs.
Respiratory illness is often accompanied by a bubbling discharge coming from the nose. You might see an excess of foamy saliva and the snake breathing through an open mouth.
When Does a Snake Yawning Indicate Pneumonia?
Pneumonia and other respiratory infections in snakes are frequently caused by bacteria. A snake with pneumonia will have other symptoms besides frequent yawning. Signs that your snake has pneumonia include:
- Mouth held open when breathing
- Lethargy
- Discharge around the nose
- Rubbing the nose on the walls of the cage to clear any discharge
- Bubbling from the mouth as it tries to breathe
- Mucous on the tongue, which makes the forked tongue appear to fuse
- Unusual sounds while it’s trying to breathe, like a crackling or wheezing sound
- Swelling in parts of its body
- Refusing to eat
- Weight loss
- Keeping the head elevated when restin
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Respiratory infections can originate from a number of different places in a snake: the nasal passages, trachea, lungs, or the lung’s air sacs. The reason snakes yawn when they are congested is because snakes don’t have a diaphragm, which means they cannot cough. If their lungs fill up with infected fluid, such as pus and mucous, it makes it extremely difficult to breathe, and they cannot cough to expel the fluid.
A snake with an RTI will often raise its head and open its mouth wide to try and breathe. By raising its head, the fluid in the lungs sinks to the bottom with gravity, making it easier for air to get into the top of the lungs through an open mouth.
When a snake keeps yawning with its head raised, it is a strong sign that the snake is ill.
When Does a Snake with an Open Mouth Indicate Mouth Rot?
There are other diseases that may cause your snake to keep opening its mouth excessively. One of these diseases is a bacterial infection called Infectious Stomatitis, or Mouth Rot. Mouth Rot is fairly common among captive snakes.
It happens when bacteria enters an open wound or scratch in the mouth. This bacteria infects the gums and mouth, and it may even spread to the intestinal tract. One of the signs of Mouth Rot is when a snake frequently yawns and/or rubs its mouth against something.
Mouth Rot is usually indicative of an infection elsewhere in the body, a compromised immune system, or frequent or constant stress.
When is a Snake Yawning a Sign of Inclusion Body Disease?
A particular type of yawning may indicate a viral infection called Inclusion Body Disease, or IBD. IBD is a progressive disease that is thought to have originated with captive snakes called boids, which are boa constrictor and python species, but IBD has been known to affect other snakes too, including vipers. It is highly contagious — and it is always fatal.
There is no vaccine or cure for IBD. The infected snake often dies from related illnesses they catch because of a compromised immune system.
Because IBD is so contagious, it’s imperative to spot the symptoms as soon as possible to avoid spreading it to other snakes. The symptoms vary, but they may include:
- Mouth-gaping. The snake will open its mouth wide in a yawn, but keep it open for an extended period. It looks similar to what snakes do when they are having trouble breathing.
- Corkscrewing. The snake curls its body into an unusually tight spiral or corkscrew shape.
- Stargazing. This can occur in tandem with corkscrewing. The snake’s head and neck stay at an unnatural angel so that the snake is staring upward.
- Central Nervous System Symptoms. This includes the head trembling and pupils (the dark oval or round shape in the center of the eye) that are not the same size.
- Loss of motor coordination. The snake will appear to have difficulty moving and righting its body if it turns over.
- Paralysis. This happens as a result of neurological symptoms, especially in young boas.
- Disorientation. The snake will appear confused about its location.
- Inability to strike. The snake will be unable to strike or constrict its prey.
- Vomiting. The snake will either throw up its food, or it will refuse to eat.
Unfortunately, some snakes (usually boas) fail to show any symptoms. These snakes are “asymptomatic carriers,” but they still have a fatal disease. In pythons, IBD often progresses more rapidly than in boas.
Since there is no treatment for IBD, and the disease is highly contagious and always fatal, euthanasia is always recommended. Keeping a snake alive with life support, such as hydration and force feeding, only prolongs its pain and suffering.
It is also recommended that after you euthanize a snake with IBD, you quarantine any new snakes, particularly boids, for a period of three to six months.
Finding Out Reasons Why My Snake’s Mouth Is Opened?
As noted, there are several reasons why your snake may be yawning. There’s no reason not to say, “Oh, how cute! Rumplesnakeskin is yawning.” Just make sure to take another look.
Don’t panic. There are plenty of reasons your snake may be yawning that doesn’t require a trip to the snake doctor.
Observe your snake around the time you usually feed it. Does it yawn in anticipation? What about after it has eaten? If your snake commonly yawns before and/or after eating, and not often at other times, you have nothing to worry about.
What about any changes in your snake’s environment? Have you moved the tank? Have you introduced a new landscape element into its environment? What about something different on your body when you’ve handled your snake?
If your snake yawns at these instances, it’s just checking out the environment. It could be any little change. Maybe you used a different soap, or a new perfume, or different laundry detergent. If the yawning is followed by the tongue flicking, you have nothing to worry about either.
However, if your snake exhibits other behaviors, like the symptoms described above that are signs of disease, a visit to the veterinarian is warranted. If it turns out to be a respiratory infection or Mouth Rot, your vet will prescribe medication, and most likely, your snake will recover.
If your snake has contracted IBD, there will be nothing you can do to save it. This is a good reason to always wash your hands between handling different snakes, if you have more than one.
Keep your snake’s habitat clean, provide an appropriate thermal gradient and good nutrition, and your snake’s yawn will remain cute — and healthy.
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