Most serpents are not what you ’d call make out diners . If it ’s warm or smell like food , it might be fair game to a thirsty python . Such open - mindedness is a double - edge sword because , as a dandy many veterinarians can evidence , the limbless reptiles will sometimes devour thing that were never meant to be ingest . Here are eight of the wildest items to have ever turn up in a Hydra ’s abdomen .
1. BARBECUE TONGS
One day in 2015 , Queensland man Aaron Rouse was feeding a rat to Winston , his favourite Woma python . of a sudden , thing got out of hired hand . With surprising heartiness , the two - twelvemonth - onetime Snake River grabbed cargo hold of both the rodent and Rouse ’s eating pair of tongs . After Winston refused to surrender the forceps , his proprietor walked away and go away them inside the cage , assuming they ’d be released . or else , once the python end his supper , itate the utensilsfor afters .
“ I was dumbfounded , ” said Rouse . He immediately reached out to Dr. Oliver Funnell , a vet who teach at Adelaide University , who was equallyflabbergastedby Winston ’s predicament . “ Through the skin you could feel the bumps on the terminal of the tongs , and at the other finish the relatively square flexible joint could be seen obviously protruding , ” he later told the jam . Rather than let Winston hear to regurgitate the convenience , Funnell ’s medical team put the ophidian under the knife . Rouse ’s darling darling made a full convalescence .
2. A CERAMIC EGG
“ The ballock smelled like poulet , ” Verona , Pennsylvania occupant Alan Hollingsworthexplained . In 2014 , Hollingsworth ’s neighbor , Al Filat , went out to inspect his chicken coop when he came upon an uninvited guest . Coiled up inside the hutch was a large black git Snake River with a suspicious clod in its middle . A hardy constrictor , this species is eff to supplement its common dieting of hoot and small mammalian with the casual egg . Unfortunately , Filat ’s Snake River had accidentally eat a large , ceramic egg that was left in the coop . ( Imitation eggs are often used in the chicken business as a mean value of encouraging hens to start laying their own . )
Hollingsworth submit the serpent to a nearby animal tax shelter , where it underwent surgery andsurvivedthe sticky ordeal .
3. GOLF BALLS
Chicken breeders who ca n’t afford ceramic eggs will sometimes use golf balls or else . These portray a veridical problem to wild serpents , which be given to slip the white , dimpled spheres for bird testicle . Back in 2012 , kind - hearted South Carolinians rushed a haplessyellow rat snaketo a veterinarian after it had gobble up one Fannie Farmer ’s Titleist - brand bollock . Earlier that year , an Australian carpet python was wedge to endure a similar operation when it engulfed not one buttwogolf ballock .
4. A TEDDY BEAR
Last March , a phratry living on Queensland , Australia ’s Gold Coast received quite a shock when a six - and - a - half - ft carpet python slither across their backyard . terrify , they grabbed their pet hot dog and evacuated the premises . Left behind in the melee was a teddy bear named “ Ted , ” who happened to be the pooch ’s favorite chew miniature . Defenseless and cover in dog spit , poor Ted reek like an easy meal to the python , whoswallowed Ted whole .
soon thereafter , local snake catcher Tony Harrison apprehended the intruder . The snake was lucky enough to receive aesculapian attention , where an X - beam scan confirmed Ted ’s fortune . Through an emergency mental process , Dr. Matthew Hollindaleextracted the toy , much to the joy of its canine owner . The python , too , was save — and give 15 stitches as a souvenir . Since then , the reptile has been give up back into the wild .
5. LIGHT BULBS
utter about a light meal : In 1986 , a four - foot true pine snake pass through the backyard of Lynn and Carman Clark in Gainesville , Florida . The Clarks were chicken - keepers who illuminated their coop with15 - W light bulbs . “ When the medulla oblongata burn out , we just throw them onto the yard , ” Lynn would later admit . One pitiable snake happened upon two of the category ’s discarded bulbs , thought that they looked like chicken testis , and feed them .
The reptilian was soon spotted by the Clarks , who could n’t help but notice two unnatural - looking bulges come out from its sides . So the couple brought the snake in the grass to a vet at nearby Santa Fe Community College . From there , it was transfer to the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida , where the bulb were take away in a 45 - second process .
Elliott Jacobson , a wildlife medicine specialist at the university , take note that if the critter had n’t undergone surgery , the glass would ’ve shatter inside its stomach and kill him . Instead , the Snake River was set free after three hebdomad of observation . “ His future tense expect undimmed indeed , ” Jacobson quip .
6. A TOWEL
In 2014 , a red - tailed boa constrictor known as “ Killer ” made headline after his proprietor , an unknown reptile hobbyist in the Tampa Bay country , course him a live squealer . As it was being engulfed , the gnawer grabbed delay of atowelthat was lining the bottom of the cage . Killer then unintentionally swallowed the towelandhis intended supper in one big gulp . “ The towel came with the rat , ” said Julia Shakeri , the vet whose surgical team get on to save the boa .
7. PART OF A CAR
Last yr , a distaff brown tree snake go down an outside barbecue political party in Black River , Queensland . An animal control pro was called over to relocate the gently venomous reptile . At some point , it was key that the Hydra had ahard , golf - musket ball sized massnestled inside of its stomach area . Doctor at the Townsville Veterinarian Clinic agreed to remove this closed book object . Bizarrely , an X - ray revealed that it was a round , rubber Dubya — which is normally found on the contortion stripe of an automobile . “ The Hydra was probably seek to eat a frog that was sit down on it , ” theorized surgeon Linda Schiemer . Those of you with inviolable stomachs can learn a telecasting of the clinic ’s ( successful ) operationhere .
8. A QUEEN-SIZED ELECTRIC BLANKET
Up in Ketchum , Idaho , a Burmese python named Houdini once became something of aminor renown . The 12 - foot snake was kept by snake fancy Carl Beznoska , who endeared his python to kid throughout the biotic community by bringing it to local schools for educational visit .
In 2006 , Beznoska noticed that Houdini looked a chip thicker than usual . Moreover , the queen - sized electric cover with which he ’d been heating the snake ’s enclosure had mysteriously go away . Houdini was taken to a vet ’s post where , lo and behold , an X - electron beam affirm that the overzealous python had eat his particular mantle — cord , control box , and all . In all probability , the massive serpent mistook the heated plane for warm - blooded quarry . Thankfully , his dietetical mischance was n’t fatal ; MD were able to draw in out the mantle in an operation that called for making an 18 - inch prick across Houdini ’s belly .
