What Do Baby Snakes Eat? Discover 40 Common Foods

Snakes are famous for eating meals larger than themselves. From monkeys and deer to alligators and antelopes, their appetite knows no bounds. It’s not unheard of for them to tackle hyenas, as one African rock python demonstrated by swallowing a hefty 150-pound meal!

All snakes are 100% carnivores. However, the journey to becoming effective predators starts small. Baby snakes, or neonates, survive by feasting on much tinier prey like insects and lizards. Some of the smaller snake species even dine on meals as minuscule as ant eggs.

The more you uncover about snakes, the more they pique your curiosity. Join us as we enter the world of snake hatchlings, exploring their diets, hunting abilities, and more.

Curious about what baby snakes eat in the wild? Continue reading to learn the answers.

Key Points

• All snakes are 100% carnivores.
• Most mother snakes abandon their eggs or live young after giving birth.
• Baby snakes typically do not eat for at least a month after hatching.
• Baby snakes eat a wide range of prey, including insects, rodents, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish.
• Insects such as crickets and earthworms are common food choices.
• Baby Burmese pythons can eat larger prey like young rats or small birds.
• Baby garter snakes start with small frogs and toads as their primary diet.
• Hognose snakes are immune to toad venom.
• Hunting methods include: ambushing, chasing, constricting, and injecting venom.

What Do Baby Snakes Eat?

In the wild, baby snakes eat insects, rodents, amphibians, and more. If they can fit the prey in their mouth, there’s a good chance they’ll eat it. Common foods include small mice, earthworms, cockroaches, slugs, snails, and frogs. Young arboreal species eat small bird eggs, and baby aquatic snakes consume fish eggs. While some snakes start feeding soon after hatching, many wait at least a month to eat.

Insects

Snakelets begin life by eating the foods they can easily fit in their mouth. This makes insects a prime choice for all sorts of snake species. Along with being small, many insects provide most of the protein they need to survive. Crickets, for instance, are almost a complete protein, fueling their little bodies with essential amino acids.

Here are some of the insects young snakes eat:

• Earthworms
• Crickets
• Slugs
• Grubs
• Snails
• Scorpions
• Cockroaches
• Grasshoppers
• Ants
• Beetles
• Sowbugs
• Cucumber beetles
• Caterpillars
• Centipedes
• Flies
• Spiders
• Earwigs
• Aphids
• Silverfish

Tiny little insects help baby snakes begin a journey of growing. One that for many species, never stops. That’s right, many snake species never stop growing. This is called having epiphyseal growth or indeterminate growth, and it’s a trait other animals, like alligators share. When they’re babies snakes grow the most, and the fastest. Once they reach full maturity, their growth rate slows down substantially, but it doesn’t completely stop.

Rodents

Baby snakes, or neonates, also eat rodents that are small enough to fit in their mouth. Smaller species focus on itty bitty mice, while others are capable of eating larger prey like young rats.

Here’s a few examples of what baby snakes eat in the rodent world:

• Mice
• Rats
• Moles
• Young Prairie Dogs
• Deer mice

After hatching, Burmese pythons stay inside the safety of their eggshell. It’s not until they shed their first skin that they venture out to find tasty mice and rats to eat. These big snake babies have the advantage of being able to catch larger prey, increasing their survival rate. The larger the baby Burmese python is, the less likely it’ll become prey to wading birds or raccoons.

Amphibians

Baby garter snakes are born live, rather than hatching from eggs. They’re only 8 inches long at birth, and immediately know how to start hunting. As adults, they’ll eat a varied diet including chipmunks, fish and even other snakes. But as hatchings, they stick to earth-worm-sized meals like small frogs.

Here’s a glimpse at what baby snakes eat when it comes to amphibians:

• Toads
• Common frogs
• Pool frogs
• Tree frogs
• Little grass frogs

Sometimes called, “puff-adders” baby hognose snakes start off eating small prey like frogs. As they grow larger, they begin consuming their favorite food of all time, toads. Using their upturned nose, they dig in the dirt to find tasty toads. When the prey bloats in defense, the hognose snake uses their rear fangs to “pop” the inflated toad. They’re also believed to be immune to toad venom.

Reptiles

For some snakes, lizards are where it’s at! Some snake species, like the oriental wolf snake, primarily prey on reptiles. Lizards, geckos, and skinks are their favorite foods at birth and continue to be throughout their adult life.

Here are some of the reptiles baby snakes eat:

• Small turtles
• Young snakes
• Tiny lizards

Cottonmouths, or water moccasins, are known to dine on fish, turtles, and even other snakes. When they’re babies, cottonmouths only target prey items that will fit within their mouths, like small baby turtles. As they grow up they can graduate to eating larger meals like baby alligators.

Birds

Arboreal snakes are the ones who spend most of their lives up in the trees. The brown tree snake, paradise tree snake, Asian vine snake, and green tree python, are just a few of these tree-dwelling species. Arboreal snakes are known to dine on small birds, and bird eggs, even at a young age. Most egg-eating snakes use sharp bones in their throat that crack the egg open. After swallowing the yolk they spit out the shell.

Here are some of the types of birds baby snakes eat:

• Young bats
• Small bird eggs
• Baby wrens

Brown tree snakes have an enormous appetite. Baby snakes primarily seek out lizards. As they grow larger they start to hunt for small birds and bird eggs. Eventually, this tree-dwelling species graduates to larger prey like bats and seabirds.

Fish

Did you hear about the tentacled snakes? These flat-bodied watersnakes have tentacle-like appendages that protrude from their head. Rather than laying eggs, they bear live young. Baby tentacled snakes survive by eating a diet exclusively of fish. They grab the small fish in their jaws and then swallow them whole.

Here are some of the fish baby snakes eat:

• Minnows
• Guppies
• Fry (fish babies)
• Small bony fishes

What baby snakes eat depends on where they live and the prey available. For instance, dice snakes are a non-venomous species that live by rivers. They start off life eating prey such as fry, or baby fish. As long as the fish is small enough to swallow it’s a great candidate for becoming a meal. Dice snakes continue to have a mostly piscivorous diet into adulthood, occasionally branching out to eat frogs or toads.

Do All Snakes Eat Mice?

No, not all snakes eat mice. Garter snakes, rough green snakes, African egg-eating snakes, ribbon snakes, and certain water snakes, don’t eat mice. This is a big win for pet owners who aren’t interested in feeding with frozen or live rodents. For those who cringe at the thought of feeding insects to their slithery pals, the African egg-eating snake is a solid choice. Small African egg-eating snakes can eat quail eggs, with larger adults capable of eating chicken eggs.

Can Baby Snakes Eat Fruit?

No, snakes cannot consume fruit. All snake species are strictly carnivorous, and scientists have not discovered any snake species that includes plants in their diet. Since snakes do not naturally consume fruits or vegetables, these can be harmful to them. Their short intestinal tracts lack the ability to digest plant matter. Again, there are no herbivorous or omnivorous snakes; all of them are strict meat-eaters.

What Baby Snakes Eat: Species-Specific Overview

It’s normal for baby snakes to eat the same things that parents eat, but smaller. Rattlesnakes are a great example of this. Similar to adults, hatchlings eat rodents like mice. They just have to find ones that are small enough to fit in their mouth. Rattlesnake hatchlings also eat insects, lizards, and frogs. After striking and killing prey, they swallow their meal whole.

Baby Garter Snakes

The common garter snake is the most commonly distributed snake in North America. What begins as a tiny hatchling will eventually grow into a 3-foot-long snake!

Usually found by the water, baby garter snakes are semi-aquatic and have a big appetite! They enjoy a variety of foods like slugs, worms, leeches, frogs, toads, and even fish eggs. They really like catching easy-to-eat earthworms, and slurping down tiny fish such as guppies and minnows. Tadpoles are also on their menu too, as they’re a good source of protein and can be found in nearby waters. As they grow larger they’ll also eat mice, rabbits, and birds.

Baby Corn Snakes

In captivity, baby corn snakes primarily eat rodents, such as pinkie mice, as their main diet. Pinkie mice are newborn mice that are an ideal size for baby corn snakes. They also lack fur, which can be less irritating for baby snakes. As they grow older, corn snakes can transition to larger mice with fur.

Wild baby corn snakes have a more varied diet. As opportunistic hunters, they consume frogs, earthworms, crickets, grasshoppers, tadpoles, small rodents, and geckos. As they become fully mature, they shy away from eating insects. Unlike many snake species, adult corn snakes dislike bugs.

Baby Pine Snakes

Chicken snakes are a group of nonvenomous snakes, like pine snakes. These snakes have earned their nickname because they like to eat small animals like chickens. However, poultry isn’t the only thing on their menu.

Young chicken snakes start by eating insects, then move on to frogs, lizards, and small rodents as they grow. They need a lot of protein to support their quickly growing bodies. These young snakes can grow quite long, sometimes more than 7 feet. After they grow up, Florida pine snakes eat mice, squirrels, rats, and rabbits.

Baby Milk Snakes

Milk snakes are creatures of the night who change what they eat as they get older. People once mistakenly thought they liked drinking cow’s milk, which is how they got their name. However, just like all other snake types, milk snakes only crave meat. And since they’re good swimmers and climbers, they can target different kinds of prey.

When they’re babies, they stick to easy-to-catch meals like worms, slugs, small lizards, crickets, and frogs. If a baby milk snake is big enough, it might even eat smaller snakes. Milk snakes are famous for eating venomous snakes, which helps keep their numbers in check.

In captivity, young milk snakes often start with pinkie mice. As they get older, they start eating rats, mice, birds, and even other snakes.

How Baby Snakes Learn to Catch and Eat Prey

Snakes use various methods to find food, like sensing heat with special pits on their faces, feeling vibrations, and using their tongues to “taste” the air. They can either actively hunt or patiently wait for prey to come by. The bigger snakes, such as pythons, boas, and vipers, often prefer waiting for their meals.

Here are some of the different types of snakes:

• Pythons
• Boas
• Colubrids
• Vipers
• Elapids

These snake classes are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more specific species and subfamilies within these groups. And every species has their own way of doing things to survive. Let’s look at how baby copperheads hunt in comparison to baby trinket snakes.

How Baby Copperheads Lure Prey

Eastern copperheads, are a type of pit viper that rely on heat-sensing pits to find prey. These venomous snakes will inject their prey before swallowing them whole. A skill they practice even as babies. At first, they start off eating caterpillars and other easy-to-catch insects. But once they’re big enough, these snake babies have a special trick for luring prey.

Copperhead babies love fishing for frogs and salamanders. They sit motionless and flick their bright yellow tail tips like a caterpillar. This “caudal luring” gets the prey to come just close enough to be within striking distance.

As helpful as the yellow tail lure is, it’s not a tactic juveniles can use forever. After about a year, their tail color fades, and this behavior usually stops. Juvenile copperheads eat insects, frogs, salamanders, and small reptiles, while adult copperheads hunt baby rabbits, birds, rats, and more.

Trinket Hatchlings Constrict Prey

Trinket snakes, which are a type of colubrid snake, were the focus of a study led by Rita S. Mehta at the University of California. Researchers wanted to figure out how these nonvenomous snakes learn the art of constriction, especially when they have to deal with larger prey.

The study discovered that baby snakes that had access to bigger prey got better at hunting. This means that experience with larger meals helps baby trinket snakes become skilled hunters. They use that first experience as a foundation for taking on larger prey in the future.

What about the juvenile snakes that only had smaller prey? These hatchlings were still able to improve their constricting skills, just not as much as the ones that got the bigger meals.

Summary of What Baby Snakes Eat