Do snakes' teeth grow back???

[slim6y]

Hey all,

Just had an interesting thought digressing from other posts...

I was once told that if your pet snake bites you just take it and dont try to pull away because you could accidentally take thier teeth out.

So the question as the topic suggests, are snakes like their distant rellies the crocs where teeth are continually renewed... Or... once they're gone they need to be heading to the dentures?

Is it the same for venomous and non-venomous snakes?

Thanks for curing my curiosity...

 

[Retic]

RE: Do snakes

Yes they routinely lose teeth when feeding or if the bite something and a tooth catches in shirt material for instance but they do regrow continuously.

 

[slim6y]

RE: Do snakes

wow, that's a cool bit of info... so that's the same in my spotted python then? and all snakes?

 

[Retic]

RE: Do snakes

Yes it applies to all snakes.

 

[slim6y]

RE: Do snakes

and I just found this on the animal planet website... Snake teeth are both acrodont (attached to the bone) and polyphydont (able to grow back when lost), and a snake may have several sets of teeth throughout its lifetime. This is necessary, because teeth are often lost while feeding.

Im learning - a book of knowledge this internet is!

 

[Retic]

RE: Do snakes

It's a shame we don't have the same ability really.

 

[slim6y]

RE: Do snakes

think of the saving on dentistry... just have to bit into something to remove the rotten tooth and bingo... a new one appears... hmmm.. we could do with that gene that's for sure! Plus I would like to be able to taste air particles the way a snake does too... but maybe have sight like a hawke and hearing like a barn owl... oh this is an entirely new post.... hehe

 

[AustHerps]

RE: Do snakes

It was only a week ago i was removing 2 teeth from the back of my hand lol

 

[Retic]

You have teeth growing out the back of your hand ? You should get that seen to.

 

[slim6y]

LMAO... ahhh.. that would be easy to catch prey too... yes.. teeth in hand!

 

[AustHerps]

Unfortunately i had to remove them apparently they were against occupational health and safety rules at work

 

[slim6y]

depends if you're a butcher or not i guess

 

[nvenm8]

Yes they do, i am glad as one of mine just left a heap of them in the back of my hand :x

 

[slim6y]

is it a quick replacement? can they still eat succesfully with thier limited remaining teeth? what sort of snake was it biting you nvenm8 and AustHerps? Tell us the story of why you got bit

 

[AustHerps]

It was a darwin yearling. End of story lol. Nothing really exciting.

Cheers,
Austy.

 

[Retic]

Don't worry, they have PLENTY of teeth which you will find out the first time one grabs you :lol:

is it a quick replacement? can they still eat succesfully with thier limited remaining teeth? what sort of snake was it biting you nvenm8 and AustHerps? Tell us the story of why you got bit