Obesity is on the rise in pet snakes.
Pet snakes are being fed too much
Some reptiles only eat one big meal per year in the wild but those in captivity are often fed on a weekly basis by ill-informed owners.
This leads to significant weight gain and a shorter lifespan as pet snakes are a lot less active than those slithering free.
Mark O'Shea, professor of herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton, explained that snakes are "feast or famine" animals that regularly go long periods of time between meals.
He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "Obesity is a problem in a lot of organisms. The owners may not recognise that they're feeding their animal too much, it's less obvious in snakes because people think a fat snake is a healthy snake.
"That's not necessarily true, of course. They feed when the opportunity presents itself and then there's a very prolonged period of resting because they don't need to feed again for a long time."
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