Pythons, much like most other species of large snakes, have the ability to eat just about anything they might consider food. Some of them have even been known to swallow objects several times larger than their body.
That is why, when you encounter such stories, like the case of this pet python from Adelaide, Australia that somehow gobbled up a pair of tongs, you know the snake is up to something.
Meet Winston the Python, Aaron Rouse's beloved pet.
According to Rouse, he was feeding Winston some rats one day, using tongs, when his pet python suddenly lunged at the metal utensils and grabbed them without any signs of wanting to let go.
When he realized that he would not be able easily pry the tongs away, Rouse left Winston in his cage to find another solution. Once he came back, however, the python had already swallowed the utensils whole.
"I tried to prise him off the tongs but we didn't have any hope of that at all," he said.
Rouse took Winston to a local veterinarian, who was very much surprised at the snake's predicament.
"He [Rouse] said the snake had swallowed some tongs and initially I was imagining some small forceps or tweezers or something like that," Adelaide University's veterinary expert, Dr. Oliver Funnell, said in an interview.
Pet python swallows BBQ tongs to make the best xray image of all time: pic.twitter.com/dMQqFGZqDI
— Greg Koenig (@gak_pdx) May 14, 2015
While pythons are known to regurgitate what they have swallowed, Funnell said he was not certain if Winston would be able to vomit the tongs out.
"These are made out of a pressed metal, the edges are relatively sharp," the veterinarian said.
"[I decided] endoscopy was probably not a way to go because dragging the tongs out could have caused [internal] damage. The only sensible option was to do surgery."
Funnell proceeded to operate on Winston in order to extract the tongs by creating an incision on the snake's scales where the larger end of the tongs was located. This was the part farthest away from Winston's vital organs such as his lungs and heart.
"The clip was at the other end so these tongs would have been trying to expand the whole time, which would have been quite uncomfortable," Funnell said. "We were able to remove them quite easily once we got the big end out."
Winston is now happily recovering from his harrowing ordeal.
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Photo: Steve Wilson | Flickr
