Eastern Indigo Snake - Food Habits and Behavior

Food Habits and Behavior

The eastern indigo snake is carnivorous, like all snakes, and will eat any other small animal it can overpower. It has been known to kill its prey by wildly beating it against nearby objects. Captive specimen are frequently fed dead prey to prevent injury to the snake from this violent method of subduing its prey. Its diet has been known to include other snakes (ophiophagy), including venomous ones, as it is immune to the venom of the North American rattlesnakes. Eastern indigo snakes eat turtles, lizards, frogs, toads, a variety of small birds and mammals, and eggs.

As defensive behavior the eastern indigo snake vertically flattens its neck, hisses, and vibrates its tail. If picked up, it seldom bites.

It often will cohabit with gopher tortoises in their underground burrows, although it will settle for armadillo holes, hollow logs, and debris piles when gopher tortoise burrows can't be found. Hunters, hoping to flush out rattlesnakes, often wind up accidentally killing indigo snakes when they illegally pour gasoline into the burrows of gopher tortoises (a practice referred to as "gassing"), even though the tortoises themselves are endangered and protected.