· Snakes are terrestrial so many changes occur in their oral glands. The changes in these glands aid the process of swallowing prey.
· The salivary glands in snakes include the palatine, lingual, sublingual and the labial gland. These glands help soften the pray for swallowing. The glands are on either side of the head and neck.
· Inside the mouth of this snake is the buccal cavity, which leads to the esophagus of the snake.
· The esophagus of a snake is long and can cover up to half the length of its body. The esophagus of the snake has more folds then other reptiles, which allows them to swallow their prey large.
· The food moves from the esophagus to the stomach. The stomach is a large j-shaped organ, which is where the majority of the digestion occurs.
· The food passes through the pyloric valve and into the small intestines, which is a small narrow tube where the absorbance of nutrients happen.
· The small intestines are divided into three parts; the duodenum, the ileum, and the jejunum.
· The liver primarily functions to excrete nitrogenous wastes, strong nutrients, produces bile and excretes enzymes into the duodenum part of the small intestines.
· The pancreas produces insulin, glycogen and digestive enzymes like lipases and secretes them into the duodenum.
· The caecum is at the junction of the small and large intestines. The large intestines is the least muscular structure and has the most thin-wall structure of the system.
· The rate of the digestion is dependent of body temperature because they are cold-blooded animals.