Dermatophagy in a Cobra

Dermatophagy is the eating of a shed skin. This odd behavior has been noted in a number of snakes. I did pick up a paper written on this subject, but have currently misplaced it. There's no specific cause, as far as I know, although it may just happen when a scent is picked up from the shed skin, creating a feeding response.

The pictures below were taken by Sean Trimbach from his personal collection. If I remember correctly, this is a juvenile B&W Malaysian spitter. No further problems were encountered.

Please respect the copyright and do not reproduce without permission.