If snakes get too hot, they can become confused and disoriented. They also get a ramped-up metabolism, causing them to have a false sense of hunger and a desire to eat the first thing they see. As captive snakes typically live alone and food isn’t routinely consistently available to them, they end up attacking themselves. Snakes may also attack themselves if they are shedding and have diminished eyesight, mistaking their tail for prey.

• Snakes eat themselves due to stress, temperature regulation issues, hypermetabolism, hunger, shedding, constrictive habitat, illness, or confusion.
• Scientists say that a snake may mistake its own tale for that of another snake. Once it begins to feed, it may not even realize that it’s consuming itself.
• This behavior typically happens when a snake is living in captivity.