β
We have already mentioned the advantage to snakes that feed on very large items of prey of not needing to feed very frequently, typically no more than once every week or two, and often they can survive without any food for several months. To save energy in between meals, snakes reduce their metabolic activity, and the temporarily unused digestive organs shrink. But within only six hours of taking in food, a python, for example, increases its metabolic rate some sixfold, and after two or three days organs like the small intestine, liver, pancreas, and kidney have doubled in size, and active digestion is taking place.
β
β
T.S. Kemp (Reptiles: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions))