Pet Snake Gets Surgery After Swallowing Kitchen Tongs

Many larger snakes have impressive eating skills, especially pythons, which have been known to eat goats, antelope, crocodiles and other animals whole. But a pet python in Australia nearly met his match recently.

The snake, named Winston, is now recovering after swallowing a pair of barbecue tongs. His owner, Aaron Rouse, was feeding him a rat when Winston grabbed the tongs, too. Rouse called a local veterinarian, who performed surgery on the snake, according to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio affiliate in Adelaide.

An X-ray of Winston with the tongs clearly visible inside his body.

"You could basically see the shape of the tongs, and there's a small clip that you slide forward to lock them and you could actually see the outline of that through the snake," Dr. Oliver Funnell, the veterinarian who removed the object from Winston, told 891 ABC Adelaide. "You could even see the bumps on the end of the tongs."

"I was dumbfounded," Rouse said.

Winston with the tongs inside him.