Sean Mickelson, of Enid, Okla., for his question:

HOW DO SNAKES DIGEST THEIR FOOD?

For snakes, the business of eating is hardly a fun¬filled activity. On the contrary, most snakes are deadly serious about their meals, especially since each meal may have to last several weeks or even months. There is even recorded evidence that certain species of snake can go as long as two years without so much as a tiny snack.

Among the most remarkable aspects of the snake is the way it eats. Because its needle sharp teeth are ill designed for chewing, it must swallow its meal whole. This would seem to present a problem, since often the morsel is considerably largerthan the snake's jaws. Actually, though, no problem exists, for the jaws are equipped with loose hinges, somewhat like the slip joint of a pair of pliers. Then, too, there is a flexible center cartilage between the right and left halves, top and bottom. The backward pointing teeth hook into the prey, and the snake "walks" its way into its meal by alternately advancing left and right jaws.

Snakes eat all sorts of things, such as rodents, lizards, frogs, and toads, insects, fish and even other snakes. The really large snakes dine on small mammals. Some species dine regularly on eggs, and the African snakes of the genus Dasypeltis will eat nothing else.

Although a healthy snake can go without food for a long time, most snakes eat regularly and often, storing up extra food as fat.

Once a meal has been swallowed, the snake's powerful digestive juices start their work. Digestion'may take a long time, perhaps even a matter of weeks, depending on such factors as the size of the snake, the size and composition of the meal and the weathery temperature. As a general rule, the warmer the temperature, the faster the digestive process.

Egg eating snakes regurgitate the shells. If they come upon several tasty eggs, they can eat them all. What's more, they don't waste valuable energy digesting useless material. A snake that has stuffed itself with a large animal may take a long nap while digestion takes place. Like all coldblooded animals, snakes have very slow metabolisms. Their cells die and are replaced by new cells much more slowly than those in humans. And they use energy much more slowly, often sleeping most of the day. This accounts for their ability to live long weeks or months without eating.

Snakes tend to arouse fear and dread in most people, but they are remarkable creatures worthy of our admiration. Being armless, legless and wingless, they have nevertheless survived beautifully under what we would consider insurmountable handicaps.