Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I put a 30 to 35 inch eastern milk snake in with my 5ft black rat snake for about 25 minuts and when I came back the Milk was gone?? Has any one ever had a black rat snake eat another snake before? I know milk snakes and King snakes will eat snakes but I have never had a rat snake do this.I have been keeping snakes for over 20 years and this is a first for me.

I had a gater snake eat a scarlet snake once. The scarlet snake was much smaller than the rat snake. I wonder is size difference and being a different snake had anything to do with it..?

Most colubrids are cannibals and black rats are very tenacious eaters (I raised a couple from eggs to subadults). I'd believe it did eat your milk, though some colubrid snakes still may be hesitant to eat others when captive with other species even. Eastern Milks are pretty good at escaping as well, so that is a possibility; if I was in an enclosure with another me, I'd be trying a little harder to escape. Might want to check the snake's feces ...or your own shoes and small, heated spaces.
-Sean

I know that the rat eat it just by the increase in girth .I would have rather it escaped believe me.

Why would you put a milk snake which you know is a cannabilistic species in with a black rat snake? In this case, however, I am surprised that the rat snake was the one to eat the milk snake. Rat snakes will take other snakes, but very seldom when comparing them to king snakes, milk snakes, and other cannabilistic snakes. Don't put 2 snakes together when you know one might eat the other.

The rat snake was 4 to 5 times the size of the milk in girth and almost double in length. I have had this rat lockup with milks in the past several times with no problems. It have been fine as long as the rat was much larger than the milk and that has always been the case.There is no possible way the milk could have eaten the rat snake in this case.I would never have put the two tegether if the milk was even close in size.This all happened in less than ten minutes time.The strange thing is that I have never had a rat snake eat any other snake.I have had juvi copper heads eat another copper head.like you said every one knows that kings and milks will do this but not rats.

Milk snakes technically are rat snakes, and vice versa. Some milks are actually called red rat snakes. So...yeah...I think your milk is gone. Sad day. Why would you house the two together, anyway?

no,milks are not rat snakes....'red rat',btw refers to corn snakes...and rat snakes do not usually eat other snakes.but,to my main point,i once housed a subadult black rat with an adult corn(again,a rat snake),and the black rat got eaten.rare but it does happen.and yeah i was initially thinking the milk may have simply escaped too.but you sound pretty sure that is not what happened.
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"with head raised regally,and gazing at me with lidless eyes,he seemed to question with flicks of his long forked tongue my right to trespass on his territory" Carl Kauffeld

touche. You're right, of course. I always get the two confused...

had a case here in VA where a black rat was observed consticting and killing another black rat. Both were adults. The one didn't eat the other because I think it was freightened and quickly crawled off.
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