Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my first time posting on this forum so I figured i'd make my first post an interesting one. I witnessed some very strange and interesting behavior with my African rock python on Valentine's Day. First off, my Afrock is about a year old and has a very good temperment, he's never struck at me but he has a voracious appetite. He just finished shedding the day before Valentine's Day so I figured it was time to feed him, I threw in a medium rat and went about my day, the next morning I went to check on him and the rat was cuddled up with him next to the heat lamp. I was pretty shocked and figured it was a coincidence it happened to be Valentine's day and "love was in the air" and blah blah blah. They hung out for about a good week, I even had to feed the damn rat and figured they were gonna be best pals from now on. Eventually about after a good week or so the snake got tired of the rat and ate him but I still think it makes for an interesting story as i've never heard of a situation such as this one. I guess everyone needs a friend once in a while.

So if I'm reading this right you left a live rat in with a snake for a week???? If this is the case this is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. I can't even begin to say how stupid of a thing that was to do. It is dumb enough to feed live prey but to leave it in unatteded for a week? what were you thinking? Please tell me this post was a joke or something.
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"We don't inherate the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children"

No sense in being hostile. Yes, it was a bad idea to keep a live, gnawing, dangerous rodent in with a snake but unless you explain things to people they'll never learn. Rodents quickly can turn from prey to predator I have witnessed many mice and rats that chewed snakes up, sometimes fatally, if left unchecked even overnight. Next time if you offer your snake food and it doesn't eat remove it in a couple hours and keep it in a separate tank with food and water. Re-offer the rodent a couple days later when your snake may be hungry. Snakes along with most other animals do not make friends. They are purely instinctual, by not killing the rat your snake was simply not hungry.

I usually feed him once every 3 days, at this point it had been a week since his last meal so the was no excuse for him not to eat the rat.

Well first off, please explain what's so "dumb" about feeding live prey, they don't sell F/T feeders in my area, nor do I want to go through the trouble of having to wait to defrost them and then convince my snake to eat it. You obviously have your own very strong opinion on feeding your animals and that's fine but don't force it on me. Second off, i'm not a child, do you honestly think I beleived it would be fine to leave the rat in there until it began to get hungry and start chewing on my snake? Not only did I put food in every day for the rat but even if he attempted to bite my afrock he would have surely been eated much faster. Next time try and get facts before you start accusing people of stupidity.