Are small rats too stupid to bite?

[FkNdRk]

I've noticed that all the rats I feed off never bite even if they have the chance. Feeding my butter female today, she wrapped around the lower half of the rat giving it free reign to get nibbled on. The rats mouth was pressed against her, so I quickly grabbed the rats ear and pulled it's head back (yes I know, i need to start prekilling my rat. that has to be the most suck death) and realized it wasnt even trying to bite. So are they just to dumb at that age? Rat weighed about 87g. Just curious.
Thanks

[Inknsteel]

No, they're not too dumb. Rats are actually very intelligent animals. You just got lucky that it didn't try to bite your snake, but you did the right thing by being prepared to assist in the event of a bite. I don't think there's any reason to prekill your rats if you're supervising feedings like you are. Just be prepared to push the rats mouth away from the snake if he gets a bad strike. (I use feeding tongs or a pen or whatever I have handy in that situation)...

[RobNJ]

Just because a rat can bite doesn't mean they will bite...I keep a decent eye on everything during feedings, and have seen hundreds of strikes where it seemed that the rat could have bitten but did not.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Snatch one of them up suddenly, and find out.

[VEXER19]

I feed live mice and they are bite happy so I always have my tongs ready to stop the bite if needed. Today was one of those days where I stuck the tip of the tongs in the mouse's mouth and it was chomping away at the metal tongs. I do this every feed and even watch the hind legs incase they kick all crazy and pull on the tail to stop that problem. IMO if you feed live you better alway be prepared to help until it stops moving.

[FkNdRk]

Yeah, I refuse to feed live mice. I gave one to me little colombian, damn thing chewed the hell out of my babies lip. She had a nice purple bump there for a week or two. She gets f/t mice or rat fuzzies only now.

[EvergladesExotics]

My theory as to why it's relatively rare to have live rodents bite is the act of a snake feeding... think about it... in a split secont you're squeezed, crushed, between say two cars. They keep squeezing tighter and tighter and the pressure in your body is building. Instead of trying to cut the cars away, you would probably be trying to pull yourself out. The sheer shock value buys the snake several seconds usually. However, although it may be uncommon, it is still very possible for any rodent with teeth to injure a snake.


*note:

that sounds very grim for the rat but in fact it is a quick death. 99% of the time the rodent will pass out from the pressure before actually suffocating. much of the movement that we see is post mortum nerve firings rather than actual struggling.

[FrankieCarbone]

also the size, my 800+ bps who will only eat mice (20-30g) after the strike and coil, the mouse is dead in less than 10 seconds, seriously, its to the point that once i actually pulled the mouse out of my BP's way when he was trying to find the head just to double check it wasent breathing, i could;t believe how quick the mouse died...