That was the last time! I hope...

[withonor]

Let me start off by saying that I love all animals equally. Actually I take that back, I love all animals minus one species equally. Homo-sapiens I don't like very much on average. Anyway, I have a dog (Micha), a cat (Ping), a bunny (Tater), and two birds (Ice and Scatter) currently (Meaning 5 days ago).

Late Monday night I became the proud owner of a ball python (Zeek). Really the primary reason this happened is because everything was free. Turns out it wasn't because I had to spend 60 (overpriced) dollars to bring his habitat up to a minimum on the first day, but I was happy to do it. I feel kind of racist saying this but this is the first time I am responsibly taking on ownership of a reptile (like it's something different and not equal to a mammal). I caught a lot of wild lizards and snakes as a kid and brought them home, though I don't think I kept any of them through an entire lifespan. In general reptiles require different living conditions than mammals and what I've had around the house was always geared towards mammals making a reptile a nearly new financial endeavor putting it aside till later (indefinately).

Zeek came to me on an empty stomach, having been about two weeks since he last ate (he was being given a -large-small rat every two weeks by the previous owner). Judging by how people on this forum feed their snakes, I think he's been hungry for two years. While I was buying things for his tank I was looking for a rat to feed him also, no luck. That night I found a mom+pop store nearby that had good reviews to get one. I went there the next day and bought a small rat for $3.99 which seems high compared to what some of you say you pay but at this point I feel like I just need to get him something and I can figure out a good source before the next feeding. They taped it up in a brown cardboard box. I bring it home and Zeek's in his hide so I don't want to disturb him and I go to work.

When I get home (keep in mind this is about 4am yesterday morning) he was half way out of his hide, or half way to bed as I saw it. The previous owners put him in the bath tub to feed him and I am planning on doing the same, so I didn't want to force the issue. I did think about feeding him in the tank and I opened the rats box to try...I don't know, I couldn't fathom feeding this innocent looking rat to this snake. I tried to grab the rat and it squeeled and ran around the tiny box for it's life. =( I put some food and a chew toy in the box for my new pet rat, Lunchbox, and went to bed. I thought that was a fitting name because I bought him with the purpose of him being a meal.

So now it's Thanksgiving and I wake up because it's hot and I am sweating my butt off, not because I am rested and ready to get out of bed. My room is really hot and I get out of bed and immediately look at the temp gauge in Zeek's tank. 97 degrees!!! Holy crap!! He's against the wall of the cool side and I panic thinking I need to cool this situation off. I pull him out of the tank (for the first time by the way) and I put him into the bath tub, where I was planning on feeding him.....

I go and grab the box that Lunchbox is in and bring him into the bathroom. I set Lunchbox down on the toilet seat and sit on the tub between them looking back and forth. I still can't imagine giving Lunchbox over to Zeek and I say, "You're going to have to come out of that tub and get him out of the box." I go to clean Zeek's cage, cleaning out the feces and scrubbing his water bowl. When I come back I think he heard me! He was coming up over the side of the tub right near the box that Lunchbox was in.

I sat down again now trying to rationalize feeding Lunchbox to Zeek. "This would happen in the wild." "My brothers cat brings home birds and rodents all the time." "The rat was born to be food." (That though makes me think about all the animals I've eaten...) So I think about Lunchbox's future life, I'd have to buy something for him to live in and other things to make him comfortable. I think about the life he's been living, treated as though he would be food. Would he have the tempermant of an animal breed to be a pet? Finally I think about the fact that one day I would have to deal with Lunchbox's death. I've had quite a few hamsters who live for a year or two. Would it be any easier then?

Logic tells me to feed Lunchbox to Zeek... It takes me a little while to grab Lunchbox by the tail and bring him into the tub. I hold his tail till Zeek is on the hunt which takes about 5 seconds. Zeek coils his head back and comes in pursuit. When he gets close, I let go of poor Lunchbox and he goes exploring. Lunchbox runs toward the shower curtains and Zeek strikes. Zeek gets Lunchbox and a mouthful of shower curtain (OOPS!). I tried getting the curtain out of his mouth but it's impossible so I know I have to wait until Zeek moves to start swallowing Lunchbox, poor Lunchbox. When Zeek felt that Lunchbox was completely dead he did try to separate from the curtain and I assisted him which turned out to be uneventful.

This whole time I am worried that I stressed him out too much to finish eating, with the high temperature in his enclosure to the shower curtain, which I moved him around a lot while he was constricted to try and get it out of his mouth. This is the first time I have watched an in person snake feeding and in my eyes he was struggling to get Lunchbox down. Originally he got him by the neck and that didn't work, so he went sniffing around and kept trying to swallow by a leg. In reality this probably didn't take as long as it did in my head but I was worried he would give up and I would now have to dispose of the rat I sent to death row...

To my relief (?) Zeek worked Lunchbox down and I took some pictures along the way.

So, I hope THAT WAS THE LAST TIME I have to feed a live animal to Zeek. I hope he will take frozen ones in the future as it will be easier on me. I always pictured feeding a snake to the movie Road Trip when Tom Green tried feeding a mouse to his friends snake. It seemed fun and comedic but in real life I value the rats life as much as the snakes life and I can't play favorites.

Here's some pictures:











I really hope you appreciated reading my story to this point. If you did make it this far and read everything, thank you.