14 months since this guy ate....

[rabernet]

im suprised ppl will still say to leave a mouse in with out any supervision for long periods of time. a mouse or a rat can chew thru all kinds of stuff and can gnaw thru a snake in no time. as for ur non eating snake, i have a female who went for a year, then she laid 6 good eggs with no slugs, keep trying... she went back on feed after i found she would take a frozen thawed if i tucked it in with her in her hide and left it over night.... FROZEN THAWED... not live, do not leave live rats in the cage overnight with ur snake and please do not listen to the people who think its ok.... its not. i also breed asf rats and it works the same with pre killing them and leaving it in her hide.

I agree with not leaving rats or mice in overnight - especially with no food or water available to them. But a rat or mouse isn't going to just randomly decide "oh - I think I'll go gnaw on you for a bit", it's just not how they behave, especially a well fed, well hydrated rodent.

The longest that I personally leave prey in with my animals is 30 minutes, any longer than that, I feel that the snake is more stressed by the prey's presence than not.