he eats alone never with any of my other snakes, he was eating live rats until winter came along and he quit eating cause he is a big boy so he wanted something else then food. i leave the rat in there for 5-10 mins or so just depends on the rat if he is walking on him or trying to smell him i will take it out in fear of rat biting snake. i feed all of them on saturdays only so he wont get another one til next saturday. also last yr when he came off his non feeding months i had to get him a gerbil to get him eating again then put him back on med rats thanks