Quote Originally Posted by blueberrypancakes View Post
Is it advisable to leave a dead rat in the tank overnight? I know the little bugger comes out at night. I just know that I would not want to eat a piece of meat that has sat out all night... are snakes better equipped for this than I might be?
You can leave the rat in the tank overnight, I would do this after trying to tease the snake with the rat to see if it'll strike, if not I like to just leave it in the cage. Usually after an hour or so the rat gets too cold for the snake to even get it's interest so after an hour or so I usually take it out although it doesn't hurt to leave the rat in the cage (like cold pizza!). Normally if they WILL take it, its gone within an hour. If you do decide to leave it in the tank overnight I would definitely throw the rat away as it has already started to decompose.