Quote Originally Posted by satomi325 View Post
It doesn't look like a bite to me. I say the rat scratched your snake. It most likely kept kicking its hind legs and flung a scale off. In my experience, most rats coiled wouldn't even be able to bite since they're too busy trying to breathe, even when your snake bites the butt.... My snakes bite both heads and butts when coiling and I've never had a rat attempt to bite. They were more concerned with kicking to get away...
I monitor each and every LIVE feeding until the rodent is dead, and I often see the rodent biting at the paper towel substrate whenever it gets the chance... So I wouldn't count on the rodent finding breathing more advantageous than biting HARD. The rodent will constantly chew at the paper towels until it can't anymore. THEN it will focus on trying to breathe.