I feed my snake a small rat once a week. I feed live so the kill and eat usually takes around 10 to 15 minutes. I stay and make sure the rat is taken out with no injury to my snake. Today the weirdest thing happens. The rat doesn't move. He freezes half-standing in the corner of feed cage. He doesn't twitch, move, sniff, no movement at all. Well Cyrus was trying was checking him out-he moves slowly toward the rat. It doesn't move. He sniffs the tail -no movement. My snake draws back to figure out what is going on. I am freaking out. I am thinking this rat has got to be the smartest animal alive. He must know the snake can't get a good grip on him in this position. I am just about to take my snake out of the feeder cage when my snake decides he is going to try again. He slides around and comes straight at him. The rat doesn't even breathe. He gets closer and closer. I am having a heart attack now. I am sure that something bad is going to happen. Cyrus is hovering right over the rat now. He opens his mouth and grips the rat's back-still the rat doesn't move. He wraps himself around the rat and only when he tightens does the rat move and try to get away. What just happened? Do you think he was so terrified that he didn't react or do you think he just didn't know what was going on? He looked healthy. This was a first for me. I had Cyrus for close to 9 months and this has never happened before. Weird.