This one was a big surprise. Requires a bit of explanation as to how this could happen so I’ll start there lol.
In 2019 I built an outdoor enrichment area on my property. You can see it here. All of my snakes are brought outside for UV/Enrichment for some period of time as often as I can manage it. Some of them get their privileges revoked though, for excessive bad behavior. One in particular is my Caramel Coastal Carpet Python. Leave him be for a second he makes a beeline for the rat room surprise surprise.
About 6 weeks ago I felt bad and brought him outside. While he was perched on the branches I got an emergency call from one of my employees. Took me about 5 minutes to resolve. The Carpet was gone! I spent the next 3 hours looking for him, but he wasn’t to be found. After several days of looking for him, I faced my mistake and let it be. He’s so attracted to the rodent room I figured it was an even chance I’d eventually find him in there. Fast forward to Tuesday morning. I worked late Monday on the snakes and forgot to close the door to the rat room. When I left for work in the morning I went to close the door and found this.
What was really interesting to me is that with an air temp of 54* and a body surface temp of 59* he was trying to eat. It’s things like these that have led me to keep my snakes cooler than a lot of people suggest. He’s been living outside with daytime temps of mid 70s and nighttime temps in the high 40s and low 50s for 6 weeks. I think we know less about their thermoregulation than we think we do.
Needless to say we’ll do some fecal testing this summer in case he managed to find any food outside the rat room. Doesn’t appear to haven eaten but it’s cheap insurance.