The snake finally would start eating the frozen mice again. It just took some time away from the food...

I tried to find a quote from when I read the article, but it is already gone from the website. Darn!

Even if snake and hamster do nothing to each other, hamsters have been known to die of heart attacks. The stress on that hamster is likely to kill it soon whether the snake helps or not.

I don't think the hamster's stressed after being together for so many months.
It might freak when the snake sheds, though. :D

Know what a small bag of potato chips and a hampster have in commen?,,,,,

They make the same sound when you stomp on them!!!

Having kept snakes (and rat snakes, too: Corn snakes are a type of rat snake) I can tell you that snake is big enough to get down a full-grown rat. It would take 20 minutes or so to swallow it, maybe. But in a small tank, even a health full-grown rat wouldn't stand a chance against the snake. That hamster wouldn't even make a bulge going down.

But weirder things have happened. The herpetologist who gave me the corn snake also had several king snakes. He would feed those geckos (the little 99 cent guys). They tossed a couple in one time and the king snake ate one but not the other. After about 6 months, they finally rewarded the gecko with his own tank.

It would not surprise me if some rare individuals just had a smell (or something) that made them unappetizing to predators. It would certainly be a natural selection benefit!

Chris

Yes, the snake is due to shed soon and is probably off his food in that pic, but my corn snake goes blue and sheds within a few days, not several months (October to January). In fact in that sort of time period he'll probably shed twice ...

Pals. :yum:

And here I am taking showers every day.http://www.cellar.org/images/newsmilies/smack.gif

This Danish News Site has a video of the snake and hamster. Click on the picture of the snake head on the right side of the page. :)