Imagine how confused that poor snake is. Just like "Yee im one of the bigges- HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT IS THIS?" More on reddit.com

This is the exact reason why I prefer F/T. A well placed bite can do a lot of damage and rats aren't defenseless by any means. I also watch my snakes eat, even F/T, to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong.

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Try these hides, they're the best on the market. They have an offset door for maximum security and darkness, and they're pretty much indestructible.

http://www.lllreptile.com/products/19538-medium-black-hide-box

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So my python is Murray. He's almost six. In no particular order, some observations: Every now and again Murray makes a loud squeaky sound, like a wheeze, a honk, or a sneeze. I think he does this when he snorts up a schnoz full of dirt. His favorite activity is climbing the stairs. He "yawns" sometimes, opening up his mouth so wide that it almost flattens out on either side. I think he's adjusting his jaw. He does this most frequently before and after we feed him. He eats once a month or so. We offer him food every two weeks but he's not terribly interested most of the time. When he was young (one to two years old) he would strike at his food (frozen thawed rats), even though they were dead already. Now he takes a more leisurely approach, inspecting the food, ignoring the food, eating it in his own time. He poops about as frequently as he eats. Snakes often poop "urates," which are white balls of unprocessed material, I think, like calcium or the like, from their prey. Sometimes these accompany regular poop. Sometimes not. But you didn't ask about poop. He "periscopes" as a general practice, especially when pausing during a trek across the carpet. We call it periscoping because that's what it looks like: he raises about eight inches of his frontal body off the ground, vertical, head up high, and stares intensely at something or another with his head flat. It's cute. It's cuter than it sounds. Murray is very slow-moving, generally. He pretty much has the run of the house when he's out of his cage, because he doesn't go anywhere very fast. He very much likes the bookshelves. He seems to like the way the books smell. He'll spend an hour sometimes inspecting this shelf of books or that shelf of books. Then he'll fall asleep. He likes places with very LOW ceilings. In his cage he has three "hides," which are the places he is most comfortable. They make him feel protected. All of them are low enough that his body touches the top while he's inside, and they each only have one small opening, which he'll stick his head out of to see what's going on. We call this "turtling," because he looks like a big weird turtle when he does it. When he's curious, and active, and interested, his tongue is constantly flickering in and out. You know everything's cool when the tongue is going. If he's cautious, or upset, or sleepy, the tongue stays in his mouth. If he gets scared (this is infrequent anymore, but happened a lot when he was little), he sucks his whole head and neck back into the tight ball of his body, rounding it out, curling tight. That's why he's called a Ball Python. That, rather than striking, is a Ball Python's first measure of defense. Murray likes to climb, and not just the stairs. He's pretty good at getting places, but not real good at staying there: he's at once deft and clumsy. If we don't keep an eye on him when he's out and about (we do), we might hear a loud "THUNK" from the other room. This is him falling off the arm of the sofa, or etc. Don't worry, that's only happened twice. He's robust. Murray, thus far, has never bitten anyone. He has no interest in biting anyone. He once yawned and accidentally sank his teeth into my husband's neck, but neither of them was very upset about it. His teeth aren't that big. Murray is interested in new people. If we have him out when there are new people present, he slithers immediately over to inspect them. (We make sure they're okay with snakes before he does this.) He's not shy, although he is "head shy," which just means he doesn't like having his head touched. This is true of many pythons. He doesn't react violently, or anything, he just pulls his head away quickly if you try to touch it. DON'T TOUCH MY HEAD. Also, snakes generally get grumpier when they're in a shed cycle. That's because their eyecaps (the clear scales snakes have over their eyes instead of eye-lids) get foggy and gray like the rest of their bodies, and they can't see very well. Thus, they get frightened easily. Even when he's in shed, Murray is a tip-top kind of guy. Good-natured. I've known some grumpy snakes, and Murray is definitely not one. OH MY GOD, THAT'S A LOT OF BLATHERING ABOUT MY SNAKE. I've got more, though. More on reddit.com