Look what the rat dragged in............

[CaptainRatbag]

I went out to my rattery to feed them tonight as usual, but boy I got a BIG suprise :shock: As I walked in and reached to turn on the light, something caught my eye by the light of the mozzie zapper. I backed up, grabbed my camera and torch (no flash) and took the first pic.



I saw it was only a coastal, so I turned on the light and took a few more.



Notice Buster (the hooded rat ^ in the cage with his back to the camera) :lol: He is absolutely oblivious to the danger lurking overhead :shock: The poor snakes eyes never left the rats for an instant :lol:



The snake was ok with me taking pics, he was concentrating on the rats, striking the top of the cage a few times.



His other half (no, not his wife.... the other half of him) was on the roof of the shed





Photo taken between planks on the side of the shed.
So, What did I do? I thawed out a jumbo and gave it to him. (got video) At one stage, the front leg of his dinner fell into the rats cage and Buster was pulling the "arm" in effect, having a tug of war with the snake :shock:

After the snake finished the rat, I tapped his tail from ontop of the shed until he was 'all in'.... then hooked him and put him in a tub and took him way down the back of my property and let him go. He was happy in the tub, I had to actually tip it upside down to get him out..... then he mosied off into the bushes He was happy, a night out, free feed, taxi ride home :lol: What better way for a snake to spend a sunday night



He was a bit over 3m long

 

[Ambush]

LOL nice find.

 

[Lizzy90]

Wow pretty amazing to see that. Glad to see the photos.

 

[Stompsy]

That's awesome.

 

[GlennB]

He's a big bugger nice work

 

[CaptainRatbag]

I took video of him scoffing the rat and the tug of war buster had with him using the thawed rat :shock::lol: and after finishing eating that rat (268g) he was still looking for seconds (typical coastal!) Have to work out how to put it on you-tube

He was very placid tho, took 1 half hearted snap at me when I was hooking him, other than that he was just a kitten

 

[Sissy]

Rat restaurant now open for business! lol... soo jealous, I never get visitors for dinner...
Although does this mean Buster would like you to take a look at closing up the gaps in your shed?
Because I think he's going to remember his way back, especially with the great service.... lol...
Thanks for sharing...

 

[Skelhorn]

Hahaha I am glad you fed him one. I was going to ask whether you gave him a treat lol. Lets hope his not always waiting there now haha. Good Work!

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

Classic, great find! To date I've still not had the pleasure of a visitor, and I kept my rats outside! Surely you meant 2.7m though? If that animal curled up in a 50L tub was 3.7m, my junk is 18"!

 

[Erebos]

Classic, great find! To date I've still not had the pleasure of a visitor, and I kept my rats outside! Surely you meant 2.7m though? If that animal curled up in a 50L tub was 3.7m, my junk is 18"!

Hahaha I have enough stamps on my man card to say mines a minimum of 18" lol

Great find thx for sharing.


Cheers Brenton

 

[Bax79]

Surely you meant 2.7m though? If that animal curled up in a 50L tub was 3.7m, my junk is 18"!

I agree, although 2.7m seems to big from that picture, I put my 8ft/2.1m male bredli in a 60l tub when cleaning his enclosure and my bredli takes up more of the tub then this coastal in a 50l??
Classic encounter!! Is there a law against the feeding of wild animals? Just curious, not in any way having a go at you!

 

[edstar]

hahaha thats awesome! wheres the vid?

 

[Manda1032]

LOL Sa far this season all I've had in my mouse house was a sand monitor! oh and feral mice. Nice pics and good sized snake

 

[12-08-67]

Ha - bribery before relocating a snake may catch on

 

[Frozenmouse]

Cool !

 

[CrystalMoon]

I have been preoccupied over the weekend, what a great thread to log onto Coastals are my favorites and what a beauty this one is thanks for sharing your great pics

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Great to see these things! We get them quite often up here on the mid-north coast as well, if I leave the shed door open. I remember when we moved onto our property here, I left my rodents on their racks in the carport for a few days, and one warm evening there were 3 of the buggers hovering over the tubs! The biggest problem here is Lace Monitors though - if I leave the door open in hot weather they get in and trash the joint - pull the cages off the racks, eat as many rats and mice as they can then bugger off . Not a bad problem to have though!

My guess is that your beautiful coastal will be back if it doesn't cool down too much in the next couple of weeks - we live on 100 bush acres, and even if I take them out to the edge of the block, the pythons still come back in a week or two.

Jamie

 

[grannieannie]

What a wonderful experience for you and so good you got photos and your little rat was safe in the end....or is your rat going to eventually end up as food anyway ??

 

[montysrainbow]

Ohhh thats so cool! lol he would have been thinking ALRiiiight im in hee hee will be interesting to see when he visits again, and very sweet of you to share your rats

I have been preoccupied over the weekend, what a great thread to log onto Coastals are my favorites and what a beauty this one is thanks for sharing your great pics

I noticed u were not about on the weekend Crystalmoon. Good 2 c u back! lol i was on here way 2 much ha ha i need 2 get a life!

 

[Bushman]

...Surely you meant 2.7m though? If that animal curled up in a 50L tub was 3.7m, my junk is 18"!

I agree, although 2.7m seems to big from that picture, I put my 8ft/2.1m male bredli in a 60l tub when cleaning his enclosure and my bredli takes up more of the tub then this coastal in a 50l??
...

I agree that there's no way that snake is anywhere near 3.7 m long!
I agree with Bax that even 2.7m is still an overestimate.
It looks more like ~2 metres long to me.
Anyway, it's a cool encounter with a wild herp. It no doubt appreciated the free meal but you've just about guaranteed that it will come back again! Perhaps you can measure it properly then...