Meet Athena

Warning: The following post contains pictures of a snake and a rat. It does not end well. Not for the squeamish!

Matt has a pet jungle carpet python named Athena (Greek for Wise). He bought her two or so years ago at the reptile convention that is held roughly twice a year here in Winnipeg. It was not a spur of the moment purchase. He researched and researched, then researched some more before pursuading me that he knew a lot about the subject and genuinely wanted one.

I don't think a lot of wives would be ok with having a snake in the house, but here are the pros. It is an extremely low maintenance pet, so no more nagging your husband to take the dog for a walk twice a day, or empty the litter box, or having to put up with the cat meowing at your bedroom door all night because you forgot to pick up some more cat food. Plus it stays in a container most of the time unless being handled, so you could say out of sight out of mind.

Athena is about two and a half years old and currently is fed twice a week. Her container only needs to be changed every two weeks or so. Right now she is about to graduate from weaned sized rats to small. Matt purchases the rats in bulk frozen form, and yes, they are kept in my freezer. Eek!

I figured I'd take advantage of Athena's mealtime to snap some pictures. Here she is:

Athena lives in a plastic container with air holes drilled in the sides, lined with paper and a bowl of water. What a glamorous life! ;)

Here is her food:

The rat is frozen so it has to sit in a pail of warm water until it gets to around room temperature for Athena to eat.

Once she figured out something was up she started moving around.

You can see her stretched out a bit. She is actually very long now but since snakes spend so much time curled up it's difficult to tell just how long.

Matt distracted her at one side while dropping in her food at the other.

Not a great picture but you can see the rat at the front right hand corner.

Matt said that he thinks he didn't let the rat sit long enough because Athena took a very long time deciding to eat it, and she didn't pounce on it the way she usually does (which includes a strike and then really quickly curling around the rat the way a snake would with a live prey, to squeeze the life out of it).

Instead she just sniffed around for a few minutes before slowly. . .

Eating. . . I'm not a big fan of snakes but I do find this part pretty fascinating (and yes, creepy).

It is insane the way a snake eats!

I wanted to get more pictures but right about now Freya started screaming her head off and insisted on being held, then Matt insisted I stop taking pictures and sit down and eat our own dinner. ;)

So here is the poor after shot I got of Athena and her full tummy.

The large bulky part in the back is where the rat is. Over the next few days that bump will shrink as she digests it. She will eventually grow to be 7-8 feet long, and can live for 25-30+ years.

So the cons of owning the snake are, well, there's a snake in my house, and frankly if it ever got loose (which is pretty impossible right now as the container is clipped shut) I would literally move out and never move back in unless it was caught. While I was pregnant with Freya some of my crazy pregnant dreams involved a giant snake coming after my children. At one point I insisted to Matt that he had to get rid of the snake because I couldn't take the dreams anymore! Other than a snake being a snake, it doesn't bother me too much.

Next time Matt handles Athena I'll get some better pictures where you will be able to see her length and color more clearly. If you're brave enough to look!

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