HAPPY HALLOWEEN

My apologies to any Blippers out there with Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) but this was just too good a shot to pass up for a Halloween Nightmare.
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This is Boelen's Python (Morelia boeleni) and the south end of a White Rat (Rattus norvegicus) heading inward.  This species is native to New Guinea but this one lives in the zoo in Milwaukee.
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It's lunchtime at the zoo and these non-poisonous constrictors are fed deceased white rats.  The rats are raised specifically for this purpose as the zoo cannot take the chance that disease might be injected into the environment by using wild rats.  They are humanely euthanized before being fed to the snakes; live prey would be preferable but live prey can bite back and might injure the main exhibit.  So...they are placed into the cage and, if the snake is hungry enough, it will attack almost immediately.  Reptiles, being poikilothermic (cold blooded) can go a long time between meals so they are typically hungry when fed once a week.
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INTERESTING ASIDE:  If the snake has to be given any type of medication, it is placed into the rat's body and specifically fed to the snake that needs the medicine.  Under normal circumstances, it's quite difficult to get a snake to swallow a pill.
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Snakes do not chew, although they have a lot of teeth for hanging on to caught prey...they have no hands either.  The teeth are also slanted backwards toward the throat so it's easy for the prey to slide inward but difficult to move out of the mouth against the slanted teeth, which are very, very sharp.
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Some large constrictors, like Anacondas, may eat only once a year if their prey is sufficiently large enough.  The rest of the year they just pretty much lie around digesting their meal.  Not a lot of excitement in the life of an Anaconda; except when hunting something to eat.  
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Imagine grabbing onto an antelope with your mouth, and then coiling your body around it and squeezing it to death....actually they suffocate their prey by squeezing hard when the prey exhales and thus preventing them from inhaling....then they suffocate.  And then the hard part comes....swallowing an antelope head-first when it has horns.  Many a large constrictor has died from horns piercing their bodies while being swallowed.  That's gotta be exciting.  No wonder they might eat only once a year.  I have no idea how long it might take to swallow an antelope whole but I imagine that it's done over a time period and it's digested bit-by-bit as it's swallowed.  Snakes have a trachea (air tube) in the floor of their mouth so they can breathe while swallowing prey.  It might take several days to swallow a whole antelope.
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BEST IN LARGE.