My son has 2 snakes
One is a corn snake...'Rafiki'...5 feet long and a diameter of a 50 cent piece. When a live rat is placed in his cage, it is an immediate response of grab, coil and asphyxiate.
'Alice' is a 6-7 foot Ball python with a girth of about small dinner plate. ALOT more laid back than Rafiki...she has been known to ignore her live food. When this happens we have to take the rat out and let him go. An unattended not eaten rat in a snakes' cage is bad for the snake. The rat will gnaw at the snake....and the snake will not defend herself.
I have grown to appreciate all Gods' creatures great and small.