Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Unlikely bedfellows

Warning...do not watch this if you suffer from ophidiophobia!



From the blurb on YouTube:
Snakes usually have hamsters for lunch. But when rat snake Ao-chan and dwarf hamster Gohan-chan met at a Japanese zoo, it was love - and not at first bite. Now, the 120-centimetre snake and gray hamster are room mates, living together in a heated glass box.

Gohan-chan, whose name means "meal" in Japanese, was literally, meant to be the snake's dinner. "When we first found Ao-chan, the snake refused to eat so we went to a pet shop but was told they were out of frozen mice and suggested we try a hamster. However the moment we put it in the cage, it was instantaneous friendship and the snake seemed to have no appetite for it," said zoo keeper Kazuya Yamamoto.

But the love is obviously is shared only by the snake and the hamster. Hanna-chan, a mouse-hunting cat, has been eyeing Gohan-chan ever since Ao-chan decided to befriend it.


I used to raise hamsters and sell them to pet stores. I can't imagine feeding one to a snake (the only real reason I don't keep snakes; I'm rather fascinated by them...I could maybe do crickets, but not mammals). But these two seem to get along pretty well, although if I were their keeper, I still would always wonder if Ao-Chan might finally decide to have dinner, though. (Note: I gave up hamsters when I got kittens...I didn't want to have a hamster taken apart in the house by an overly-exuberant feline).

Okay, I think it's time to say good night. :)

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