Mother Pauline Rourke said her 16-year-old daughter Emma had a big fright when she saw the snake strangling its dinner.

"She squealed when she saw it because she thought it could have been one of her guinea pigs, but once she saw it closer she realised it was a bush rat," she said.

"She quickly got the camera and took a few photos of it. It was only about half a metre long so it was quite a small snake to prey on a big rat."

Pauline said snakes usually visit their home as their house backs onto the Coolnwynpin Nature Reserve.

"We've had a few carpet snakes here before and we had a brown snake in our pool catcher before.

"That one was a bit scary, but otherwise they don't ever bother us," she said.

"We didn't get to see if it had eaten the rat because it took it up high into the tree. We just left it alone."

Pauline said snakes had visited her birdcage before, but was thankful they had not dropped in to visit the guinea pigs.