Dino is the perfect pet.

She doesn’t bark, she rarely eats and you don’t have to walk her.

But admittedly, not everyone would be thrilled to have a five-foot African Ball Python as a pet. Especially not NIU senior Walter Magiera’s mother.

When 22-year-old Magiera graduates in December and moves back home to Elk Grove, “there’s no way she’ll want this in the house,” he said, cuddling his snake for one of the last times before Dino’s new owner takes her away.

During the year Dino lived with Magiera, the 36-month-old snake from the wilds of Africa was the hit of many wild DeKalb parties, wrapping herself around guests and crawling in their shirts, he said.

Magiera said his three roommates don’t mind his slithering pet, who lives in a large cage. “A lot of people own them,” Magiera said, adding two of his friends own snakes.

“I wanted a pet. I couldn’t have a dog or a cat and I don’t like hamsters.” But Dino sure likes small rodents.

Once every two or three weeks, Dino feasts on a rat. “She bites it and then rolls her body around it,” Magiera explained. After unhinging her jaws, Dino swallows the rat, which can be more than two times her neck diameter.

Dino hasn’t ever bit or squeezed anyone, Magiera said as Dino attempted to crawl up his pant leg. “Man,” he laughed, “I tell you, this snake sometimes.”