Rats Appear To Have Ticks

[HighFlyer]

I have about 10 frozen small rats. I defrosted 1 to feed to my bp's and noticed several small orange spots on the rat. On closer examination under a magnifying glass they appear to be some type of insect - ticks I believe rather than mites. The rats have been frozen for about 1 week. I was given them live - I did not notice any ticks on them when they were alive.

Question re bp's:

I fed 3 rats to 2 of my 3 bp's before I froze the rest of them. I assume that the rats had the ticks while they were alive even though they weren't visible. Should I be concerned about this? If so, what should I do?

Questions re frozen rats:

1. What should I do to remove the ticks from the frozen rats?
2. Or can I use the rats now that they have been frozen for about a week?
3. Or do I need to wait a longer period of time to insure that the ticks are dead?
4. Or should I not use the rats for the bp's since I don't want to introduce ticks (frozen or not) into the bp's?

Thanks!

[arkuden]

hmm wish i could help you more. I would say to NOT feed anymore of those rats to the snake untill someone more knowledgeable can help you out with this. I would also keep a close eye on your BPs that ate any of the rats and make sure there arent any problems. Hopefully nothing goes wrong everyone stays healthy. :D

[daver676]

I believe ticks are host specific. I don't think that ticks from rats will infest snakes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Leave them in the freezer for another couple weeks, then feed them off. No need to worry about dead ticks hurting your snake.

[Linds]

Ticks are actually generally not too picky when it comes to the type of host they infest, unlike mites which are generally host-specific. However as long as they have been frozen, there shouldn't be any problems, but I would be worried that they are carrying some sort of pathogen that could be harmful to your snake. I would take the rodents back to where you got them and I would seriously try to find an alternate supplier for your rodents in the future. There is absolutely no reason for ticks to be on any captive bred rodent, and it makes me wonder what they were on before that.

[justinO]

Yikes..... I'm so glad I raise my own feeders sometimes!

As far as I know, as long as they are in the freezer for awhile they should be fine, but, as Linds said, they might have been carrying something scary.

Jessy

[daver676]

Originally posted by Linds
Ticks are actually generally not too picky when it comes to the type of host they infest, unlike mites which are generally host-specific. However as long as they have been frozen, there shouldn't be any problems, but I would be worried that they are carrying some sort of pathogen that could be harmful to your snake. I would take the rodents back to where you got them and I would seriously try to find an alternate supplier for your rodents in the future. There is absolutely no reason for ticks to be on any captive bred rodent, and it makes me wonder what they were on before that.

I'm always mixing up my ticks and mites. Thanks for clearing that up Linds.

[HighFlyer]

Thanks! I will keep them in the freezer for at least another month before using them. Yes, I don't belive I will be getting any more feeders from the same source.

I haven't noticed any parasites on the bp's although 2 of them are in the process of shedding. I put them back on newspaper substrate so I can see better. :)