Just curious...

[Clownfishie]

How many people on here who have snakes keep rodents as pets as well? And I'm talking as an actual pet -- not for the purpose of breeding food for the snakes ;)

Mice are so cute, but to me it just doesn't feel like it would be right to keep one as a pet when they're also a food source for my snakes... I don't know -- might just be me ;)

[marisa]

No its not just you! I breed mice here for the snakes....

My roomate keeps two of "my" mice offspring as pets downstairs in a habittrail annoyingly hard to clean cage. They are about two years old now.

I also keep a pair of gerbils as pets, they just had their first litter which will be 75% whacked off. I couldn't bring myself to whack either parent, but somehow I can definitly manage feeding their offspring to my snakes. Its weird, but theirs a differance somehow I guess. I also love toying around with the weirdo mice. The colors and various coats. It adds something interesting to the normally boring and mostly dirty work of rasinging feeders I think.

Marisa

[V.aw]

I go through 100's of feeder mice on my monitors and snakes.. It's funny to say that there is a pet mouse in my house.. we no longer feed live prey as it seems to end up as a pet. i wont keep any animal that requires live food.

[eyespy]

I used to keep mice and gerbils as pets when I was a kid, but that is because I kept wild-caught garters that I never tried converting to a rodent diet. I did however keep frogs as pets and feed the tads or froglets to my snakes.

Now I feed only frozen and have been lucky in that all but one of my snakes readily take them. The holdout is a western ribbon and they are notoriously tough to switch from fish.

[Dom]

I had over 300 rats (feeders for all my snakes) but theres has been only one pet rat that I had kept for over 3 years.. his name was Algernon - unfortunetly, He died recently. Since then I have never kept rats anymore ..

(he was even buried and not fed off.. )

But all feeders were found a warm home and were digested very well)

lol

[Gillards]

We raise mice and rats for feeders and our daughter Christy has has pet Rats for a while. She would breed them and sell them to the Pet store with the understanding that they would not be sold for feeders. She does not breed them anymore now. The store would not take everything her rats produced.
We keep the pets and feeders seperate and when Christy's Rats Die they are not used as feeders. She has a little Place out in the country that she brings all of them. (this has been going on for a few years now)

[XxRachxX]

ive only recently got into reptiles, but ive always kept the rodenty critters and i dont think ill ever stop!!! even if the house is filled with reptiles too!! but that wont be for ages since 1. im a student 2. im poor 3. i live at home 4. IM POOR!!!

[Cold Blooded]

I have 4 pet rats. They will never be snake food. I have to feed frozen b/c I can't bring myself to kill them. Ive been lucky though, all my snakes have switched to frozen nicely.

[Jezabel]

I've keep him for about 6 months (he was suposed to be snakes food at first) but I end up been alergic, like for every other rodent.

Those degu are almost like a dog. They love to be scratch and they scream at you if you pass in from of his cage without to pat him!

http://www.hissnherps.ca/Quenotte%20-%20005.jpg

[Clownfishie]

What a little cutie :)

A friend of mine had a couple of pairs of Degus that had several litters of babies -- the little ones were just adorable....