Rats

[ema-leigh]

Hey Snake forum!

I'm new, I am posting hoping you will consider what I have to say :]

The reason for my post is hopefully promote better care for feeder rats and thus creating the best quality meals for your reptiles. No, I am not some PETA freak... I just really like rats and I do breed them but for pet purposes. Also I don't own a snake but I know if I did I would want to feed it the best quality healthy rats available. I also want to say that I know there are some good feeder breeders out there that give their feeders a good quality of life, so please no one take offense if that is you. Its also not going to be too detailed on my end, if you want me to expand on anything just let me know!

Well firstly the first thing I notice is a lot of breeders keep their rats on pine bedding. I know its a cheap bedding, but its toxic to them and make the rats sick. (It causes liver and kidney damage, so by the time you see symptoms the rats very sick on the inside) It can also irritate their airways. When the rats are sick they loose weight and condition. Their coats get thin and scraggly and they are producing poor quality offspring. A good cheap bedding could be shredded newspaper or aspen. Birthing moms can be offered thick kitchen paper towels so they can make a nest.

Also mother rats should not be bred back to back, they should be given at least a 2 week break between litters so they can regain some of the condition they loose. Back to back litters puts too much strain on mom and she can't produce good quality milk - which effects the babies growth and development. It also will effect your breeding program in the long run because you will be making worse quality babies with each passing generation. Pregnant mommas can be given approx 1/6th of a hard boiled egg as a great supplement for that little extra protien and fat they need.

Next is genetics.. you do need some sort of structure in your breeding program to make sure you are producing healthy rats. If you are inbreeding (breeding related rats) for several generations, any bad traits within the parents are strengthened in their offspring. To prevent this becoming an issue you must out cross every 2-3 generations or so. Which is just breeding the rat to a completely unrelated rat.

Next is over crowding their cages. If you overcrowd you will ultimately stress out the moms. Which can cause them to eat their litter, or kill some of the babies. It can also cause pregnant rats to reabsorb a litter or cause birth complications. It may also cause adults to fight each other more resulting in injury or death. Also albino rats generally have the largest number of babies born each litter,... (This is a pure white rat with red or pink eyes. If the rat has a dirty looking smudge on their nose, feet or bum they are not albino but himalayan) That may be an option for people looking to downsize to make the work load easier but keep producing the same amount of babies/profit

Then their diet. Those seed mixes from the pet store don't even provide the basics. The best thing to do would be to go to a bulk grocery store and buy some grains like oats, wheat, rye, barley etc... and then just mix these into your seed mixes. It'll offer the rats the carbs they need and won't work out to be any more expensive. It will make 1 bag of seed mix last a lot longer. To keep them the healthiest, offer them veggies everyday or as often as you can.

Then its HOW you kill them. Gasing them in a CO2 chamber is actually not painless, they experience dizziness, vertigo, nausea and their airways will burn before they die. Putting them in the freezer is no good either - they don't just fall asleep.. they experience extreme hypothermia, frost bite and its a very traumatic death for them. So the best way seems to be the good old fashioned break their necks. I won't go into detail, but thats the best way I found after much research. Just please make sure you do it right.

And please always feed pre killed for both the rat and the snakes fault. (even if you buy live and break the neck right before you feed - so the food is still warm and life like for the snake) I'm sure as many of you know... the rat may also injure the snake as they have a very strong bite for their size.

I think thats every point I wanted to bring up, please no one take offense and be open minded. Every thing's open for discussion. I actually belong to a rat forum and people are always saying they should come on here and say something stupid like ''whats the best way to kill this snake to feed my rat'' as they think thats getting the point across. But I thought, they are people too.. why not just talk to them? So here I am.. please be nice!