freezing WC Rabbits

ScreamingMisfit · 10-12-03, 08:08 PM

a friend of mine asked me a question that stumped me ..so i will ask all you out there and hopefully i will get a few different opinions i can't tell her...

if she caught wild rabbits and then killed and froze them would that kill any parrisites or generaly make the rabbit safe to feed her snake (normal burm)???????????

Neo · 10-12-03, 08:17 PM

my dad says freezing causes the cell to pop (dunno the freezing pt of the contents of a cell though) so a parasite would pretty much die unless it were a virus or something i guess..

Snakey Acres · 10-12-03, 08:44 PM

I'm just guessing but I wouldn’t count on freezing killing parasites or their eggs. Since many parasites are transmitted through feces they would likely survive freezing or winters would naturally kill theme off which they don't.
Personally I wouldn’t risk my animals health for the sake of saving a few bucks on food feeder rabbits are too cheap and easy to get to risk feeding wild caught food.

Jeff_Favelle · 10-12-03, 09:06 PM

But what about a WC rabbit eating pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides? Freezing doesn't do jack to those things.

Linds · 10-12-03, 09:10 PM

Freezing will kill parasites, however as Jeff mentioned, parasites are not the only concern with WC prey. Pesticides and the like are unaffected by freezing, as well as most bacteria is not affected either.

KrokadilyanGuy3 · 10-12-03, 09:13 PM

aWhy not? A rabbit does not hybernate and being warm blooded the parasties will of course be nice and cuddly, so that wont work. Also, you pets will most likely catch parasites with even cb animals or from some other source, it's to much of a hassle to worry about parasites this and parasites that, to much worry will only drive you insane.. There is a reason why annual vet checks are reccomended.. However, I will say that freezing may not have much effect on pesticides herbacides or any other type of cides out there.. It will depend on what type, the manufacturer how it was conducted and inherited by the animal, so it may not be worth it either way. I do however use wild rabbits as well as my breeding stock, deer, boar, and whatknot for several of my animals and falconry and have yet to run into anything diasterous, but not many people want to take a chance.. It's really up to you on what to do... Also, most viruses are very specific and normally doesn't counteract from endo to ectothermic animals, and freezing causes your blood cells to crystalize and/or burst, a horrible way to die..
Xain

ScreamingMisfit · 10-12-03, 10:22 PM

thank you everyone i have the info i need i will tell her its not a good idea

thanks again everyone

MouseKilla · 10-13-03, 08:38 AM

I can see why someone would want to trap wild rabbits. The price of the things from a pet store is amazing and it's not insignificant when you buy from a breeder either. It's capitalism, I know, they cost what people are willing to pay and hey, they aren't produced for free either. Some people will say that if you can't afford to feed the creatures then maybe you shouldn't have them in the first place. Fair one, but when financial situations change and you've spent all this time and money fattening up your collection you don't want to start selling them off just because you've done such a good job raising them into the healthy feeding machines that they are. The natural thing to do at that point is look at cheaper sources of prey. I personally wouldn't go to WC prey myself but I do wonder if it would be safe if you started off with WC and attempted to breed them then used the offspring for feed. You would still have all the upkeep costs of a breeding colony but at least some of the initial cost would be reduced. Anyone see any problems that may come from doing it this way? Aren't all the prey we use now descended from wild animals?

Linds · 10-13-03, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MouseKilla
I I do wonder if it would be safe if you started off with WC and attempted to breed them then used the offspring for feed. You would still have all the upkeep costs of a breeding colony but at least some of the initial cost would be reduced. Anyone see any problems that may come from doing it this way

I wouldn't forsee any problems with using the offspring of WC stock as feeders, other than the part about yoinking them out of the habitat they know. I don't think it would be much cheaper than buying a couple, because it would be a good idea to treat them for parasites as they would most certainly have much more than any CBB animal would, causing them to become quite ill under the conditions.

Jayson · 10-13-03, 11:37 AM

you may have saved the cost of a rabbit but now you need a vet check to rid the parasites of both parents, because the young will also have the same parasites.
If you cant afford the animals, Get ride of them!!

MouseKilla · 10-13-03, 11:50 AM

Linds,
My thought was I could trap them, breed them once, release the adults and keep the offspring. You might be right though, it may not be cheaper that way when you consider that you have to pay to maintain that litter get them up to size before you're actually producing anything useful. It may be best to bite the bullet and start at the pet store with a credit card and start breeding for myself that way. There seems to be no better way unfortunately. hmmm... what about stray cats? Do they have parasites? LOL!

KrokadilyanGuy3 · 10-13-03, 01:18 PM

Not to mention the price of gas to go out and catch or check traps more than once a day.. Either way, your cb rabbit most likely has parasites anyways, so a vet is in need on either way you go. Also, there are generally alot of rabbits out there, I can drive a mile stretch road and see at least 15 here and more field rats than that, so taking two out of the wild would do very little to any population, plus cottontails adapt fairly well to captive keeping.. Never had a jacks though, probably a more reasonable food source..

Slannesh · 10-28-03, 05:50 PM

Freezing causes water and other liquid substances within cells to expand and rupture the cell membrane. While this will kill many types of parasites it usually won't do anything to very small organisms like viruses. Freezing will have no effect on pretty much any chemical or pesticide either...

All in all not a great idea to capture wild rabbits to feed I don't think. I would tend to agree that buying a few rabbits and breeding them if you have the space is a much more cost effective solution if price is the main issue.