Help - worried Dad and Hobbyist.

Should I be worried about any communicable deceases that adults and kids could get from keeping/breeding feeder rats?

i'm just scared and worried - it just dawned on me today that last month i saw a wild rat running on top of my breeding racks - no idea how he got in the room but i made sure this time nothing comes in, nothing comes out. at first i took it for granted then i saw this local news about a fellow that died due to leptospirosis that he got infected from wild rat urine/feces.

it might have contaminated my breeding colony. i'm very worried about Leptospirosis as it might get my whole family sick.

should i be worried? is there anything that i need to watch out for(like symptoms)?

I wouldn't be worried about it. It's pretty unlikely that your animals are infected. I've heard of lots of other people who have found wild rats and mice in their setups, and I haven't heard of anyone getting sick from it. That isn't to say it doesn't happen, but I've heard a ton of people with wild rodents that infiltrate their breeder set ups, and no casualties that I know of yet. Just wash your hands when you handle anything that has had rodent pee on it, that should make you feel better about it, it'll reduce your risks by a lot if there was an infection.

Just set lots of rat traps if you see wild ones, and keep your food contained in a large metal trash can with a lid so they don't have anything to live on.

Wash your hands after and keep a clean setup and you should have nothing to worry about :)

I'm not sure if "rat bite fever" is the common name for what you're referring to, but I know a couple people on a rat group on FB that got infected after they were bitten. According to them, they now go get antibiotics from the doctor if they are bitten as a precaution to keep from getting it again. If it is caught early, it is very treatable. Other than that, just lots of washing your hands whenever you handle your rodents or their items and try to kill off any wild rats.

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Originally Posted by artgecko

I'm not sure if "rat bite fever" is the common name for what you're referring to, but I know a couple people on a rat group on FB that got infected after they were bitten. According to them, they now go get antibiotics from the doctor if they are bitten as a precaution to keep from getting it again. If it is caught early, it is very treatable. Other than that, just lots of washing your hands whenever you handle your rodents or their items and try to kill off any wild rats.

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Killing wild rats is deplorable and only damages the ecosystem as so many species rely on them for food, and all rodents helps forests by spreading seeds. They make harmless ultrasonic pest repellers should you feel you have a serious rodent problem.

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Originally Posted by skinnyrascal

Killing wild rats is deplorable and only damages the ecosystem as so many species rely on them for food, and all rodents helps forests by spreading seeds. They make harmless ultrasonic pest repellers should you feel you have a serious rodent problem.

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I'm curious about this advice. Wouldn't the rodent repellent also affect the rodents he keeps?

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Originally Posted by skinnyrascal

Killing wild rats is deplorable and only damages the ecosystem as so many species rely on them for food, and all rodents helps forests by spreading seeds. They make harmless ultrasonic pest repellers should you feel you have a serious rodent problem.

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The OP has a colony of rats so your solution of an ultrasonic pest repelling device is kind of calling the kettle black in my opinion .... You seem concerned with the killing of one rat to prevent the potential risk of spreading disease to hundreds of others, however if the OP would follow your advice it would be like a lil Nazi concentration camp for the dozens or hundreds of rats they have in their colony as they can not escape the very sounds that you have suggested he use that drives them crazy to keep them away :confuzd: ....... Come on now ... Think before you offer up advice .... On a further note, if this "wild" rat has infiltrated the OP's home, it is not doing it's part in the eco system to "spread seeds" so to say :2cent:

Killing rats in your house doesn't effect the ecosystem at all. They are breed extremely fast because they are prey items. They exist in huge numbers, just so they can be killed off by everything around them and still survive. You gotta be trollin. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skinnyrascal

Killing wild rats is deplorable and only damages the ecosystem as so many species rely on them for food, and all rodents helps forests by spreading seeds. They make harmless ultrasonic pest repellers should you feel you have a serious rodent problem.

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Do you realize how fast they profiler? Sexually mature between 4 to 5 weeks, able to produce on average 6 to 12 offsprings every 3 weeks???

Can you imagine if half of those are females?

As far as ultrasonic repeller I don't see how it will work with a feeder colony.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe he took what I said the really, really, really wrong way??? At least I hope so..

In my post, I was referring to killing any wild mice / rats that have infested their home to prevent spread of disease to their domesticated rats. As most rat bite fever cases do come from wild rodents, this is also precautionary as I have heard of people being infected from handling urine-soiled items from wild rodents before.

Just for the record, I'm not advising him to go spread rat poison in his local forest or anything.

And thanks to all the posters that responded before I did.