Vendor Feeders - Am I being too fastidious?

Gang, I wonder if you think I am over-reacting to my selection of food for my BP and Cali-King.

I have the option of a few stores that sell feeders. However, one I am concerned about sanitation. They handle all feeders with their hands. Although the clerk said he's never had a problem doing this, humans carry germs. The clerks go from picking up worms, handling other reptiles in the store to putting their hands in the rodent bins for my babies' food. Not only that, the clerks could be sick, and who knows if they wash their hands when they go to the bathroom/after they blow their nose etc. Would you be concerned??

Petsmart sells Artic Mice. They are individually sealed in bags and the vendor claims each one is frozen in a sanitized environment. The only problem is that they don't have weaned rats for my Cali-King which I prefer since they are more nutritious.

Thoughts?

There really isn't any human disease that they are going to pass on to your reptiles, zoonotic disease from mammals to reptiles are rare. In that respect the clerk is more a danger to *you* than your snake.

As far as picking up another reptile and then touching a feeder the biggest risk there would be mites. For the most part bacteria and virus need very special conditions to live in, even if you did manage to transfer a bacteria or virus onto a rat it would then need to survive the elements and then survive the digestive system of the snake and still be present in enough quantity and in the right vector to infect your animal *then* it would have to survive your snake's own immune system. A reptile can pass a disease to another reptile fairly easily, but if you add two different mammals into the cycle and only casual contact as a method of transference the chances of the bacteria/virus getting a foot hold is low.

All in all unless the store is disgusting and just full of mites and risk is very low.

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Originally Posted by squatsnstilettos

Gang, I wonder if you think I am over-reacting to my selection of food for my BP and Cali-King.

I have the option of a few stores that sell feeders. However, one I am concerned about sanitation. They handle all feeders with their hands. Although the clerk said he's never had a problem doing this, humans carry germs. The clerks go from picking up worms, handling other reptiles in the store to putting their hands in the rodent bins for my babies' food. Not only that, the clerks could be sick, and who knows if they wash their hands when they go to the bathroom/after they blow their nose etc. Would you be concerned??

Petsmart sells Artic Mice. They are individually sealed in bags and the vendor claims each one is frozen in a sanitized environment. The only problem is that they don't have weaned rats for my Cali-King which I prefer since they are more nutritious.

Thoughts?

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There have been reports of those mice being thawed by accident and re-frozen and sold. I've purchased them a few times and they were flat on one side. Like they thawed out and were re-froze. I would be cautious.

Arctic mice aren't one of my favorites.

I really like mail order frozen mice. Can't beat the convenience. I buy from BigCheese. They can be on the small side, but they are very clean. Even with shipping, they are economical compared with the hit-or-miss local supplier.

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Originally Posted by piedlover79

There really isn't any human disease that they are going to pass on to your reptiles, zoonotic disease from mammals to reptiles are rare. In that respect the clerk is more a danger to *you* than your snake.

As far as picking up another reptile and then touching a feeder the biggest risk there would be mites. For the most part bacteria and virus need very special conditions to live in, even if you did manage to transfer a bacteria or virus onto a rat it would then need to survive the elements and then survive the digestive system of the snake and still be present in enough quantity and in the right vector to infect your animal *then* it would have to survive your snake's own immune system. A reptile can pass a disease to another reptile fairly easily, but if you add two different mammals into the cycle and only casual contact as a method of transference the chances of the bacteria/virus getting a foot hold is low.

All in all unless the store is disgusting and just full of mites and risk is very low.

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Thanks. This is helpful. The store is otherwise very clean and reputable. It's also good to know that human diseases can not be passed on. I imagine that keeping the rodents in the freezer would kill pretty much anything on them.

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Originally Posted by distaff

I really like mail order frozen mice. Can't beat the convenience. I buy from BigCheese. They can be on the small side, but they are very clean. Even with shipping, they are economical compared with the hit-or-miss local supplier.

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Thanks. I looked them up and they ship worldwide. Impressive! I'll give them a try!

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Originally Posted by Sonny1318

Arctic mice aren't one of my favorites.

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How come?

Artic mice is known for being low quality. I have opened packages that smell god awful, that have bruised or discolored looking feeders, etc. Even if the facility is clean and tidy, and their packaging is spot on, there is absolutely no quality control between when they ship them out to store and when you purchase them. They're also several times more expensive than locally raised or even the direct shipped feeders like the ones you get from Big Cheese or Layne Labs. Poor quality product for way too much money.

Even if the clerk handled worms and then directly handled the rodents with worm mulch still on his hands, it's not really harmful. Rat poo is dirtier than worm castings or worms. And none of it will affect your snakes. Rodents are not sterile, and even frozen, plastic wrapped rodents have not gone through a sterilization process.

Unless you can find reptile mites in the store, as long as the rodents are fairly clean and healthy, they should be just fine.