Feeder rats?

Wondering how you can tell if your feeder rats is healthy. I got my from a local store and its not very nice to just ask them. Anyway you can tell frozen rats health?

every frozen rat I've ever purchased has been in terrible health ie: dead. Best way to know what their health was before being killed and put in a freezer is to buy from reputable sources or raise your own.

There are thing you can tell and look for such as

Tumors
External parasites
Overall proportions

Aside from that it is dead so you are kind of limited.

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

every frozen rat I've ever purchased has been in terrible health ie: dead. Best way to know what their health was before being killed and put in a freezer is to buy from reputable sources or raise your own.

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Hahahhahahaha, nice jm.

I agree, buying from a reputable source goes a long way.

As for rats you already have, there's no way of knowing if they're carrying internal parasites (not that I know of anyway).

But I always go by the saying "when in doubt, throw it out". I've been working in restaurants my whole life, so that saying goes way back.
If its smelly, looks "off" or whatever, toss it. Not worth the risk.

Thaw one out. Now, do the smell test an feel an look at it. Roll the rat on a white paper towel. Does it smell bad? Rotten or urine? Skinny or lumpy? Any dead fleas or dirt on the paper?

Now, it's frozen so not much can live that will effect your snake. Tumors look bad but they won't hurt anything. Rotten smell, rodent has thawed an frozen several times or was dead for a bit before freezing. Throw them all out. Urine, two schools of thought. One, the snake gets hyped up an the food drive kicks in. Two, rodents are raised in nasty conditions. So they will be stressed, smaller an less protein. Skinny, stressed, poor feeding or parasites. It's frozen so snakeypo should be fine. But your paying for healthy rodents not skin an bones.

Raise your own. Or find local breeders an buy live an gas your own. Local that will gas the ones you pick, nice fat frozen you can pick or the big on-line growers.


One reason to own rat snakes. It eats all the rejects the BP turns down :D

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

every frozen rat I've ever purchased has been in terrible health ie: dead. Best way to know what their health was before being killed and put in a freezer is to buy from reputable sources or raise your own.

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I can attest to this. Before I was driving to pet stores around my area trying to find f/t fuzzy rats. I finally decided to bulk order some from a well known company. Not sure if I’m allowed to throw names around on here. Anyway there was a world of difference in the rats appearance and feel. They were less squishy and more meaty. With still having a healthy amount of fat on them. Very proportional and clean.

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Originally Posted by Igotsmallballs

Not sure if I’m allowed to throw names around on here.

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You might as well; everyone else does!

Kidding, kidding. This site is for disseminating information and advice. Chances are that someone has already mentioned your source in another thread. ;)

I've found that rodents from pet stores like the Arctic Mice brand tend to be of lower quality - they have often been frozen for a long time and tend to be skinny and dry-looking. I would look for a supplier that specializes in selling feeder rodents and read some reviews.

Like this thread?
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...Brands-of-rats

Read it an you'll find the on-line dealers.

We have had two BPs for several years. Our female is a consistent eater. Our male is a consistent faster.

We always offer the male first. He refuses and the females usually eats it. Every month or two our female will skip a feeding or two. On those occasions we throw out the rat.

If we were feeding live, it was just go back to the rat cage instead of the garbage can. We've considered getting a Boa a) because we like them and b) we could eliminate the waste. But so far we have resisted the temptation.

My point is, live may be cheaper but for us frozen is worth the convenience.