Will my snake be ok

You might think I posted this in the wrong place, but it mostly concerns my rats.

I "Had" a female breeder that I got from the pet store about 2 months ago. She had one litter. 2 days ago I saw some blood in the cage with her and her remaining 2 babies (growing them a little bigger for feeders). When I checked her, it was coming from her vaginal area. I checked for babies and didn't find any. I thought maybe since I didn't get her out of the cage soon enough after the last litter that maybe she got pregnant and had a miscarriage.

The big issue is that today I got home from work (about 15 minutes ago) to find her dead in the cage.

My concern for the snake is that if she had some type of illness could that be passed on to or make my snakes sick.

I don't know how old she was.


Please any help here. and I'm not looking for total criticism. Constructive criticism is ok, but not the typical you shouldn't even have pets and you don't deserve to live you animal abuser kind of thing. I do care and want to make the lives of these animals better and most of all make sure they are healthy.

She may have had some internal hemorrhaging or a uterine infection that wasn't visible from the outside. Rats don't normally show signs of illness unless they are on death's door. Did she have any cage mates?

There aren't any illnesses that can be passed to your snake, so no worries. I just wouldn't feed her to the snake, if that's what you're meaning.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

She may have had some internal hemorrhaging or a uterine infection that wasn't visible from the outside. Rats don't normally show signs of illness unless they are on death's door. Did she have any cage mates?

There aren't any illnesses that can be passed to your snake, so no worries. I just wouldn't feed her to the snake, if that's what you're meaning.

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The only cage mates she had are the 2 hold backs. One was going to be a pet for my sister and the other I was keeping so she would continue to nurse and to grow out to a little larger.


She's way to big for my snakes so no I was not planing on feeding The mom.

I have fed a couple of her babies off already but I guess I don't have to worry about that then.

Should I get rid of the 2 babies. They are old enough to wean and have been eating already. I was going to get them out withing a couple days any way, so They shouldn't have any problems adjusting to not having momma's milk.


Thanks for the quick response Becky.

Rick female rats like all female mammals can get reproductive cancers, infections, etc. and there's basically not much you can do as they don't show signs until it's almost too late. Don't feel bad as these things do just happen when you breed any creature, some females will not survive the breeding/birthing experience. Nothing in this situation would as far as I know impact on her offspring being good feeders or the two remaining ones being good pets. She was dying so she was likely not producing much milk anyways, if any at all. Those remaining two are likely well started on dry food and the water bottle anyways. Sorry you lost her, it's crummy to find a nice rat dead like that.

Thanks Joanna,

I wasn't really attached to her (nor any of my rats) but my uncle was. He's on the road right now and will be back Sunday. I'll have to explain to him why his favorite rat died. He thinks it's bad enough that I feed the babies off, but knows that's why I have them.

After my other momma rat had 18 babies I don't think I'll need 3 breeders anymore. I may keep the second baby and breed her if the local reptile rescue needs feeders I'll donate to her.

Well even if your not emotionally attached at all to a specific rat (heck I have some breeders I like way better than others), it's just a waste to lose a productive breeder in any colony. It happens though, and like any breeding production big or small you move on and hope it doesn't happen any too often.