IMHO if your going to buy live i would feed it fresh killed because it takes all the work out of it you don't have to thaw and heat to right temp and i think they like them fresh. You should be able to trust your local pet store to give you healthy parasite free mouse.
05-18-2004, 08:13 PM
Marla
Quote:
Originally Posted by daftperception
You should be able to trust your local pet store to give you healthy parasite free mouse.
Should being the operative word there. I know for a fact that I can't, and I doubt I'd trust any rodent source to be parasite-free unless it was a highly respected rattery or selling frozen rodents. Almost any animal will have some parasites of one kind or another. It's just only a concern if it's a type that can use the original host's predator as a host as well or otherwise hurt the predator, and that does limit the ones to be concerned about.
05-19-2004, 11:16 AM
Smulkin
Heh - tell you waht after being in the back rooms of a few pet stores and seeing the living conditions the bulk of feeders are kept in i would def freeze first - but if i has hard-up enough to buy from those places I wouldnt be in much of a position to freeze long enough to get the positive effects. As a result I am now down to a SINGLE store I will go to in a pinch (out of a field of 5). Will be interesting this weekend - as the next lot of frozen was delayed again until next week (GRRRRRR) - and I am quickly running out of rat pups (momma rat is getting real P.O.d at her diminishing number of young'uns too).
05-19-2004, 12:25 PM
gozetec02
I get my live feeders at a local reptile shop and he has all the breeding cages availiable for everyone too look at. He has a freedom breeder rack where breeds rats, mice, and gerbils. When they come of age he moves them to some display tanks so we can hand pick them. When he freezes them he knocks them out first then uses a vacuum sealer and seals each rodent individualy. As far as parasites are concerned if you know where you feeders are breeding and none are wild then they should have minimum parasites. But again feeding frozen would completly eliminate the possiblity of parasites. In the most part i think fresh killed feeders are safe.
