Snake didn't eat... What do I do with the live rat pup?

This thread is hilarious......... I love it. How can anyone be so passoinate about a rats life when we go to the store and pick it out to die....... They stink, if I ever had a snake that wouldnt take pre killed and turned down a live offering...... Well, Id feed it to my boa cuz he is a garbage dispenser..... But for reals, something would have to happen cuz it would not be stinking up my place.

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Originally Posted by STEW

This thread is hilarious......... I love it. How can anyone be so passoinate about a rats life when we go to the store and pick it out to die....... They stink, if I ever had a snake that wouldnt take pre killed and turned down a live offering...... Well, Id feed it to my boa cuz he is a garbage dispenser..... But for reals, something would have to happen cuz it would not be stinking up my place.

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And that's just fine. However, it is a living, breathing creature whose life shoud be respected and should not have to suffer an inhumane death. If your Boa eats it instead of the Python, great. That's nature. Sticking in the freezer to die a painful death is irresponsible. In this case, the OP was not aware.

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Originally Posted by STEW

This thread is hilarious......... I love it. How can anyone be so passoinate about a rats life when we go to the store and pick it out to die....... They stink, if I ever had a snake that wouldnt take pre killed and turned down a live offering...... Well, Id feed it to my boa cuz he is a garbage dispenser..... But for reals, something would have to happen cuz it would not be stinking up my place.

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I just wanted to add that given an opportunity to get away from their own feces and urine, rats do not stink. If you are having an issue with your feeders having a strong odor of waste, either yours or your supplier's husbandry should be evaluated.

I've never seen a bunch of snake keepers so up in arms about the life and/or well-being of a rat.






OP-you should get a monitor. It'd fix this problem of yours right up.

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Originally Posted by Kom@tose

I've never seen a bunch of snake keepers so up in arms about the life and/or well-being of a rat.






OP-you should get a monitor. It'd fix this problem of yours right up.

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I think you are missing our point. Whatever the reptile does with its prey is nature. However, if I decide to rip up a rat into little pieces myself while it was alive, would that be ok with you?

This is part of the reason that reptile keepers have a bad reputation amongst non-reptile keepers. One of the misconceptions is that we enjoy watching little fuzzy creatures suffer. I don't care if a keeper feeds live or F/T. All I expect is that the prey animal not suffer unnecessarily.

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Originally Posted by Kom@tose

I've never seen a bunch of snake keepers so up in arms about the life and/or well-being of a rat.

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This is a silly post. Really. Have a little respect for the animal that gives up it's life so your snake can live and thrive.

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Originally Posted by abuja

I disagree, because that mouse's life span is about 2 years anyways. I understand where you're coming from, but we don't have dry ice, nor the will to care for it until my snake had shed, so the MOST humane thing to do was actually release him! Yeah, he was probably killed, but he would have been anyways! The venom from another snake or a bite from a wild animal killed it quicker than a ball python's constriction would have.

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You mean the most irresponsible thing to do was to release him.

Aside from not being humane to a captive animal do you realize that snake owners already have a bad reputation and that what you are doing does nothing more then add to this reputation in a negative way?

Do everyone a favor be prepared next time around, if your snake does not eat the prey you are offering either euthanize the prey humanely, have an enclosure ready or return it to the store.

Learn to be a responsible keeper.

To keep myself from dumping a whole tank a fuel on this fire, I will just let it go.........


Rats do stink though, they poop about every 10 seconds and keeping them away from that is almost entirely impossible........ I could probably build them a little fenced in enclosure in my back yard with slides and swimming pools.... It would be so nice for them prior to death. I bet they would love me for it.

Wow. That's all that I can say, in reading this thread. I sincerely hope that, if any non-herp people are reading this.. that you understand, that us snake keepers with scruples do not condone freezing baby mammals to death.. or releasing livestock (which is what feeder rats/mice really are..) out into the wild because we are too lazy and irresponsible to either look after them, humanely euthanize them, or return them to the store from which they came. Enough said; if I go on, I will either be preaching to the choir of other humane feeders, or talking to brick walls.

I'm sorry. I'm the most stubborn person and I just got the nerve to say that. I should've researched more or taken it back rather than tossing it outside. I don't want more and more people getting upset with each other because of a fellow herper's mistake.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I would like to say this:

You are a keeper of an animal. You are responsible for being compassionate about the lives of the animals. Be it prey or predator, every animal deserves basic rights and respect.

If you don't understand that, you should re-evaluate why you are taking care of animals in the first place.


We are all learning, all enjoying our animals, sharing information, developing attitudes and feelings towards our animals and each other. But it should all be based on the overall respect of our fellow creatures, human or not.

Be kind.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

This is a silly post. Really. Have a little respect for the animal that gives up it's life so your snake can live and thrive.

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lol yea u should respect it because if it has an diese it will kill ur snake the only reason ur snake is a live is because someone somewhere is going through alot of trouble to make sure ur snakes food is healthy

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Originally Posted by jblaze

So are you reccomending to freeze a live rat pup? That's awesome! Well, not really but hey, great advice.

What you could do is search www.google.com for what rat pups eat-and go from there.

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im pretty sure rat pups are still nursing.. so it would take a small nipple and milk

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Originally Posted by STEW

Did you at least kill it first? I woulda............
Im not going to criticize you either way because I view feeder rats as objects rather than living creatures or I wouldnt be able to kill them..... If your snake does end up eating it once its thawed out then you should just buy frozen feeders, they are cheaper. I never even took into account what Dr. Del posted even though I think it would be pretty hard to get caught up in that legal issue....... Im going to buy a frozen one and see what my snake does with it. It would be easier to have a bulk load in the freezer than having to go to the pet store every week.... Now if I can just get my Chameleon to eat the crickets in a can, talk about a hard animal to get to eat pre killed prey items........

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I was being nosey and curious.... Have you tried the little vibrating rock that shakes the little bugs around? I heard it works good for stubborn reptiles!

this sorta relates back to the whole omg dolphins are getting trapped in tuna nets ... /cry ... but those same people dont care about the poor tuna who is being harvested 50,000 at a time .. so some say bash it in the head, others say freeze it, others say flush it down the toilet .. i say just purchase f/t and be done with it .. and now you say " my snake only eats live" well there are vids and walkthroughs on how to convert your snake to f/t if you have patience ..

Um guys?

The thread is over a year old. "08-01-2009 06:04 AM " was the last post before the current round. :rolleyes:


dr del

the humane way to kill prey is co2 poisoning.. they just go to sleep.. get some dry ice and put it in a sealed container with the rat but make sure the prey cant come in contact with the dry ice directly