They save them...

from time to time i adopt out some of the rats i breed. i usually don't mention that i breed them for my snakes, but it almost always comes up anyhow (if they ask, i tell them). the people i have dealt with haven't really said anything negative about it but maybe that's because at that point they are already at my house picking out their new pets. :)

one woman i adopted some rats to recently said she was telling her husband that i breed them for my snakes and her 3 year old daughter overheard and became distressed that her new rats were food. mom explained that no, HER rats were not food and that i only fed the ugly, mean rats to the snakes. :O the little girl insisted that mom talk to me and make me promise not to feed any more rats to my snakes. i thought that was cute, and at 3 years old with two new pet ratties in hand i can't really blame the little girl. :P

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I'm with Judy on this - I don't get the big deal about it either. So what that she saves rats. Good for her - if it makes her feel better and that she makes a difference!

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I feel the same way also. But oh my......FUNNY! Everyone has their "calling" in life and looks like this ladies is the very impossible task of trying to save the rat world from extinction by being fed to snakes:P

When I have children, I will still have my snakes and I will educate my children on how prey and predator relationships work and get them involved if they want.

I don't want to have kids that feel bad everytime I go to feed a snake.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Look I'm fine with the woman buying some rats as pets. Thats all well and good, and I'm sure I'll have pet rats in the future. Its the attitude that they are 'saving' them from getting eaten by snakes that bothers me. People need to understand that carnivours must eat, end of story. I'm all for rescuing animals, but rescuing feeder rats? I'd like to see what goes into her dog food and how much those animals suffer to provide cats and dogs with food.

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Please know that I mean no disrespect with this reply. But, really - why does it matter what her attitude is? If it makes her and her son feel like they've made a tiny difference in the life of a few rats, then why let it bother you so much? The value of the life of the rat as a feeder or a pet is soley on the person who purchased it.

I breed my own rats to be feeders. Every now and then, there's a keeper who goes on to become a future breeder and beloved pet. Just because their original purpose was to be a feeder doesn't mean that their value to me as a pet is diminished.

Quite frankly, the ones that she's adopted, she has "saved" from becoming feeders. Whatever their motive, it makes them feel better, and good for the rat - it's going to be pampered for the rest of its life.

Confronting people like this isn't really going to serve any good, and it's not going to change their minds (I know you didn't confront her).

Old story:

An old man was walking down the sea shore when he came alone a boy pick up starfish and trowing them back into the ocean. As the shore was littered with thousand of them the old man stopped the boy and ask why he was doing this. The boy replied I am saving starfish from dying. With concern for the boys task he pointed down the beach and said son look at all of them you want matter if you were here all day doing the you can't make a difference their going to die anyway. With this the boy picked up another starfish and heaved it back in to the water. Then looked at the man and said "I made a difference for that one" .

No, I didn't confront her, and I kept my mouth shut. First off, I don't mean to be rude, but I did not post this to have people argue with me. I just posted saying it was kinda funny that I was a snake owner and here she was telling ME that she was saving feeder rats from snakes.

Yes it annoys me, but did I say anything to her, no. Now I regret posting this.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

No, I didn't confront her, and I kept my mouth shut. First off, I don't mean to be rude, but I did not post this to have people argue with me. I just posted saying it was kinda funny that I was a snake owner and here she was telling ME that she was saving feeder rats from snakes.

Yes it annoys me, but did I say anything to her, no. Now I regret posting this.

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I don't think that people are arguing, it's simply pointing out different points of view.

Yes, originally you did post to tell the story, but I was replying to your strong feelings and opinions here:

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People need to understand that carnivours must eat, end of story. I'm all for rescuing animals, but rescuing feeder rats? I'd like to see what goes into her dog food and how much those animals suffer to provide cats and dogs with food.

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You went from telling a funny story, to a discussion on how you couldn't understand why someone would save feeder rats.

I think it's a good discussion, personally! :)

I do have strong feelings about how people don't understand how nature works, but that wasn't the point of the thread. Yes, I did say it bothered me, and I guess it was because of the way she said it.

If I were in a petstore rescuing some kind of feeder animal, I would take into consideration that yes, there are people in this store that feed these animals to other animals and I would not go around saying that I was saving them from getting fed off. I would just tell the employee I wanted to buy a few and take them home, not announcing why. Just my way of doing things I guess. Now, if the animals were suffering in any way, then yes, I'd make a fuss, but this particular store was taking care of thier feeder animals just fine IMO.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I would not go around saying that I was saving them from getting fed off. I would just tell the employee I wanted to buy a few and take them home, not announcing why.

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Some people feel the need to broadcaster their intentions.

regret? why regret? we are all just having a nice conversation here :P

years ago i had pet mice. i bought three wonderful little girls from the petstore... turned out one of those adorable girls was a boy but i didn't know (as he kept them sucked in) till we found two adorable litters of mice in the tank.

so, of course, by the time we found the piles of pups the male had already bred the females again LOL

here we were with all these mice... i had a friend who's son had a snake so we gave him some... but at one mouse a week, we weren't getting rid of many fast that's for sure... so i found an owl rescue centre and asked if i could donate to them.

long story short... i started breeding for the owl rescue centre (as they need a large prey bird to catch 3 live mice before they can be released) - so the kids and i would count the mice on delivery day... in threes... and say "wow, we assisted 16 birds to live free today!"

the kids and i loved it!

i still had that little part in me that didn't want to see "my" mice fed to snakes or birds-of-prey - but i was okay with the offspring being fed. i was able to sep. them in my mind... pet vs food.

do the same today with the snakes. one of our breeders is nippy. she has huge litters but she's a problem when you need to get into the cage. my daughter didn't want her anymore so she told me to replace her with a nicer rattie. i said no problem... drake is hungry. she turned around so fast and looked me in the eyes... "you mean she'll be eaten by drake (hog island boa)?" - "yup, either that or taken to the petstore where she'll be sold to be eaten by another snake honey" - "nope, no way mom... she's a pet and she'll stay that way... i'll let her bite me!!!"

and that was that. she's still breeding, still nippin' at fingers and my daughter smiles at her every time she does it and knows in her heart that, in her own small way, she made a difference for this one little mama rattie.

:hug: