Do you associate with your feeders?

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Originally Posted by anendeloflorien

...coolest animals I've ever owned...

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I always tell people that one of the nicest things about having snakes has been hands down keeping rats. They are some of the most ideal pets and animals IMHO. Never had a rat in my life before this, and am amazed they are not promoted more often as pets over gerbils, mice, and other rodents.

I would say I used to name and play with the breeder rats far more than I'm able to these days. The numbers are simply too large now to make special "pets" of any of them really. I do still keep back certain nice tempered adult females, once they finish their breeding lives, to help socialize my upcoming female breeders. I've always found that I prefer dealing with big female rats on their litters if the females at least have a basic and good association with me and my hands in their space.

Whether they have names or not though, my respect for these creatures and my committment to their proper care hasn't changed. Without their contribution my family would never be able to maintain the size of the collection we currently own. :)

I have never named any of my breeders or feeders.

I do mess with the breeders everyday. But no one gets names. I could imagine having to tell the wife that I just feed off little johnny to one of the ball pythons. She had a hard time with it on the first litter of rat pups.


Famous Saying from Monsters Inc
Sulley, you're not supposed to name it. Once you name it, you start getting attached to it. Now put that thing back where it came from or so help me...

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Originally Posted by JamieC

The mice I have, if they come out with an interesting color/pattern they get to live, they become breeders, and may be snake food when they are old.

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Same here. I don't name them but am a sucker for nice coat patterns/or new interesting colors. I've got an extra male now because I want to use his genetics...but am not ready to feed off the breeding male I got now.

But really it's not so bad. I'll end up with a couple "pet" mice. Oh well, they will be gone in a year anyway. I can handle that.

(it was too late to edit my other message)

I've been thinking of starting a rat trio also but have been hesitant. I know the breeders would become pets. Also from what you folks are saying I don't know if I could feed the babies off. :oops: That wouldn't work too well.

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Originally Posted by Microddot

I have never named any of my breeders or feeders.

I do mess with the breeders everyday. But no one gets names. I could imagine having to tell the wife that I just feed off little johnny to one of the ball pythons. She had a hard time with it on the first litter of rat pups.

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Yeah I hear ya there man. I have to like physically block my girlfriend from naming all the babies lol. She gets WAY too attached to them way too fast. She can't even be in the same room while I'm feeding them off. She just tells me not to even tell her which ones I'm feeding, just let it be a surprise when she opens up the tub or cage and realizes that there's a few less than there were the day before.

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Originally Posted by snakelady

I've been thinking of starting a rat trio also but have been hesitant. I know the breeders would become pets. Also from what you folks are saying I don't know if I could feed the babies off. :oops: That wouldn't work too well.

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You do what you have to do for the life of your snakes. All of my ex-breeder males are way to big to feed a ball python, so they don't have to worry about being dinner. They do have great personalitys, rats can be fun. I will breed a mean female, just for the fact that if she is mean I won't have such a problem when it comes her turn to meet the snakes.
Bite me once and you are on the menu.
My big boys will sit on you, love to be petted, and will take any attention from me they get, or any body else:rolleyes:
(I've had "pets" that to me would have been food, chickens, ducks exc..)
Snakes gotta eat, but it does not mean you should stay away from a great animal like a rat.

The only named rodent in recent history (my first breeder boy rat, Tom Cruise) became dinner this week for Lourdes (*CHOMP!*). I try to socialize with my breeders, hold them and talk to them so that it's easier to work with them during cleanings or moving them around...

Other than having to euth my favorite breeder boy mouse recently, which made me sad, I usually don't have a problem manually euthanizing feeders or breeders for the freezer or for dinner day.

Like Bruce said tho, bite me and you're going in the freezer right now, buddy. :P

I don't name my female mice, they get numbers for tracking purposes, but I recently broke down and started calling my breeder male Max. I've only got the one so he rotates between 10 females... quite the ladies man..lol.

My rats are a slightly different story. I have two male rats only so that they have a cage mate when not with my females and they are definitely pets. Tame enough that I can open their tub and let them roam around on the floor while I do things. It's nice to know I won't loose them, I can't take credit for this, I adopted them from a rat lover who tamed them down for me.

My female rats have names but as still skittish because they came from petco. I had every intention of not getting attached but kept getting Female 1 rat mixed up with Female 1 mouse and had to name them. I don't think I'd be sad to see them fed off but they get treats and pets which is more than I can say my mice get. I've just had my first litters from these girls and am looking forward to holding back two girls for breeders. I want to see how tame I can make a rat I've handled since birth, *sigh* attachment here I come.

However rules apply. Bite me, cannibalize all your young, or fail to breed and you are gone.

I have to admit I do, even more since my boy prooved his white tail tip to be genetic, it is just too cool...:P
It was quite an odd feeling to feed my first baby to my corn (and you know how a baby corn handles a living pinkie I guess, only prekilled the next time for sure) , but that is their meaning of life , so no concerns but also no names for the offspring and I will keep my first breeders as pets till death for sure.
But I have to say I still have no "feeling" for my asf, I dont really like how they look (froggy eyes) and they always go to freeze mode when I come close-
My mice all tamed down due to their regular mealworm snacks from my hand and they start climbing on it looking for bugs on their own.
My rats are no feeders, but great and loveable pets, when my boa will be ready for rats, I will start a new group, I guess my boys are too old to be daddys.