kind of worried

Dimmer switch at Home depot is around 10 bucks. Keeps my hot side at a constant 90 degrees(digitally measured) and my humidity is around 70 percent with 2/3 of the tank covered with duck tape.

Well everything is good in the cage. So today I picked up a female and male rat from my work and I am going to breed them for food. I just couldn't imagine paying so much to feed when I can get free food and bedding and just let them breed.

thanks
JR

Just one question. Were you planning on taking the male rat out of the cage after they bred? If not, then he will usually stress the mom out, making her eat the babies, or he will end up eating the babies himself. It's not a pretty picture. Once the babies are all eaten, or in the freezer, you can stick him in there again. I just was asking since I didn't think you wanted to lose any baby rats. Good luck to you though. :-D

already have that covered, he will be but in "jail"(just a figure of speech) until I want for them to breed again. The funny thing is I have always thought rats are very disgusting and now I think those 2 are so cute sleeping together. except for there nasty looking tails.lol.
I never make impulse buys so I had this planned out, they have been placed out in the garage with my hospital tank for my reef tank.
I tried to give the rats a decent place to live, so here is the run down. I got them a 40g breeder tank w/ about 2" of pine shavings and one large hide(cardboard box) and then they are being fed pellets from petco that I can get for free.

thanks
JR

LoL, the tails don't bother me, try having a hairless rat. I have one and he is just... well... bald as all get out, except on his face where it looks like he needs to shave. Whiskers are curly too, it's so funny it's sad. LoL Anyway. Those pellets you're talking about, are they alfalfa? If so, I would definately try to find something else like lab blocks (very cheap and you can get a HUGE maybe 40 lb bag at the feed store) Rats can't digest alfalfa and actually use it for nutrients, and it will also give them very smelly, runny poo. Oh and if you can take some of their poo(fresh) to a vet or somewhere who can do a fecal test so you won't have to worry about internal parasites. I just bought a fancy rat and she had tapeworms and coccidia. Not a fun thing to treat, since coccidia takes more than 3 weeks to get rid of. Snakes can't get coccidia, but they can get tapeworms. Nasty little boogers tapeworms are, oh and you can also get them too, bleh, I have had to be meticulous in my handwashing if I held the infected rat. I'm sorry to blabber on about stuff like this. Just thought it would be helpful. And yeah I know what you mean about not making impulse buys, I'm the same way, contemplating every aspect of what's going to be involved (why I haven't gotten a snake yet). Oh yeah, and also, rat's teeth tend to grow pretty quickly if not given anything hard to chew on, so you can give things like crunchy dog food (Ol Roy as I am told is best, cheap and no dyes), toilet paper rolls, and stuff like that. If they do get too long, take them to a vet and he can clip them for you or show you how to clip them. My teacher(who is a vet) showed me how with dog toenail clippers, quick and painless, like floating(filing) a horse's teeth. Ok I am FINALLY done. :-D

awww but I will not let you be done just yet...lol

okay here is one question. How much does a fecal test run? I want to get both my rats tested and get my snake tested. her last defecation was runny(the snake I mean) and I want to be sure there are no internal parasites.

thanks
JR

Hmm, I am going on a guess here since I do them myself for free, I'm sorry you can't just mail it to me :) I would say it would run maybe +/- $10. If the staff is nice, maybe there's a cute vet tech who can do all three for cheap, LoL. That might be pushing it though. Yeah, diarrhea is a great sign for internal parasites, it doesn't necessarily mean your snake got them from being wild caught, who knows if it was or not, but it probably got them from any rodents it ate. That is why freezing is wonderful, it kills anything bad inside the food item. That's why people shouldn't eat sushi from non-reputable places ;) Tapeworms, wheeeee! LoL. Is the snake lethargic at all? Well hydrated? If she is hydrated, then the next poo might as well be more solid, and if so, I would collect it (the poo not the urates) put it in a plastic baggy and take it to the vet as soon as possible, if that's not possible, then stick it in the fridge and take it in the next 24-48 hours, no longer. If it is longer than that, I would toss it, the parasite eggs are usually ruptured and not recognizable. You can always try again next time. With the rats, It might be good to take the cage with you so the tech can select with sample they want to use, but if that's not possible, take the freshest from each rat, a good amount (around 4 pellets of poo), put the samples in separate baggies and label them (ex: Male rat/date). Oh and with the amount of snakie poo you should take, as much as possible. The tech can usually do a couple samples from one piece of poo, since parasite eggs may not be in one sample, but they may be in the next, it's weird like that. Hope you find a good vet who doesn't charge an arm and a leg. Good Luck. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. :)

Now I need to find a place that is used to dealing with reptiles. Do you know a place I can look?

thanks
JR

I breed rats for my snakes. For my smaller snakes, I wait until the rats are fuzzy and their eyes are opened. Then I euthanize them and toss em in the freezer for later use, to kill off any parasites they may harbor. I have a bunch in the freezer from a few months ago that I am still going through, and I have a litter of 10 ready to be killed off, and a pregnant female rat that's going to give birth any day now. it's practically free food!

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Originally Posted by LouEvil

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As for the temp question: 88 is a bit low for the warm side... ideally the ambient is around 80 -85 and the basking spot is 90-95 deg. F. so 88 is a bit low for the hot side IMO but not so low as to cause an RI - still you should try to up it to around 90 or between 90 and 95.

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I disagree with this statement. 90-95 is much too warm.....a common misconception with Ball Pythons is that because they come from equatorial Africa they need it super hot and dry....this is not the case. BPs spend most of their time underground where it is cooler and fairly moist. Temps that are too warm and too dry is why you see alot of BPs with skin problems and shedding problems. 88 is a perfect temp for the hot side. You want the cool side to be 75-78.Also, BPs do not bask....they are nocturnal.

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Good to know - I was just going by the stuff I had read etc. But that explains why Icc doesn't dig the hot hide any warmer than 92 or 93. Thanks David for the info!