Rat scratched my snake's eye, please help!!!

It actually does not look like a retained eye cap, it looks like damage to the living lens.

Take to a REPUTABLE reptile vet. Not a vet who occasionally sees a reptile. An opthalmic antibiotic will most likely be prescribed. In the meantime, remove all bedding and put the animal on paper towels.

If it is a damaged lens I've never seen one successfully healed. I've never seen an animal with a damaged living spectacle not lose the eye. Oftentimes, the next shed can tear the crust off. I've has some success using artificial tears to keep the scab moist when it goes into shed. Once the spectacle lens is removed the cornea becomes extremely susceptible to damage.

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Originally Posted by Yzmasmom

Oh my word!! What happens if part is frozen?

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Well that won't happen because the keeper will make sure it's fully thawed,the whole outside of the rat is warm,see the live feeding is always dodgy because the Royal may not be hungry n royals have a tendency to fast so always have to watch the snake with the rat,I can't n would never feed live cos that reason!


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I actually prefer to feed fresh killed (via CO2) instead of live or frozen thawed. As far as keeping a rat / mouse colony, as soon as I switched up to an ARS rat breeding rack I'd say 90% of the work went away, and it saved me a bunch of time and money. Feeding lab blocks from above keeps the food fresh and available at all times, none to get soiled and throw out. And I water the whole rack with a 5 gallon bucket, just have to top it off with a gallon or so every few days. I use newspaper and shredded paper for bedding so that's free, I change out the bedding and spray down the tubs with disinfectant every three days. I have plenty of rodents for my 20 snakes feeding twice a week, and my reticulated python gets all the big ones that are too big for my ball pythons. I'm very impressed with my ARS rat breeding rack, so much so that I'm tempted to get an additional rat grow out rack as well. With lab blocks and no bedding costs the price per rat is very inexpensive. I actually have some frozen rats in my freezer but have so many live ones I'll probably never use the frozen ones.

I actually started feeding live but I had some close calls with snakes just biting the rodents legs and not getting a good grip and really getting bit by the rodent. I've also seen a few one eyed snakes due to rodent damage. I actually despise feeding frozen thawed, the idea of soaking dead rats in hot water is nasty in my opinion, just can't seem to stomach it very well. And they have a weird smell to them as well. Feeding a fresh killed is the best option in my opinion, just as fresh as feeding live but without the risk to the snake, and no nasty wet fur or risk of partially frozen rodents, or feeding at the wrong temp and making the snake go off of feed or a smell that is 'off'. And at feeding time I have all my rodents immediately available, no need to wait for things to thaw out, CO2 takes less than a minute. May not work for everyone but works well for me.

I put mine to defrost on a spare heatmat for a while ... or even on the boiler if the wife's not around :)

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

At best a regurge.

Zincubus..... No bait right now....SMH

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As to baiting , again I don't see anything in that last post that could ever be seen as baiting ... I just stated a fact to defend the use of feeding df rodents - everyone can see the threads that I eluded to anyways and I can't recall seeing ANY referring to problems from not defrosting adequately .

Confused sorry

Also I've no idea what SMH means , sorry .

SMH = Shake My Head

I hope the injured snake is helped. That looks painful. If he loses the eye, I hope he's loved anyway. Several of mine are less-than-perfect rescues.

Live vs frozen debate...
This is a matter of personal preference and convienence in my opinion! If people in the UK or Europe are against feeding "live" meals because of whatever reason, my only advice is, don't domesticate natural evolution of a super predator. Get a turtle or some fish...
Personally, how do you know your frozen feed is being processed under sanitary and healthy conditions? A diseased colony will freeze the same as healthy animals!
Yes, there are advantages but there are also disadvantages too...that can be said for both sides! In this case, the snake owner made the #1 mistake of leaving a live "feed" animal alone with his/her pet. Now you can see a major disadvantage to feeding live prey. The snake suffers the most. Since there has been no update, this poor animal is probably being neglected by not getting veterinary attention right away. I treat all my pets like children and would never let my pet go days with a popped eye ball, regardless of what instruction is given by under-educated online advice by other pet owners.
I personally feed "live" stunned rodents and I ALWAYS STAY IN ATTENDANCE UNTIL THE PREY IS INGESTED!!
I will be switching to frozen once I find a reputable supplier in my area that I can trust. Its more convenient and safer for my snakes. By feeding live, I can see whether my snakes are getting "healthy" prey as meals!

I don't see many DVMs or any at all on these forums, so I merely take notice of the experience of others. I can tell you with 15 years of medical experience as a Registered Nurse, I am very careful of giving medical advice to others, especially online! You don't get a sense of enviroment and neglect on message boards or thru the computer screen. In defense of this forum, most moderators seem highly experienced in caring for their snakes. I tend to gain knowledge from that experience of other snake keepers.
My concern is the snake and its kept environment...proper care and responsibility. We all know to well the allure of keeping snakes, and we also are aware of the dangers when the responsibility of caring for a snake is taken lightly. In most cases, the animal suffers. This is what happens when allure of owning such a beautiful creature takes relevance over responsibility.

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Originally Posted by Ratikal

Live vs frozen debate...
This is a matter of personal preference and convienence in my opinion! If people in the UK or Europe are against feeding "live" meals because of whatever reason, my only advice is, don't domesticate natural evolution of a super predator. Get a turtle or some fish...
Personally, how do you know your frozen feed is being processed under sanitary and healthy conditions? A diseased colony will freeze the same as healthy animals!
Yes, there are advantages but there are also disadvantages too...that can be said for both sides! In this case, the snake owner made the #1 mistake of leaving a live "feed" animal alone with his/her pet. Now you can see a major disadvantage to feeding live prey. The snake suffers the most. Since there has been no update, this poor animal is probably being neglected by not getting veterinary attention right away. I treat all my pets like children and would never let my pet go days with a popped eye ball, regardless of what instruction is given by under-educated online advice by other pet owners.
I personally feed "live" stunned rodents and I ALWAYS STAY IN ATTENDANCE UNTIL THE PREY IS INGESTED!!
I will be switching to frozen once I find a reputable supplier in my area that I can trust. Its more convenient and safer for my snakes. By feeding live, I can see whether my snakes are getting "healthy" prey as meals!

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It's the owner's choice to feed live and I keep reading how it's safe if you're ' in attendance ' and watching in case something goes wrong BUT I've also seen many accounts stating how easy it us and that they feed live rats to 30, 40, or more consecutively so how do they closely watch 40+ live feeders ???

I had no idea there was such a huge live vs f/t debate until I discovered this place.