Crazy CL add!!!

So I came across a CL add for all sizes of feeder rats for $1 each. I am looking for some new stock so I emailed the guy. Turns out that these rats are coming from inside a trailer he bought, aka, they are wild caught. Is this even legal?? He's catching them because they are eating his dog food (he breeds german shepards) and trying to sell them. Theres no way these are safe to feed to snakes and use as breeders right????

Wild rodents usually aren't good feeders, because of whatever parasites they carry. However, I have heard that if they are frozen for a minimum of 30 days, it kills the parasites. I am not sure if that's true, though. Hopefully someone else will be able to chime in.

No way you should feed your snakes wild rats. Reason being you have no idea what they were exposed to earlier in the day... for all you know they could have eaten rat poison..

Mike has a point.

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Originally Posted by Mike Cavanaugh

No way you should feed your snakes wild rats. Reason being you have no idea what they were exposed to earlier in the day... for all you know they could have eaten rat poison..

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I hadn't thought of it that way, great point :gj:

No way, I'd never feed them to my snakes. But just for sake of conversation, what do you think about using them as breeders? Never to be fed, only used to produce.

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Originally Posted by MiamiRoyalPythons

No way, I'd never feed them to my snakes. But just for sake of conversation, what do you think about using them as breeders? Never to be fed, only used to produce.

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Wild rats will bite you. The tanks would have to be completely escape proof and I don't know how you would feed them without getting bit, also you'd have to think about how you would clean the tanks. You'd have to take the lid off to clean and rats can jump three feet. I tried that with wild mice I caught like six with a live trap and they all escaped. To me not worth the rabies shots something like 20 needles in your stomach and not worth them escaping and creating a rat infestation in your home.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some parasites or diseases that could be based from mother to child and then to snake. This is pure speculation though.

2 words...
Bubonic...Plague.

Yea not worth the risk vs the benefit. I mean best case scenario you get some feeders cheap, worst case scenario you kill a snake or two. Yes freezing should kill any parasites but as someone said earlier you're not going to know if the animal possibly ingested something like rat poison. Just too risky for no more than you stand to gain.

personally for the price difference over captive bred....I wouldn't bother.

How do you know if they ate rat poison? Keep them alive for a week. If they ate rat poison, they'll be dead.

Wild rats do seem to be more aggressive than captive bred. I have toyed with the idea so I can add new pure genes for experimental reasons. In the end, it doesn't seem worth the headaches.

Domestic rats have also selectively been bred to produce a lot more young. Good domestic stock should be free of any health problems even through years of breeding within a colony. Introducing a WC would probably ruin that foundation.