My friend's not so subtle way of telling me his disapproves

I have a good friend from college who I keep in contact with, I instant message him at least once a week, but he doesn't really approve of my reptile hobby. Lately I thought he had been getting better about it, even going so far as to ask how they are on occasion. He still tells me my new additions are going to eat my 80lb lab when I tell him about them but I think he does it because he knows it upsets me. (I am aware of the fact that I keep odd friends :P)

Anyways today I got an e-mail from him that just contained a link.

It's a pretty interesting link, but I think it was sent more out of his need to express his disapproval that snakes eat rats. :rolleyes:

Here is the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...-distress.html

Your friend sounds like a twit. :confuzd:

(It's OK, we all have at least one somewhere.)

That's actually a really cool read, thanks for sharing that! And haha yeah, subtle as a brick on your friend's part :P

I despise one of my militant vegetarian friend's disapproval of my feeding rats to snakes. She has 2 dogs, and they will eat more meat/animal product in a year then my snake will eat in his whole life (I pulled that statistic out of my rear end but you get my point).

It's ridiculously hypocritical. :(

I'll feel bad for rats when one attempts to free its fellow rat from a snake... in that scenario, they leave the unlucky rat that's tagged to be eaten instead of heroically trying to rescue it. Not so "empathetic" then.

^Unlike Tokays, who come by to whoop some snake butt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_b1...layer_embedded !!



That guy is silly. And I agree, it's hypocritical to be okay with dogs/cats as pets, but be upset that snakes eat meat as well. I try to feed all my snakes f/t or p/k, and even then I get people complain about it. Sorry, that burger you are eating ALSO had a face.

I raise alot of my own feeder rats... It is hard to see empathy when they occasionally eat eachother....(it happens very seldom with my colonies)

they are like man I feel bad for george... but he is so tasty.... poor george, hey pass the george I am still hungry......

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Originally Posted by jjmitchell

I raise alot of my own feeder rats... It is hard to see empathy when they occasionally eat eachother....(it happens very seldom with my colonies)

they are like man I feel bad for george... but he is so tasty.... poor george, hey pass the george I am still hungry......

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I couldn't help but Lmao when reading your post.

Tell your friend rats don't show empathy when they bite me! I personally hate rats and have no problem feeding them off to reptiles. If it wasn't for my snakes I wouldn't come anywhere near a rat!

Edit: yes I know my name is rat and before I get all the jokes it has to do with my last name, nothing to do with those nasty creatures. Just realized I might get guff cause my display name is rat lol.

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Originally Posted by jjmitchell

i raise alot of my own feeder rats... It is hard to see empathy when they occasionally eat eachother....(it happens very seldom with my colonies)

they are like man i feel bad for george... But he is so tasty.... Poor george, hey pass the george i am still hungry......

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lol!

hahahahaha ignorance is bliss. Don't feel bad though, I was recently accused of being a Satan worshiper because I have pet snakes. My responce; Well if I believed in Satan that might be true! :rofl:

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they are like man I feel bad for george... but he is so tasty.... poor george, hey pass the george I am still hungry...

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Really?! that was funny & wrong at the same time, lol.

every once in a while my father in law asks me how my snake is doing & what it eats & every time, my answer is "um, rats."
but i swear the next time i get that question from him i'm gonna say
"she eats salad greens."

What a good article! I guess if you're breeding 100s of rats it's tough to see their "human-like" characteristics...but I only have two pet rats, both males, and they are like BFFs. I think they have even more personality than dogs sometimes (I love dogs too, don't hate lol). When I come home from work and walk by the room they are in, both are standing at the door waiting for me to come say hi lol. Lucky (the one I raises from a pup) thinks I'm his mom, and will run past his food to snuggle with me. I love rats lol.

Most strikingly of all, rats still prioritised their cage-mates when offered the option of ''freeing'' chocolate chips from a second restrainer tube.
The door to the trapped animal was just as likely to be opened first as the door providing access to the chocolate.

Prioritize means putting things in an order of importance. If you have two options and use them in equality, one no more than the other, there is NO prioritization. Random chance will give the same results.

''There was no other reason to take this action, except to terminate the distress of the trapped rats.''

Or, maybe there was NO distress and he missed his buddy. Oh wait, that WOULD be another reason, which this researcher, in his infinite wisdom, has decided does not exist.

Rose food for this one. It's flawed.

Your friend is a troll. It's ok. I have troll friends too.

"So you've got Guinea Pigs and Snakes huh? You raising one to feed the other?"

"You know I hear Guinea Pigs are a delicacy in Brazil."

"Aren't you afraid they (the snakes) might get out and eat your other animals?"

All were clever troll attempts. My wife falls for all of them while I sit back and laugh.

Here is my latest argument for feeding rodents to my snakes. I raise my own so this may not work for you.

Lets look at the average rat in the wild. How old do you think the average rat in the wild is? A rat can breed year round and have 5 litters a year but lets assume 3 for sake of math. They reach sexual maturity at 5 weeks but lets say 2 months for sake of math. Gestation is about 22 days but again lets assume 1 month for sake of math. Lets assume an average 10 pups per litter with half female and half male. With all that rounding up we still have 1081 rats at the end of the year. With 340 of them being sexually mature females. So what does that tell us about rat mortality rates. Well the fact that we are not swimming in rats means that the average age of a rat is well under 1 year old. So how do all those rats die? Well they get eaten by other rats or predators or worse yet die from inclement weather, starve to death or are killed by disease. Rodents that are born into my care have to deal with predators. I do everything in my power to reduce the number that are killed by cage mates, I feed them well, I keep a clean disease free environment. My rodents have won the lottery when you compare their life to that of their wild cousins.

what a cool article!
and lol ya my bf's mom says the same thing to me all the time "you know one day it's gonna grow 10 ft long and bust out of the cage and eat you!" dead serious. i just smile and say "i'm sure it wont come to that." but at least she does ask about "Vivian" by name and how she's doing every now and then.