Stinky rat

I have only fed my BP 4 times. This is my 5th. This rat stinks and he wouldn't have anything to do with it. I don't want to try to feed it to him if it's bad, however, I am new to this and maybe some rats smell bad. Smelled like a little bit of decay and a little bit of a formaldehyde /chemicals smell.

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When in doubt, throw it out. Sounds like it's gone bad, I've never noticed that kind of smell with any rats I've fed. They do have a bit of a rodent smell to them but they shouldn't reek and certainly should not have any kind of rotting/chemical smell. BPs know when the prey has gone bad and won't eat it -- given that a good feeder can be pretty liberal about the condition of the rats they take, the rat has to be really bad for a snake to refuse it.

Toss it. Rats should only have that rodent odor which isn't lovely, but certainly isn't about decay or chemicals.

Where'd you get it from? Some feeders have a rep for selling gross rats or mice, and there are better options.

Time to find a better supplier! Take it from your snake...;)

Hey guys. I tossed it. I bought 20 from the reptile shop where I purchased him.. The first 4 and the one after didn't stink. I am still planning on getting my next order online from Perfect Prey or Rodent Pro. He didn't eat the 2nd one I offered today either but his belly is getting a little pink and I'm thinking maybe he's just about to go into shed. Eyes aren't cloudy yet though.

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Don't stress if he didn't take the second, if an attempted feeding doesn't work out the best thing to do is to just wait until the next feeding day and offer again. It's also possible he was stressed a bit from the first attempted feeding today so he doesn't want to eat now. It's common for BPs to refuse one meal and then get stressed if they are offered food again too often. A healthy snake will have no problem missing one week of food especially if they have otherwise been eating regularly.

If he's prepping to shed that might cause a BP to miss a meal. If you're going to order online I'd recommend Big Cheese or Perfect Prey.

I can't vouch for any of the rodent suppliers, but I've heard nothing but good things about Big Cheese and Perfect Prey.

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Originally Posted by vivi

I can't vouch for any of the rodent suppliers, but I've heard nothing but good things about Big Cheese and Perfect Prey.

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Same here...grow my own but if I needed to order, it would be from either of those.

Layne Labs is my go-to - even in the midst of all of the COVID19 insanity I was able to get an order from them shipped within 48 hours, and their rodents are always immaculately clean and really neatly packed in high-quality packaging that seems to preserve quality better than the plastic bags a lot of companies use.

I really should raise my own but I had rats as pets when I was growing up and between that and working in research labs all through grad school and having to do CD on thousands of rodents, I think I just don't want to deal with it now. Still, I keep leaning toward the idea - maybe because I enjoyed those rat pets so much, lol, so that doesn't bode well for my convincing myself they'd just be snake food now!

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Originally Posted by Caitlin

Layne Labs is my go-to - even in the midst of all of the COVID19 insanity I was able to get an order from them shipped within 48 hours, and their rodents are always immaculately clean and really neatly packed in high-quality packaging that seems to preserve quality better than the plastic bags a lot of companies use.

I really should raise my own but I had rats as pets when I was growing up and between that and working in research labs all through grad school and having to do CD on thousands of rodents, I think I just don't want to deal with it now. Still, I keep leaning toward the idea - maybe because I enjoyed those rat pets so much, lol, so that doesn't bode well for my convincing myself they'd just be snake food now!

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I know what you mean...I had pet rats when I was in college & long before I ever got into snakes. They're smart & affectionate, but misunderstood & hated much as snakes are.
I'm much happier keeping only snakes that eat mice...they're cute to look at, but nowhere near the intelligence that rats have.

I too just had my first ever experience with big cheese and so far so good. They arrived well packaged, still frozen solid, and the price was as good or better then others I found online. Last night was my first time offering a F/T recently and he took it fine. Unless something weird happens I will continue to use them from here on out.