clipping rodents teeth

Has anyone ever heard of trimming rodent teeth so that they are unable to do any harm to a snake if they bite it? The animal hospital that my wife works at - they said that they have seen people clip rodents teeth with nail clippers or wire cutters prior to feeding to the snake

not sure if this is a common practice or anything.. anyone?

that seems pretty cruel IMO

Never heard of it...and totally not necessary. How in the world would you even go about doing that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by elevatethis

Never heard of it...and totally not necessary. How in the world would you even go about doing that?

---

no idea.. was wondering if anyone here had anyone done it

it sounds kinda rough.. making a bad day even worse

Sounds moronic... first of all youd have to all but rip them out otherwise they would still be sharp and jagged...

Second of all, if you dont know how to feed your snake live rodents in a safe way to prevent injury, then dont!

if you, or anyone for that matter, really wants to struggle with holding a rats mouth open, and torturing it by clipping its teeth, why waste the time and effort? I think rats, although they are food in our (and our snakes) eyes, deserve a certain amount of respect, regardless if they'll be dead in 10 minutes.

If you're that worried about it biting (and 99% of the time it won't), then just throw it in a pillow case and sling it against a wall....instant death...won't feel a thing...

I have clipped pet rats teeth on occassion, however, I would never consider doing what you have proposed, in order to "disable" a rats teeth, you would have to cut them way up close to the gum, where they should never be clipped to begin with..and this would also be very very very painful to the rodent and a bloody mess.... teeth clipping on rodents is rarely done if at all... and clipping them before feeding them off is not a viable option because of how far up into the gums you would have to cut them to actually disable the teeth, so if your wifes employer is doing this or reccommending this, I would seriously question its effectiveness unless they are cutting way into the rodents gums. The fact that a vets office says they "have seen" ppl do this, bother me.. b/c if they know anything at all about rodents, they would understand thier mouth anatomy enough to not reccommend this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nathanledet

then just throw it in a pillow case and sling it against a wall....instant death...won't feel a thing...

---

Unless you don't do it right.

-adam

ah yes that's true adam. i'm scared of that...so i always make sure to swing for the fence :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nathanledet

so i always make sure to swing for the fence :D

---

Not everyone gets it right ... that's why the American Association of Veterinarians has deemed "whacking" a cruel and inhumane method of euthanizing animals ... When done correctly it can be effective, but the high margin for error (especially when done by a novice) could leave the animal in a state of severe suffering.

-adam

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

When done correctly it can be effective, but the high margin for error (especially when done by a novice) could leave the animal in a state of severe suffering.

-adam

---

Well said! I'm in total agreement with this.

I've only seen people clip rodents teeth when the rodent has a over grown tooth, or that tooth has an issue and trimming is in the best favor for that rodent. As for trimming a rodents teeth because you are scared it will bite your snake, just sounds cruel. IMO I know a lot of others agree with this... If you feed your snake live and are responsible and watch it, then you should have no problem with a rat/mouse biting your snake. Now if you toss in that rat or mouse and just leave that rodent in there with your snake unattended then you may run into trouble. As far as I've seen and have heard, most of the snakes that get chewed on or bitten are by people who just leave that rat or mouse in with the snake for a good while (hours or even days). My rule of thumb with what I do with my BP who eats live, if he doesn't eat it within 15 or 20 minutes... he's not going to eat it and I take that rat back out. Also if I hear any kind of commotion in side of his tub without a squeak, I quickly go in to investigate.

Whacking a rodent properly or not may sound kind of morbid but clipping the teeth as mentioned definitely sounds a little much. I whack/pre-kill some of my rodents for the fact that some of my feeders will eat either live or prekilled. If they will eat prekilled I'll whack for the added safety to the snake. But some of my snakes won't take prekilled so I just safely watch and observe when I feed live until the rodent is safely confirmed dead.


THat's my 0.02

When I had pet rats, I had one that had a malocclusion, where either the upper or lower jaw is too short or too long and the teeth don't wear down normally. I had to trim his teeth a lot and it isn't as hard as you'd think, but it was something that needed to be done or he would have had problems eating and suffered. Easiest way is to wrap them in a towel and use a dog nail trimmer, but I don't think it would be right to do to a rat just so it doesn't bite your snake. Plus, clipping the teeth leaves them very sharp and they need to be filed down.

See, there's corrective clipping that results in comfort and more use out of the teeth. And then there is this mess that you are talking about... Clipping a rodent's teeth down to the gumline so that it doesn't bite your snake... Right. Because that rat wouldn't be trying to eat your face, bleeding all over the place(and possibly bleeding to death), pooping on you, and scratching you... All of this for what? To stop them from biting?

This is barbaric and whoever is doing this needs to stop. If you can't properly feed your snakes live, UNHARMED rodents, then don't. Go to RodentPro...

If the rodent is calm and stress free when it enters the snake's enclosure, the snake will strike and the death will be quick. Now, if the rodent is in pain beyond all it can imagine, stressed out from the pain and you having to restrain it to do that procedure, bleeding out from the removal of the teeth at the root, while also trying to fight for it's own life, your snake could get some serious injuries or probably wouldn't even go for the prey item because of the irratic movements.

Either feed live properly and humanely, or don't. Simple as that.