Hemostat (or anything) to pickup live rat

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you want to piss them off prior to offer them to your snake hemostat are the way to go.

All you have to do is gently pickup the rat at the base of the tail and drop him (it's fast, easy and cause less stress)

[cchardwick]

I find that it's best to read the rat before picking him up, slowly open the tub, give them a couple seconds before reaching in, similar to picking up a snake.

personally I would never use hemostats or tweezers on a live animal, that's just cruel.

[qwerty53]

Thanks guys

[artgecko]

I found out a good way to decrease maternal aggression. Instead of always taking rat pups from a mom just pull a few big ones and replace with a few smaller ones. It will throw them off, they won't be nearly as aggressive in the future.

To me it seems that the only ones stressed by picking up by the tail are the really big heavy males. Seems like it's a lot of stress on the tail but I've never hurt the tail or had them seem like they were in pain. But I do clean tubs side by side, so they are only airborne for 1-2 seconds!

I may have to try that...Both litters I had at the time were the same age, but if I had more available to pull from, I will def. give that a shot.

I spoke with a very experienced breeder (she does feeder and pet and has been breeding for ~15+ years) and she said that it is almost 100% genetic and that I should cull any pups from mothers that do this and cull the mothers also. She has been working her colony with minimal handling (only to move to clean) and culling heavily for generations and claims that all of hers show zero aggression and can be handled, as you would a pet, with no taming necessary.


I am not breeding right now due to the MA and some health issues with the lines I had, but if I start again, I will purchase stock from someone that culls biters and MA.. Anything I can do to avoid bites is a plus lol.