Do you keep snakes and Pet rats?

[Wh00h0069]

Thanks for the input. I am however specifically looking for people that keep PET rats, and pet snakes.

That is why I did not vote.

[Jenn]

I'm surprised too Connie!!! 70% feed their loved ones to their loved ones!!!

[littleindiangirl]

I'm surprised too Connie!!! 70% feed their loved ones to their loved ones!!!

Yea! Oh well. Poll is a bust!

[RoyalGuardian]

IMHO I think that you should do what works. If you love rats, have rats! If they create a problem I would make note of it and try to find a solution. If no solution works then I would say that you have to make a choice. I had a pet mouse for a while but he was STINKY!!!! Not only were my Ball pythons on constant "FOOD MODE" i couldn't take them out without someone trying to tag me.

[RoyalGuardian]

Your poll wasn't a total bust! At least we know people aren't using those infernal "snake sausages"

[littleindiangirl]

Haha, yes I see, but the point was for people with PET rats to vote, and how they deal with both hobbies that seem to be at odds.

Keeping feeders isn't the same as keeping pet rats. Can feeders be pets as well? Yes, but it's all in how you look at it. If you don't see your rats as Pets, then why vote on a poll that is asking about pet rats with any other option but "I keep only snake pets"?

[Michelle.C]

Don't know if this helps...but.

Yes I keep snakes and PET rats, I also feed F/T rats.

[dizzy]

I had many pet rats as a child and teenager. Since I've started keeping snakes I didn't really plan on having any more pet rats in the near future... But this one rat pup somehow just wouldn't get eaten, so I have kept her and I plan to breed her but at this point she is definitely a pet. I haven't actually named her yet but only because I really want to name her helmut and am trying to decide if that's an okay name for a girl.

I guess technically she's a future breeder but I do take her out and handle her...

There's no real moral dilemma for me. The food chain was around long before me and will be long after me. Snakes eat rats if I watch it happen or not, if I keep pet rats or not. I don't feel bad about my snakes eating and thriving.

[Bruce Whitehead]

One thing I left out... I do not feed off my retired breeders, even after they die.

I have people with larger snakes that have offered to take them. And I KNOW I am being a bit ridiculous in this (as I get the food chain, etc.) but they go into the freezer and eventually all make it to my mother in law's garden to be buried.

One thing I left out... Ginger (the rat with the two art pieces dedicated to her in the previous post) has a third and final piece in the works.

It plays on martyrdom. She was the first rat to go into the garden btw... this summer her bones are being dug up and used in an art piece as well. Churches used to have the remains of martyrs buriend in the floor... this piece will play on that. There is a stage, a curtain of red crystals, a spot-light, etc... the most emotional of all 3 pieces dedicated to her.

Bruce

PS: Dang Connie... you're making me all misty for her (but that is not new - I still well up when I think about that rat).

[kc261]

Connie, I know you specifically asked about RATS, not mice or other species, but I decided I'd reply anyway because it might interest others who read this thread. Hope you don't mind.

Before I move on to the mice, I will say that I fully expect that at some point in the future I will have pet rats as well as the snakes. I've had rats in the past and absolutely love them.

When we started expanding the number of snakes we had, we decided to start a mouse colony. We have both BPs and corn snakes, and so mice work well for both of them. I stated, rather emphatically, to myself and the rest of the family that we were getting these as FEEDERS. Even the breeders would be fed off when they were retired. But that hasn't happened. One male breeder managed to really work his way into the hearts of all of us. When it was time to retire him, I just couldn't feed him off. I decided I'd let him live out his days in the male grow-up cage, but that didn't work out. It was causing too much fighting. So I again decided he had to be fed off, believing his life with the young males fighting with him was too miserable and a quick death would be preferable. I once again found I just couldn't do it. So now he has his own cage.

I'm currently struggling with feeling guilty about him being by himself. I know mice aren't quite as bad as rats by themselves, but I still think companionship would be good for him. I may put a retired female with him, and if they end up having some litters, I won't care one way or the other. I'm just a little concerned if it would begin to get too hard on the female. For now, he gets lots of human interaction every day, and I hope that is good enough.

As far as the original question in this thread, how does one balance the conflict between keeping them as pets and using them as feeders... To me it really isn't much of a conflict. I feel a little bad every time I feed off a mouse, the same way I feel a little bad every time I watch one of those nature shows and the predator catches its prey. But, as others have said, that is the way the food chain works. But there is a difference between those that are feeders and those that are pets. I think like Bruce, I will find that the ones that become pets, whether unplanned such as the male mouse I discussed above, or if it was planned that way from the start, will never be fed off.

EDIT: I did not vote in the poll, although I see you think others have been responding differently than you had intended anyway.