Problem? Unexpected late feed

[dkspftw]

So I fed my BPs f/t rats last night and both females didn't eat, as of this morning.

Didn't get a chance to pull the rats out of the cages this morning, rushed out of the house, and just got home to find one missing.

So from what I can tell, one of them decided to eat a rat that had been sitting there at normal cage temperature unmoving, presumably starting to decompose, all night and most of today.

I assume she'll be fine because hey, why would she eat it if it wasn't appealing? But this strikes me as very unusual.

Has this happened to anybody before? Should I be concerned?

I looked around her cage to make sure she didn't just move it, and unless it came back to life and made a clean escape, it's inside her belly now.

[MarkS]

I wouldn't worry. That's happened to me many times and it's never been an issue. They have pretty powerful digestive juices that'll kill darn near anything.

[Aryia]

It should be fine. I've had some of my girls eat rats that've been sitting for about 12 hours I would say and they digested them without problem. One of my girls won't eat unless I just leave the frozen/thawed rat with her over night. In the future (in case you're not already doing it) I would place the rodent on the cool side of the cage, that way it doesn't decay as fast. I've noticed some of the rodents I leave directly on the heat-tape look as if they're going to blow up after a night, which is absolutely gross.

[bcr229]

It's ok. I have a male that I have to leave his rat overnight. I gave it to him about 8:00 one evening quite a while ago, and when I checked on him the following morning around 7:00 he was in the process of swallowing it.