mice feeder question

[marvint]

hi guys I just wanna ask if is it okay to feed mice with mammary gland tumors to my ball python? I currently have a couple of female breeder mice that have mammary gland tumors in them and I was planning to feed them off but I don't know if its safe/okay.


thanks,
marvin

[CritterVet]

Tumors are just cells out of control. Should be fine to feed to snakes.

[marvint]

any other opinions?

[wilomn]

No tumor eating here.

[GoingPostal]

I would assume it's fine, most mice/rats die of tumors and I'm sure millions are fed off with tumor cells that just aren't noticeable masses yet.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Reptiles and mice are much too far apart genetically for any sort of contagious cancer to occur. (Such things have been documented in Tasmanian devils and in humans, but only within the same species).

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Reptiles and mice are much too far apart genetically for any sort of contagious cancer to occur. (Such things have been documented in Tasmanian devils and in humans, but only within the same species).

I don't wanna derail this by getting too off-topic, but IMO transmissible cancers are just too fascinating not to ask -- where has this been documented in humans? As far as I knew the Tasmanian devil facial tumors were the first and only transmissible cancers ever recorded -- I'd be really interested to know if it's been seen in humans as well!

[WingedWolfPsion]

Oh, just a few very rare incidents--a surgeon, removing a tumor, nicks his hand, and develops a tumor at the site a few months down the road. Why this happened, when he wasn't related to the patient, isn't really known--his immune system should have caught it, but didn't.
Folks with transplant organs may develop cancer if the transplanted organ contained cancerous cells that were missed in screening.

This was referenced in a film documentary done on transmittable facial tumors in Tasmanian Devils.
I found another reference to it here:
http://www.medpedia.com/news_analysi...ectious-cancer

[marvint]

thanks for the infos guys. really appreciate it!