Quick question about feeding dead mice/rats to BPs

[Jeremy Cox]

I need to know if it's acceptable to feed my snakes a mouse or a rat that has died of an unknown cause? I ask this because I found a rodent breeder locally and when I asked how the frozen mice/rats were euthanized he said 'Most' are done in a CO2 chamber, but occasionally when pups and pinkies die from natural causes he freezes them too. When I asked about the larger mice and rats he said that when they die from overcrowding or other unknown causes he uses them for his customers too. From his POV a rat is a rat, whether it dies from CO2 or a natural cause shouldn't matter.

But my main concern is healthy food, will my snakes get sick from eating a rat or mouse that had died from something, like being sick?

[iCandiBallPythons]

Just my opinion but I would only buy clean, healthy, and properly raised feeders for my collection

[Inarikins]

I myself would be worried about a breeder whose animals are dying from overcrowding more than anything else. If he's not giving them the space they need, what other care is he not giving them? I would shy away from just that fact - plus you don't know if the animal caught something that killed it and could potentially give to your snake even after it's been frozen. Even if it died from something that couldn't be transmitted to a reptile, it's better to err on the side of caution, I think.

[Dpineiro87]

i wouldn't personally give my snake anything that died of natural causes it could have had parasite i would look for another supplier or breed your own depending on your collection size. my opinion

[Jeremy Cox]

I am certainly leaning towards agreeing with you both. I don't think I'll be acquiring my feeders from him in the future. However for personal reasons, I'd still like to know if my snakes can get sick from eating a mouse or a rat that had previously died from an unknown cause.

Example scenario: Say I buy 5 mice from the pet store and feed them to my snake one at a time, once a week. This way I have food on hand, don't have to travel to the pet store weekly and I can keep the rest in a cage, bin or aquarium and I feed/water them daily. However when checking on the mice, I find one has died overnight. Is it UNSAFE to feed it to the snake? Should I just write it off as a loss and discard it or can it be fed to the snake in the same manner as a F/T mouse?

I personally don't know anything about cross-species illness transmission and would like to hear something other than opinion or moral/ethical standings. Not that opinions don't count, I appreciate all feedback. Thanks again.

[Dpineiro87]

take it as a lost

[Emily Hubbard]

Honestly, I wouldn't risk it, but really, I'm not sure what there is to worry about. Snakes have stomachs of iron, and you can't tell me that they never eat sick rodents in the wild. I think predators are by design pretty impervious to the diseases that afflict their prey, but that is an assumption. I couldn't find anything online about inter-species diseases involving rodents and reptiles, go figure! All I found was diseases all of our animals can give us, and for the record, cats and dogs are far nastier than snakes! Just saying!

This is a question for a genuine herpetologist I think! And a very good question at that! At the very least, ask a vet.

[kitedemon]

I am not an expert but there are a few parasites that can transfer and freezing does kill a number but time and temp dependant most health places say -7ºC (19.4ºF) and 30 hours but things like virus are not nearly as likely to be killed at all. Some fungi. How many of those would effect a snake I don't know but to me I'd not risk it. I know my rat breeder tosses any natural unexplained deaths and only sells healthy animals she has euthanized.

[Annarose15]

Honestly, I wouldn't risk it, but really, I'm not sure what there is to worry about. Snakes have stomachs of iron, and you can't tell me that they never eat sick rodents in the wild.

Snakes (all animals) also have the potential for much shorter lives in the wild, due to the greater exposure to "nature".

[OtterGoRun]

Definitely find a new supplier, and chalk up any dead mice to lost inventory. There is a lot of decomp that happens quickly in a dead animal, rigor mortis, and other icky things. Animals that are euthanized are (or should be) frozen immediately to avoid those issues for a reason.