Is it safe?

[Orangephoner]

So yesterday I was cleaning my room and there was a glass of juice on my table from the night before that I reached down to grab to take down stairs. To my suprise there was a small rat swimming in there and it caught me way off guard!!!!! So now I have a rat....and its not one that I already have , its wild. So my question is would this be safe to feed to my bp?
Thanks for your input

Christian

[Simplex]

No, no, no.. Oh.. Forgot. No.

If it is wild and not an escape it potentially has parasites and bacteria that could cause hundreds of dollars in vet bills, far more then the few bucks the rat is worth.

[lidjamay]

No, not safe. You have no idea where it came from and what diseases or parasites it might have.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

NO you do not know where that rat has been what he ate, he could have very well eat rat poison (which generally slowly kill in about 3 days) so no you do not want to feed a wild rodent to your snake.

Time for an exterminator I guess, if you have a small willd rat in your house there are probably more!

[RoseyReps]

Not to mention, now he'll probably taste like juice...and your snake might get addicted to the juice..then you'll have to soak all your rats in juice before your snake will touch it! Think of all that wasted juice!
...I'm kidding. sorry, couldn't resist

As the others have stated, no, no no! Wild rats just have too many variables that could potentially be nasty for your snake. Captive snake, captive rats

[4Ballz]

everyone bugs me on why I breed my own rats...they all say "there is plenty of rats roaming around here for you to catch"...and it's the above reasons why I have to tell them. They are wild, and who knows where and what they are carrying.


no. and maybe skip the oj while you're at it

[Orangephoner]

That's what I thought. I was worried about the diseases or what its gotten in to. My dad( who has never owned a snake or pet at that) kept telling me to feed it and that nothing will happen, so I just wanted a second opinion. Im starting to breed my own, hopefully i have luck. And this actually sucks cause I had no clue we had rats here. Its a baby so as stated above where there is one there are more. Now what do I do with it? I have it in a box...

Christian

[sissysnakes]

That's what I thought. I was worried about the diseases or what its gotten in to. My dad( who has never owned a snake or pet at that) kept telling me to feed it and that nothing will happen, so I just wanted a second opinion. Im starting to breed my own, hopefully i have luck. And this actually sucks cause I had no clue we had rats here. Its a baby so as stated above where there is one there are more. Now what do I do with it? I have it in a box...

Christian

Why not keep it in quarantine for a while and then keep it? if it is a baby then you should be able to socialize it over time.

[Simplex]

Why not keep it in quarantine for a while and then keep it? if it is a baby then you should be able to socialize it over time.

Are u talking about quarantine then feeding, or as a pet? As a pet i wouldn't, but can see what ur saying.

As a feeder i still say domt.

Our bps are captive, over years of breedings, there is a strong chance they have a lessened immunity to certain diseases, not to mention likely 0 immunity to diseases in north america.

You could keep that rat an raise it for 6 months or a year and it may still have something that would harm your snake.

[sissysnakes]

Are u talking about quarantine then feeding, or as a pet? As a pet i wouldn't, but can see what ur saying.

As a feeder i still say domt.

Our bps are captive, over years of breedings, there is a strong chance they have a lessened immunity to certain diseases, not to mention likely 0 immunity to diseases in north america.

You could keep that rat an raise it for 6 months or a year and it may still have something that would harm your snake.

No I wasn't suggesting feeding it, and you guys have offered some good advice as to why not. We had a baby field mouse live in our car for a few months.. (we lived on a farm so grain was always getting tracked in). When we finally caught it we gave it its own home (away from our other rodents). The only other option was to kill it (we could not just let it back out onto the farm because its considered a pest). There have been reports of people developing relationships with what were once wild rats. I know my uncle found a baby mouse in his apartment in NY, he kept "mousey" and it would ride around in his pocket wherever he went. It was just a thought.