sick rat

[JeffFlanagan]

I took him to my vet and she prescribed him some Baytril. It's controlled here in the states, so you can only get it from Vets. I gave it to him orally and he hated it, but it did help. Baytril isn't a cheap anti-biotic either. I paid 15 dollars for 1 cc. In all it cost me 50$ to treat him for the visit and the anti-biotics.

Do you do that for your feeders, or just pet rats?

I'll give a sick feeder antibiotics if I have them on hand, or an injection to hydrate them, but I've never gone as far as take one to the vet. I do have one breeder male that I've developed an attachment to that I would take to the vet, but generally I feed off any sick rats.

[frankykeno]

I personally would not feed it off. I don't think it would have anything that could make your snake sick; most illnesses can't cross species, or at least not 2 species that are so different.

However, it if is not well, then it won't be the best nutrition for your snake. Especially if you give it a chance to get well, then feed it off once it is too far gone... some of the nutrition will have "gone" too. As you already pointed out, one rat isn't worth much, so you aren't really losing anything, and are protecting the well-being of your snake.

If you aren't going to take it to a vet (which I totally understand your point about not being worth it financially, I might make the same decision), just put it down whenever you figure is appropriate, giving it a chance to get well but don't leave it in misery when it obviously has no hope of recovery. And then dispose of it.

I completely agree with you on this.

Mike and I breed our own rats. The reason we do all that extra work is to provide a better and more consistent quality of prey and to make it more cost effective for us. I don't see the point in feeding a really sick rat to one of our snakes. For me it defeats one of the main reasons we maintain our own rat colony.

To euth and discard an obviously sick rat isn't going to cost me big bucks but to offer it as food, when I know it isn't in good condition, seems to me to be giving our snakes less than the best. I'm just not willing to do that.

If the rat is culled when it is still in a reasonable condition, that's one thing but a rat that's down, that's lost body mass or has an obvious big tumor - that's just not a rat that qualifies as a top quality feeder for our snake collection.

[littleindiangirl]

Do you do that for your feeders, or just pet rats?

I'll give a sick feeder antibiotics if I have them on hand, or an injection to hydrate them, but I've never gone as far as take one to the vet. I do have one breeder male that I've developed an attachment to that I would take to the vet, but generally I feed off any sick rats.

Good question! I really don't know the answer. I have only a small colony and I've taken 3 rats so far to the vet for illnesses. 2 of which are just pets, but have fathered many of my holdback females.

I've also put down 2 rats so far.

I guess if I know it's something easily treatable I would take them, but if it's going to be more than a quick fix, I would humanly euthanize when the quality of life was less than normal.

You have to keep in mind, I treat all my rats like pets. They all have names, visit with us regularly, and are generally just pet rats when not nursing or breeding.

[MarkS]

To euth and discard an obviously sick rat isn't going to cost me big bucks but to offer it as food, when I know it isn't in good condition, seems to me to be giving our snakes less than the best. I'm just not willing to do that.

If the rat is culled when it is still in a reasonable condition, that's one thing but a rat that's down, that's lost body mass or has an obvious big tumor - that's just not a rat that qualifies as a top quality feeder for our snake collection.

I disagree. It's a predators job to thin out the old, sick and infirm. When you think of it, it would actually be considered abnormal for them to only feed on fat young and healthy rodents. I feed off ALL of my sick or old rats no matter how bad they look and have never had a problem due to feeding. Who knows? Maybe they do even better without all that extra fat?

Mark

[frankykeno]

Well Mark that may be true in a wild environment, but last time I checked I don't have an African termite mound in my snake room. The wild snakes also don't have some nice person knocking at the entrance of that termite mound offering them a rodent every Thursday night. In other words, wild is wild - our snakes aren't wild so for me it doesn't equate.

I have choices with the snake collection. To have gotten them in the first place, to have them live a captive life. For me one of the most important choices I make for them every week is in proper prey selection. When I open that feeder tub I'm going to pick the best, because for me, that's what the snakes I choose to keep deserve.

Btw, I don't raise or feed off fat rats. Fat is unhealthy. Our rats are well fed and well fleshed, never allowed to run to fat.

[rabernet]

I took him to my vet and she prescribed him some Baytril. It's controlled here in the states, so you can only get it from Vets. I gave it to him orally and he hated it, but it did help. Baytril isn't a cheap anti-biotic either. I paid 15 dollars for 1 cc. In all it cost me 50$ to treat him for the visit and the anti-biotics.

$15 for 1 cc? Wow! I love my vet even more. Told him when I took my dog in for an ear infection that a few of my rats were sneezy and asked if he'd compound me some more Baytril. $20 for a HUGE bottle of peanut butter flavored Baytril (3oz if I'm reading his handwriting correct). I've already administered 15 cc's since last week across three rats with hardly a dent in the bottle.

[MarkS]

Well Mark that may be true in a wild environment, but last time I checked I don't have an African termite mound in my snake room. The wild snakes also don't have some nice person knocking at the entrance of that termite mound offering them a rodent every Thursday night. In other words, wild is wild - our snakes aren't wild so for me it doesn't equate.

My point is that they are designed by nature to cull all of the sick and weak animals from the colony. I think that throwing away a rat just because it has tumors or is losing weight is a waste.

[littleindiangirl]

$15 for 1 cc? Wow! I love my vet even more. Told him when I took my dog in for an ear infection that a few of my rats were sneezy and asked if he'd compound me some more Baytril. $20 for a HUGE bottle of peanut butter flavored Baytril (3oz if I'm reading his handwriting correct). I've already administered 15 cc's since last week across three rats with hardly a dent in the bottle.

Yea i know! It was already in a solution too. I suppose I could go somewhere else, but she knows rats.

[frankykeno]

My point is that they are designed by nature to cull all of the sick and weak animals from the colony. I think that throwing away a rat just because it has tumors or is losing weight is a waste.

For me, I'd far rather have a sick rat go to waste than waste a snake's time and energy digesting a less than top quality prey item.

[JeffFlanagan]

You have to keep in mind, I treat all my rats like pets. They all have names, visit with us regularly, and are generally just pet rats when not nursing or breeding.

I treat mine well, they have wheels, toys, special treats, and I like to hold the calm ones, so I guess I do treat mine as pets to some degree, but I'm not nearly creative enough to name them all. I only have one rat I've named. He looks like a little polar-bear and is a great breeder, so I call him papa-bear. He just had a litter with one of his daughters, and they're all adorable miniature versions of their sire.

Does anyone here sell their cuter rats to pet shops? I've been thinking about the possibility since some are just way too cute for me to feed off.