crazy rat!!!!!!!!!

[stangs13]

Woh...you big female only needs to be fed 1 small rat a week, it will save you on money, and it could possibly save the snake.

[dmaricle]

Woh...you big female only needs to be fed 1 small rat a week, it will save you on money, and it could possibly save the snake.

so you think im feeding her to much? i thought twice a week was normal.

[JLC]

Woh...you big female only needs to be fed 1 small rat a week, it will save you on money, and it could possibly save the snake.

so you think im feeding her to much? i thought twice a week was normal.

Depends entirely on what species of "big female" she is. Two large rats a week might be fine for a really big boa or a growing burmese. But WAY too much food for any ball python. Regardless of species though...feeding more often than once a week for a mature snake is not usually recommended. Might be ok for babies and rapidly growing juvies...but for most commonly kept species, a mature snake never needs to eat more than every 7-10 days.

[littleindiangirl]

Did you see her attacking herself?

Rats do groom themselves when other rats are "grooming" them. (Where they hold down another rat and "bite" them in one particular spot.) Many times they will jump up and quickly groom themselves right where the other rat just had done it. It looks like they are biting their own backs or whereever, but they are in a sense scratching themselves and grooming. It's a part of the social heirarchy, and my guess is you saw that and thought they were fighting. They can screech and be loud during this, it's completely NORMAL.

If not...

My guess is you saw a rat fight. Female rats that are unfamiliar with each other and close to full grown will fight. It's not all fun and games with them.

My guess is she is was in heat and the male attempted to mate, making her extremely stressed and defensive. Or, perhaps another female in heat was feeling bossy and decided to take after her. (The holding her down is a form of dominance)

Rats can be very vocal (sometimes like they are killing each other), but if it was truly a fight, there would have been many injuries and blood.

I would watch the others closely and monitor for any illness or parasties (mainly external).

Always quarantine new additions for a minimum of 30 days away from the colony. Rats are susceptible to many diseases and parasites.

[Jenn]

I'm curious what kind of snake you are talking about. JLC makes a very good point. NO BP should be eating two large rats a week. And, I could be wrong here, but I don't think anyone feeds large rats to a BP. Feeding multiple mice is fine. Certainly better than too large a prey item.

[dmaricle]

i put the rat back with the colony and it happened again. there is no blood when they fight just alot of nioise and rolling around and holding down. so i think i may just put her with a male all alone.

i talked to brian at bhb and he said that its cool to feed my balls large rats but what i probably gonna do is gradually cross over to several mice a week. and the snake we have been talking about is a normal female ball python around 3000 grams.

thanks for all the tips.

[littleindiangirl]

i put the rat back with the colony and it happened again. there is no blood when they fight just alot of nioise and rolling around and holding down. so i think i may just put her with a male all alone.

i talked to brian at bhb and he said that its cool to feed my balls large rats but what i probably gonna do is gradually cross over to several mice a week. and the snake we have been talking about is a normal female ball python around 3000 grams.

thanks for all the tips.

What your describing is absolutely, no doubt about it, NORMAL.

They have a social ladder that has to be worked out everytime you introduce a animal.

It should be blatantly obvious who the culprit is. I like to remove the overly pushy ones away from rats I know they will not get along with. This sounds like the same scenario.

If you find that SHE is the overly pushy girl, your right on the money she should be left alone with just the male. She's most likely in heat as well. Usually after their first litter they calm down.

[dmaricle]

thats prob it. the only part that freaked me out is the fact that they have been together in the same cage for over a month. and i bought them all together so they have been a group for a long time and then all of a sudden they changed. she must be in heat but the male seems to show no interest.

[SatanicIntention]

No blood, no foul.

[dmaricle]

i am probably making another rat hut today because it seems that they just cant be together anymore lol