Rat breeding

[bowdnboy]

Hey there.
Am thinking about making up a rat rack and start to breed my own food.

With regards to the animals, do I just by them from a petshop, will any rat do?
Do they need to be treated / wormes etc.... with anything to make them right to be fed to my snakes?
do you have to freeze them before feeding or can u feed freshly 'dispatched'.

Your thoughts r appreciated

Cheers

 

[gman78]

Any rats from a good pet shop will do, Lab rats are better.
Worm them every once in a while if you can.
Feeding frozen food is better for the snakes as it will kill mites and worms.

 

[SCam]

i jst bought my rats from the pet store and put them together and they did the rest, i do worm them every once in a while then when they get to the certain size u want kill them then put them in the freezer for 48hours so it can kill any "bad stuff"

 

[bowdnboy]

thanks for that. another Q, whats the best way to kill them humanely?

 

[funcouple]

either co2 gas them. either make it with vinegar and baking soda or buy the gas. or do as i do, hit them on the head. they dont seem to complain

 

[daniel1234]

What do you hit them with. I brought a trap from the shop and it was useless, poor rat. Maybe I need to go to the hardware shop and buy a wooden one (other was plastic). I am not fond of CO2 as the rat dies due to toxins building up in the body which end up in your snake (Proberbly alot of dribble but I need to justify my years at uni).

 

[Sdaji]

Try to get rats from a feed line rather than lab rats (which are rarely available live anyway). Pet shop rats vary a lot, you might get good ones, you might get bad ones, but if you can't get anything else it's worth a try, and if you get bad ones just search for something better.

Daniel: Please don't try to use rat traps as a method of killing them! They'll be extremely inefficient and cruel compared to much easier methods. CO2 does not build up in the system even to a remotely toxic level. Justifying your years at uni is probably better done by using something you actually learned there rather than talking complete crap

 

[wokka]

Sdaji, Havn't you noticed the correlation between increased use of CO2 ans the appearence of mystery diseases?

 

[solar 17]

rats as food

Coles got it right "in my opinion" fresh is best.....rats have long tails for a reason "conk" on the concrete floor "instant" no suffering ...cheers solar 17

 

[notechistiger]

Pet shop rats vary a lot, you might get good ones, you might get bad ones

What do you consider a bad one?

 

[xenathepython]

co2 is the best method, it leaves no room for error, rats have the right to have a good life and so make sure that the rats that you feed and breed are treated with care and consideration.

 

[miss2]

now i dont have snakes, but i did used to have to "knock off" the rats and guinea pigs" at the zoo for feeding times. now as much as they are only rats etc i personally still believe that they have a right to die humanely, we used gas and i believe that it should be the common tool.
just my 2 cents and i can tell that someone is gonna yell at me here for my opinion, but i dont care coz thats what i think

 

[cris]

The most important thing is to get some that dont bite, as said above it can be hit and miss at petshops. I have only ever got them from petshops and most have been good. They dont seem to have anymore than 18 young, but i think they look better with markings on them.

Rats being raised for snake food are best kept in large enclosures rather than many small plastic tubs.

 

[becspythons]

I just get my rats from the pet store, and breed all the females I need for the winter season as I can't breed them in summer. But my prefered method of killing them is just freezing them. (I'll prob get in trouble for some reason though!)

 

[cris]

co2 is the best method, it leaves no room for error, rats have the right to have a good life and so make sure that the rats that you feed and breed are treated with care and consideration.

Not really the case, there is room for error just like any method. CO2 is only humane when used correctly and it isnt very effective at killing young rodents. CO2 is definately the best option if you are squemish about killing them with force, other than that its a waste of time and money IMO.

 

[coz666]

imo
quickest and humanest way is to pt your hand around there neck and push your thumb forward. it dislocates the neck and instantly kills the animal, you will need to be shown correct procedure.

no pain from freezing to death,sometimes can take hours and even though the animal eventually goes to sleep , it can also suffer from frostbite, you will notice eyeballs tip of nose and feet will have a strange look , that is ice burn, nasty stuff

no slow putrid last breaths( gassing is not an instant death and yes there can be gas residue........ airline that run gases and even oxygen in hospitals get changed regularly cos of the build up of an oily substance in the lines. every breath any living creature including us breathes, our bodies take in to our bloodstream (this is how we get oxygen into our bloodstream , influenza, etc) you can deflate the lungs so that there is no gas left in the lung by just pushing the in a few times but it will still be in the rodent.

, and bricking them is no good cos if you miss... well you understand,

to quote my grandfather " when you live on a farm and you get a plague of the suckers you want to get rid of em before the bastards bite you" he taught me so now i have a large steel co2 cylinder thats pretty full, and i havent used it in years.

get any rat, just dont use trapped rats from around your place, they have heaps of parasites and usually baited.

 

[xenathepython]

freezing them alive is terrible, they have a large body mass and it would be like freezing humans, there fingers and toes would freeze first. that in my opinion is the worst and cruelest way to die.

 

[Sdaji]

Sdaji, Havn't you noticed the correlation between increased use of CO2 ans the appearence of mystery diseases?

Maybe you're right! I'm going to continue clonking so that my snakes remain free of OPMV, IBD, LPM7 and mites.

notechistiger: Ones which bite you, don't produce babies, have small litters, eat their babies or neglect them, grow slowly, fight, etc etc etc.

 

[Southside Morelia]

I just hold the tail and back legs, thumb behind the head holding the head with thumb and forefinger and a quick sharp pull. The head as said before by coz666, pulls away from the spine and the animal dies instantly without any suffering. It takes prctice only a couple of times I guess, but is quick and cheap....I don't like gassing, watching the poor buggers gasping for their last breath.
This is more humane IMO.

 

[fishead]

Hey guys, I used to be a devoted clonker but have found cervical dislocation to be more efficient and no bleeding.
I hold them by the tail so that their front feet are on the bench - or whatever hard surface is handy. Then pin them down behind the head with a long screwdriver or whatever, just like the Byron Bay snake catcher guy does to snakeys lift their bum over their head and crack they're dead. No blood, no second goes.