Saved a baby rat

[sheila3935]

Yesterday DH went to the pet store to get a rat for his boa. I told him to cover the cage and not let me see the rat or else it would be taken out and put in with DD's rats. Well after about 5 hours DH took the cover off and lo and behold the rat is still in there and I SEE IT. Well thats it. He has to come out. Now DD has a new rat. Everyone meet Nicodemus. He was saved like the rats of NIHM.

 

[denasfarm]

Precious pup!
I miss having a rat. We have had several over the years.
Our last rat Chica died in October this year. She was over three years old.

 

[gritsar]

Cute!

 

[sheila3935]

Im so sorry. DD has one girl that vet thinks has cancer. She had one tumor removed and within 3 weeks another came up. Vet said there is no treatment for cancer in rats. Ironic isnt it since they use rats for experiments on cancers. But she is doing well right now, just a big mammary tumor. We have extras 11 in all

 

[chicks4kids]

So cute!! I love black n white rats as pets.....not so keen on the albino rats though...

But he's so cute!!!

 

[sheila3935]

She has 1 black 3 black and white 2 white but not albino 5 naked rats.

 

[Sumatra503]

I always feed frozen mice and rats to my snake. Whenever I have toget live ones thay rarely make it into the tank. I just go back the next day and trade them for frozen ones.

Nicky is so adorable!!

 

[ladycrotalus]

Thats a good way to get a dead or chewed up snake. When feeding live prey, the event needs to be strictly monitored to intervene when the rodent decides to chew on the snake. Also if the snake doesn't eat in 15 minutes the rodent needs to be taken out and try again a week later.

This is why i feed pre-killed http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v704/ladycrotalus/ball_chew.jpg
That ball python was still alive when that picture was taken and was euthanized shortly after.

 

[Nekhebet]

Quote:
Yeah, that doesn't seem normal. What the heck kind of rat were they feeding it, was it the proper size??

I do feed live, and regretted it for one snake, who struck badly and got nicked several times....but my other python seems fine. Usually, even if they don't want to eat it, my snakes would always take the time out of their days to kill the rodent. My boa was notorious for killing the interloper and then leaving the body there without eating.

Anyway, it seems odd that the snake didn't fight back? Perhaps there was something otherwise wrong with the snake, or it was unheated and left overnight with a hungry rat. Just my thoughts.

 

[ladycrotalus]

Quote:
Yeah, that doesn't seem normal. What the heck kind of rat were they feeding it, was it the proper size??

I do feed live, and regretted it for one snake, who struck badly and got nicked several times....but my other python seems fine. Usually, even if they don't want to eat it, my snakes would always take the time out of their days to kill the rodent. My boa was notorious for killing the interloper and then leaving the body there without eating.

Anyway, it seems odd that the snake didn't fight back? Perhaps there was something otherwise wrong with the snake, or it was unheated and left overnight with a hungry rat. Just my thoughts.

A mouse was left with that ball python over night. In a tank, predator and prey cannot get away from each other like in the wild, and if the snake isn't hungry, it usually will just ignore the prey. Mice and rats can be aggressive and defensive, especially if they are frightened or nervous. Even a bored rodent will start to gnaw on whatever is in the tank, snake included.