The story of Chipper the small rat

[Dawn Zimmerman]

So... I just got my first snake, Riley about 12 days ago and last week I went and bought him a small live rat and a f/t rat pup. Trying to switch him over to f/t as his last owner fed him live. Riley (my snake) wouldn't eat the live rat, which my husband named Chipper to make me feel bad for feeding a cute, little fuzzy, wuzzy rat to a big, cold snake. His opinion, not mine. lol I presented the rat to my snake 3 times over 3 days and Riley showed no interest at all. The rat was very interested, however, and followed Riley around the cage so that he could climb in the middle of his coils and sleep up against Riley's body. The snake was unimpressed with Chipper's apparent attempts to be his new best friend and struck out at him with a closed mouth a number of times to try to get rid of him which didn't work. Riley moved, the rat followed. Riley moved again, the rat followed. This went on for the first three days I presented the Chipper to Riley.

The fourth day I didn't bother, thought I'd give the rat and the snake a break. I then realized that after having the little guy that long I didn't want to see the cute, little fuzzy, wuzzy rat eaten by anyone's snake so I decided I would find him a home. So this morning I was going to call my friend and her daughter who keeps mice to see if she'd take him. My husband told me that Chipper had fallen asleep on his cheese. He was NOT sleeping. I learned from my friend's daughter that cheese is supposed to be really bad for rats and mice. Is that true? I really didn't have a proper set up for a rat or any food as I was never planning on caring for a rat, he was supposed to be snake food. My friend said that breeder rats are often not well because of inbreeding, poor care, etc. and that the twitch I had noticed that he had from the beginning was probably because of that and why he died.

What do you guys think: Did I kill this rat by feeding it cheese or did he die from other health issues?

 

[Michael Brown]

Rats pick through garbage. They will eat anything and everything they can get in their mouths.

You DID NOT kill the rat with cheese unless it was laced with poison lol. Your fine, IMO you should freeze the rat and use it for further attempts on your little guy. I never recommend live, but its your snake not mine. Im not going to list the obvious reasons rats can cause great harm to your snake when you asked a simple question.

hope I helped

 

[missinasworld]

cheese would have given him the runs and he could have become dehydrated and died but you would have noticed that. he probably was sick fromt he time you got him or he *could* have been to young to be away from mommy0you said small but I'm not sure how small. rats tend to stay with their moms untill about 21-30days. I use to breed rats several years back. pet store ones LOVE to die it seems.
Tell your husband to stop nameing the snake food-or if he must then have him name it After food-that makes it a little better IMO.

Good luck with your snake!

Missina

 

[Dawn Zimmerman]

Rats pick through garbage. They will eat anything and everything they can get in their mouths.

You DID NOT kill the rat with cheese unless it was laced with poison lol. Your fine, IMO you should freeze the rat and use it for further attempts on your little guy. I never recommend live, but its your snake not mine. Im not going to list the obvious reasons rats can cause great harm to your snake when you asked a simple question.

hope I helped

I don't think live is a great idea, either. The guy I got him from 2 weeks ago was feeding him live only and so I am trying to switch him over. The owner of the reptile store told me to take a thawed rat pup and rub it up against the live one and after the snake eats the live one to then wiggle the dead one in front of him to see if he will take it. I've rubbed a dead rat pup onto a live one twice now and both times Riley wouldn't eat the live rat so after a few hours I ended up throwing the dead rat out. I am thinking that once I've thawed out the rat that it would be unhealthy for the snake to refreeze the rat pup and use it again... is that true? I was just thinking that because I've heard not to do that with meat, but perhaps that's just a flavor thing. What do you think?

Anyone?

 

[Dawn Zimmerman]

cheese would have given him the runs and he could have become dehydrated and died but you would have noticed that. he probably was sick fromt he time you got him or he *could* have been to young to be away from mommy0you said small but I'm not sure how small. rats tend to stay with their moms untill about 21-30days. I use to breed rats several years back. pet store ones LOVE to die it seems.
Tell your husband to stop nameing the snake food-or if he must then have him name it After food-that makes it a little better IMO.

Good luck with your snake!

Missina

He was already weaned, but not yet full grown. I know he didn't have the runs and he was urinating and drinking water every day for most days. The night before he died he didn't drink much water. When I found him the next morning he was face down on his cheese. I got him from a reptile store, the guy breeds his own. I doubt I will be able to convince my husband to name the rats after food, he names them purposely so that I will feel bad. If I don't get this snake switched over to frozen thawed soon I wouldn't be at all surprised if he started naming them after my relatives! Thanks Missina! How is the situation with your burnt house and all the reptiles going? Do you all have a place to stay?

 

[missinasworld]

He was already weaned, but not yet full grown. I know he didn't have the runs and he was urinating and drinking water every day for most days. The night before he died he didn't drink much water. When I found him the next morning he was face down on his cheese. I got him from a reptile store, the guy breeds his own. I doubt I will be able to convince my husband to name the rats after food, he names them purposely so that I will feel bad. If I don't get this snake switched over to frozen thawed soon I wouldn't be at all surprised if he started naming them after my relatives! Thanks Missina! How is the situation with your burnt house and all the reptiles going? Do you all have a place to stay?

Its going ok. better then I thought possible. I'm down to 17 or 18 leopard geckos and Im keeping those at my dads house along with my ferrets, skinks and salamanders. My mother's boss loaned us a house that is 3 hosues down from our burned down one. We are waiting for the insurance guy/gal to come out today and tell us what all of our stuff is worth..which will be fun when they see "melamine reptile racks" and "reptilebasic.com thermomates" and "3 sets of 27ft length of flexx watt heat tape" lol. they are gona be like "whaa?". then when they see the one rack that is not yet in peaces hopfully they get understand what it is because I will be at work.

that is rather mean of your husband. try telling him if he thinks rats are so cute that your gona start breeding them. the smell will drive him crazy. I loved my rats that I had but they really did stink and Bi-odor didn't work on them the way it works on ferrets.

missina

 

[Dawn Zimmerman]

Its going ok. better then I thought possible. I'm down to 17 or 18 leopard geckos and Im keeping those at my dads house along with my ferrets, skinks and salamanders. My mother's boss loaned us a house that is 3 hosues down from our burned down one. We are waiting for the insurance guy/gal to come out today and tell us what all of our stuff is worth..which will be fun when they see "melamine reptile racks" and "reptilebasic.com thermomates" and "3 sets of 27ft length of flexx watt heat tape" lol. they are gona be like "whaa?". then when they see the one rack that is not yet in peaces hopfully they get understand what it is because I will be at work.

that is rather mean of your husband. try telling him if he thinks rats are so cute that your gona start breeding them. the smell will drive him crazy. I loved my rats that I had but they really did stink and Bi-odor didn't work on them the way it works on ferrets.

missina

I am so happy that your mom's boss is loaning you a house to stay in! What a huge relief for you and your family. Yeah, it will be interesting to hear about what the insurance folks have to say about all your reptile stuff. lol Are leopard geckos the ones with the fat tails? I held one of those at my local reptile show for the first time recently and he was soooo cute and sweet! I told the lady who won him that she should name him Charmin, because he's white and really soft like you want to squeeze him, but you shouldn't.

My husband can be real sweet, but he does have his opinions, boy does he ever! Ha ha Yeah, they're cute and all, but I would never starve a snake to save a rat. They don't call them ratsnakes for nothing. lol Rats do stink! ugh. I only had the one for 5 days and every time the thing peed it's cage reeked of urine. Nasty. Unfortunately, my husband has no sense of smell, he lost it in a fall as a small child. The new rat pup's name is Timmy. Perhaps next time I will beat him to the bunch and name the rat "snakefood". Or maybe I should name it after my husband...

 

[leaveittoweaver]

Cheese would not have necessarily killed him, but it certainly is not good for them. More than likely, he had some sort of genetic defect. Also, he may have been taken away from his mother too early( you said he was a small rat, and sometimes the pet stores small rats are barely weaned) and died from malnutrition.