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Info Everegreen Pet Supply in Spokane Valley...sick rodents!

Well I wouldn't own snakes if I was living in someone else's house that can't handle the source of food they eat. You are also to blame for the dumping of the live rats IMO since you were aware of the fact rats were not welcome in the house.
 
I DON'T feel that I am to blame because the PET STORE said on the phone they would take them back, and REFUSED.
According to you they all they don't even look sick--and I'm no rat expert either--so I don't understand WHY then they wouldn't take them back.
My plan was not to keep them as pets but to return them to the store.
They did not allow that to happen.
 
but then again, perhaps you are right. Maybe I need to stop this "save all the animals" syndrome and just feed them to my snakes next time even if they are sick. :(
Maybe I'm completely wrong.
 
You are to blame. Your parents do not want rats in their home but YOU bought them and put the rats in THEIR house. If you hadn't got the rats in the first place they won't be out in the cold streets.
 
...anyway, to sum it up, the rats I bought at Evergreen sneezed a lot and seemed sick to me, but perhaps they were not.
I posted this as an "info" thread for that reason, because I don't know if Evergreen is to blame or if perhaps the rats only had allergies. I'm no expert.
I don't think I will buy from Evergreen again without inspecting the rats closer before buying them, but if I was going to buy live again I might consider them.
 
it could have just been new home sniffles. When stressed( and being brought into a new home/environment counts), rats can sneeze more often, and new owners or people that are unaware, think they are sick. I have pet rats, and had found one at work, and just bought new one for the found ones cagemate ( after qtining). both the found rat, and then later on, the new rat went through a few days of sneezing. It did subside, then stop after about a week. Perhaps that was just what it was. Now, not saying they werent sick or anything or couldnt have been sick, just passing on some info for you for future reference. You can always do what I call 'steam cleaning' the rats.... put them in your bathroom, in a ventilated cage, and run hot water in the shower. they the bathroom steam up, and them breathing in the warm moist air will help break anything up that may be inside them. Tho, this was info I retreived to help sick rats, I have done it in the past for new rats with new home sniffles and it seemed to help for a bit. I didnt do it this last time because I can't, we have no hot water, but it still went away as the rat adjusted to the new home.

My only suggestion to you would be to see if you can find a person locally that breeds their own rats for sale and get from them. Pet stores are the last place I get rats from, and when I do, I ask them to order them for me so I dont get ones that have been sitting around in the petstore for a while ( but to be fair, i need smaller sized rats, and best shot at getting them are ordering them). That is the only way I can think of shy from breeding your own ( which will not be possible if parent has a fear of them)

Good luck, i do personally hate having to rely on pet stores for food for my snakes.

janet kovacic
 
shelliebear said:
...anyway, to sum it up, the rats I bought at Evergreen sneezed a lot and seemed sick to me, but perhaps they were not.
I posted this as an "info" thread for that reason, because I don't know if Evergreen is to blame or if perhaps the rats only had allergies. I'm no expert.
I don't think I will buy from Evergreen again without inspecting the rats closer before buying them, but if I was going to buy live again I might consider them.
Click to expand...

After the supposedly sold you sick rats now you are going to buy from them again?
You admitted to letting the rats go free? To spread more disease if they were sick or to freeze to death?

Why would they not take them back? Too young like the one guy said or sick like the other lady said? I am sorry but taking feeder rats to a vet to me just does not seem feasible.
 
deborahbroadus said:
You beat me to it, I posted before seeing your pictures. I do not see mucus on the rats, they appear healthy to me. Good luck.

I am not sure about giving potato to rats, I think they aren't an approved food?
Click to expand...

On closer inspection, I see that you named one of the rats potato... is it usual to name feeders?
Anyway, that's where my confusion came from (I thought you were feeding them potatoes)..I apologize.:)
 
No you did not read any of my posts.
A. I did NOT consent to them being let go. My dad did it without telling me a damn thing.
B. I said I would CONSIDER buying from them because according to the people on here, who I trust a lot more than me, the rats looked ok. As Janet said maybe they had sniffles from a new house. I DON'T KNOW. I would go inspect the rats and if they were healthy, I might buy them.
If they were sneezing like the ones I got last time were, NO, clearly I would not buy them.
I do NOT agree with releasing animals onto the streets. It was a dumb idea and I'm BEYOND ANGRY but no, I did NOT give consent to that.
They wouldn't take them back because the guy at the store said since I SAID they were sneezing he did not feel comfortable taking them back because mycoplasma can wipe out whole colonies of rats very quickly and then he would have to freeze them all and start over.
 
I don't usually name feeders but I did name them once I realized they were sick and did not want to give them to my snakes (I admit I have a soft spot for them and the names just kind of came to me. But other feeders I let my fiance Max handle because I do know I have a soft spot. The sneezing was evident before I cold even leave the room.)
 
First, where exactly are you keeping the feeder rats you are purchasing? You mentioned getting some that would have been kept a while in the bin, but your parents won't let them in the house and you live in Washington.

The rats look perfectly healthy in the pics, with clear eyes and eating and healthy looking fur. They don't look sick.

Stores generally do not take back rats. If they did, they'd be selling and refunding as people buy the rodents, the snakes don't eat and the people bring them back over and over, exposing the feeders in the store to who knows what.

Just because "you cried over it" doesn't mean it's not your fault that you keep bringing in animals that your parents will not tolerate in the house. If your father said the rats couldn't come into the house it was YOUR duty by those animals to kill them and dispose of them or feed them to animals. You could have killed and frozen them and then served them up as FT. Turning loose domestic animals is cruel.

Keeping feeders outside without proper heat is also cruel, since you said you couldn't bring them INSIDE and the only reason that INSIDE would be better than wherever they were... is if wherever they were isn't heated or otherwise is unsuitable.

Making an accusation on the wrong place(Pet supply vs Pets) on rats that look healthy and may have been sniffling due to the fact that you keep them in unsuitable places, and then saying that the rats were released rather than kept, rehomed or killed off, and trying to act as if somehow none of it is your fault because you 'feel really bad about it' is immature. There's an obvious issue.

Figure out what you are going to feed your animals and where you will humanely keep the feeders you continue to buy. If your parents will not allow feeders in a humane area, switch to only FT or don't keep animals that require live feeders. You can't say "I love rats" and then be doing things that results in inhumane care. Sorry if it sounds harsh to you, but so is freezing to death outside slowly because someone can't figure out what to do with a unwanted live animal.
 
Ah yeah I did read your post.

I am not good with the multi quote thing so bear with me.

You said in post # 7 "My mom wouldn't let me keep them in the house (hence why I tried to return them) so my dad took them on his paper route and let them go. I had no other choice. They are not allowed in the house."

To me this sounds like you knew exactly what happened to them. Just my opinion.

In post 4 "Evergreen Pet Supply didn't take the rodents back. They said they were worried the other rats would get sick...THEY ALREADY ARE." But in post #18 "The store guy did say they are pretty young, so they might be sick from leaving their mother too early? " But now in post #30 "I SAID they were sneezing he did not feel comfortable taking them back because mycoplasma can wipe out whole colonies of rats very quickly and then he would have to freeze them all and start over. "... So which was it?
 
The guy at the store said several different things to me. All of those things he said to me at different points during our discussion. The last thing he said to me was, "Because they might have mycoplasma I do not feel comfortable taking them back."
The other things were said too however.
I did NOT know my parents would dump them somewhere outside. I knew they weren't allowed as pets. I did not think an emergency situation would be handled like that--and it was an emergency.
I'm not trying to be cruel to my feeders. I have a bin a (usually) rat food in case the snakes don't eat them, or, I guess now if they are sick or otherwise. They do not sit outside.
How was I supposed to know that nobody would respect my idea of trying to rehome the rats, and just disregard me and throw them outside?
If your friend kills someone and you didn't know you aren't liable. I'm not either.
I've kept rats overnight before and fed them off the next morning.
This one time I was concerned about their health and didn't do that. I had no idea it would be so different fro mthe other situations in which they were fed off.
Not my fault that someone else has no heart for rodents.
 
porkchop48 said:
Ah yeah I did read your post.

I am not good with the multi quote thing so bear with me.

You said in post # 7 "My mom wouldn't let me keep them in the house (hence why I tried to return them) so my dad took them on his paper route and let them go. I had no other choice. They are not allowed in the house."

To me this sounds like you knew exactly what happened to them. Just my opinion.

In post 4 "Evergreen Pet Supply didn't take the rodents back. They said they were worried the other rats would get sick...THEY ALREADY ARE." But in post #18 "The store guy did say they are pretty young, so they might be sick from leaving their mother too early? " But now in post #30 "I SAID they were sneezing he did not feel comfortable taking them back because mycoplasma can wipe out whole colonies of rats very quickly and then he would have to freeze them all and start over. "... So which was it?
Click to expand...

At this point, I think she's just spouting from a link I sent her a few minutes ago when she asked for information on allergies in rats.

I think all her information is suspect, and it's not an "info" thread so much as a "look at me" thread.:shrug01:
 
....but that still isn't the point of the thread IMO because the point was just CHECK THE RATS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM AT EVERGREEN because mine had sniffles and seemed sick, just make sure yours aren't sick.
That's the whole point.
Can we be back on topic now? Not that there's really anything left to say if the rats were healthy, which by all means seems to be the general consensus here.
 
A look-at-me thread? Are you kidding me?
No offense but I don't really want YOU looking at me anyway. You bother me a lot. You didn't have to open the page.
If I want attention, believe me, I know how to get it, and I don't think it would be from any of you.
But I feel honored that you invented that whole idea just for me. :)
 
If you friend kills someone and they told you before hand that they were going to kill that person and you didn't report it to the authorities...you can be held liable.

Your parents told you rats were not to be in the house. Yet you put them in the house. You said you had no other choice but to let your Dad dump them but you could have turned them over to the humane society. You are liable.
 
One of the realities behind keeping a predator is having to kill prey... I actually do think it's admirable of you to care about the welfare of your feeders while they are alive, although I will agree with others that the rats do not look extremely sick. I doubt that's what caused your snake to refuse to eat.

Hopefully this is just an isolated incident and you do not get stuck with rats again. If it does happen, though, what I would recommend is culling and freezing the rats until you want to feed them to your snakes. Hopefully one of them will take a thawed rat?

Certainly better than dumping them outside!!! (I know your dad didn't ask you permission before doing this but now you know this is what he does... don't let it happen again)
 
I had no other choice because I wasn't informed of the choice in the first place
:lmao:
You SO are not reading my posts...wow.
They didn't TELL me they were going to do that or the rats wouldn't have been dumped.
Does it help if I shorten it up into one post like that?
 
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