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rant about feeder mice

would you feed sick mice or rats to your snakes?

  • sure they are just feeders it dosent matter what condition they are in

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • sure as long as there is nothing serious wrong

    Votes: 4 3.8%

  • no I want my feeders to be at least healthy

    Votes: 18 17.0%

  • NO! I want my snake to have healthy, fat, and high quality mice/rats

    Votes: 82 77.4%
  • Total voters
    106
akaangela

akaangela

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I am breeding feeder mice. I belive that they should be happy (as a mouse can be) and healthy (I wont feed a sick mouse to my snakes). I went to get some feeders at the local pet store. Now mind you I am paying $3 a piece for one mouse. I got them and they where in HORRIBLE condition. skin and bones What good are they going to be to my snake if they arent healthy (perferable with a bit of fat on them).

Am I just being silly? I know that they will die but IMHO I think they should be healthy and clean before they are dinner. Do any of you care what condition the mice or rats you feed are? Will you feed skinny or malnurshied animals to your snakes?

I have them quarinteened and are feeding them up with good cat and dog food with mice pellets and plenty of fresh water. Is there anything else I should do to get them healthy? The woman at the pet store said "I cant even garentee how long they will live" All of them you can feel thier backbone and two had filthy tails .

This makes me SO mad. Just because they are feeders don't mean you can mis treat them so badly.

P.s is sugar water ok to add a bit of calories for them? It looks like a few of them are pregnant :) but are so thin I don't see how they can sustain any kind of pregnancy. Thanks :)
 
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Three dollars for a skinny/half dead feeder mouse. That's grand larceny.
I don't know about sugar water, I think just plain old water, food and clean bedding will do them a world of good. It sounds like they haven't had any of that for a while.

I only feed healthy and clean mice to my snakes.
 
I know $3 is a ton to pay for what you get. They have everyone here over a barrel as they are the ONLY place in town unless you drive over an hour and half to get anything. The only other pet shop that sold small animals went out of biz about a year ago :( It was too bad as they where a really GOOD pet shop. Once my mice start taking off I am thinking about selling them ;) maybe I can offset my cost AND make them raise the quality of animals they sell.
 
I breed my own and if there is even a scar or scab from another mouse it goes to the caiman. I feed only healthy rodents to my snakes. That is one of the main reasons I breed my own. The shop I used to deal with had some messed up looking rodents and I got mites into my collection because of their unacceptable conditions. Thank God that was long ago before I had as many snakes as I have now.
 
The really stinky thing is one died in the middle of the night :( I am going to freeze her and maybe be able to feed her to someone after she has been on ice long enough to kill whatever killed her. I kinda think it might have been starvation as she was very very thin. three bucks down the drain. At least the others are doing ok. they are running around and even using the wheel in their cage.
 
I wouldn't feed the one that died to MY snake, mainly because you really don't know WHAT killed it. I know it's three bucks wasted, but how much could it cost you if it made your snake ill? :slamit:
 
I think the ratio of protein

for mice of food is between 21 to 23 %. I would get them on that ratio of protein with a good breeding colony rodent food. There seems to be a world of difference compared to feeding dog and cat food. Also the mice seems to be a little less cannibalistic on rodent feed.
 
I feed my rats on 28% protein champion dog food, you can get 50lb bags of it with that protein % for 20 dollars or so if you search around enough. Makes for some healthy, fat, TASTY morsels for my babies.
 
Hey there,
i wouldn't advise feeding them sugar at all, that would make bad snake food. Chocolate is toxic to most animals, mice will die or get ill if you feed it to them. Feeding fresh veggies can be good for them, can sometimes cause diahrreha, don't feed anything that gives them the runs, you may be feeding them too much of it or it could just not be good food for them.
With rodents, they can eat almost anything, so try mixing things like whole grain bread or cereal, rabbit pellets, dry dog or cat food, and rodent mixes and just be sure they aren't just pure lard balls. a little fat is nice for you snakes, but keep the ratio of muscle to fat reasonable. Seeds and nuts are very fattening, so be sure you don't give them too much, maybe a few seed treats per dish fill up. Mice that are obese will could make your snakes obese which is just as bad as underfed or malnourished animals. iw ould also suggest handling the mice a little so you and your snake are less likely to get nipped. The people who feed live from negligent petstores that don't hndle their mice much seem to get bit more often, but that's just my experience.

here's a good general guide to food, other pages include info on beddings, cleaning etc:
http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/careofmice/a/mousecare_3.htm

this site says apples, carrots, celery, and fresh hay. it also describes symptoms of ill mice.
http://www.rspcavic.org/animal_care/rabbitcare.htm
this site talks about housing:
http://www.afrma.org/rminfo1.htm
more genral feeding and other info:
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/mouse/mouse.php
I don't know how obsessive you want to be, but watch out for veggies that may have lots of pesticides or hormones, the more processed a food it, the less nutrition it is going to have for your mice: ie white bread is nutrient poor, but whole grain bread will have more vitamins, calories, etc. always wash fresh fruits or veggies, sometimes you can buy specific produce soaps to clean food. The more health-oreinted you can be for your feeders, the healthier snakes you will have.
good luck!
 
I raise a pile of mice every year. I feed 1 part cornflakes, 1 part premium bird seed (the kind with nuts), And 1 part dog food (Without dyes). This has been working great for me for many years. and the feed bills are not that high at all. Here is some pics of my mice.
 
in nature, animals that are sick/weak/old are the first to be eaten by preditors, which dont usually contract whatever that animal was sick with. esp when it comes to reptiles eating rodents. When it comes to my personal mice that i breed, i make sure they are healthy, just because they produce better, i feed mine lab rat diet, with a bit of hippie dog food on top for the adults, but i cut way back on that when i realized feeding them too much protien was leading to cannibalism. i also give them an assortment of fruits and veggies. i find that young animals grow considerably faster when offered greens.
 
I do not feed any fruits and veggies, they tend to draw fruit flies. I tried this once with my roaches, it was nothing but a nightmare.

I have started feeding a little Purina rat chow, it is awesome stuff. A 50lb bag lasts a life time, lol.
 
I thaught I was getting ripped at $2 a piece... sheesh... I don't have a problem with feeding a sick mouse to snakes because I don't know of any diseases that can be spread from the mouse to the snake, but I prefer healthy fat mice... Also, in the wild, snakes will usually be able to catch and eat the sick ones much more often so I am pretty sure it isn't much of a difference to them... I look at it more in the amount of food in grams each mouse is providing the snake... If it is a sick small mouse, I feed the snakes two of them instead of one fat healthy mouse...

Tip: Buy frozen mice online...
 
sfaoldguy said:
I don't know of any diseases that can be spread from the mouse to the snake
Click to expand...
Hmm.. how's roundworm, pinworm, and hookworm to name a few?
sfaoldguy said:
Tip: Buy frozen mice online...
Click to expand...
Frozen is the way to go. After about 2 weeks, the chances of anything surviving in the mouse are slim to nil. I bought hundreds of mice and rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory (in TX). The box weighed 91lbs with the dry ice! All together, including shipping, it was only ~$300. It's lasted a little over 7 months now, and I still have many of the rats I got left. It's all vacuum packed and will last ~1yr. I'm just now running out of small stuff (pinks, fuzzies, etc). That's with 17 snakes being fed!
 
well i just returned from the vet and my male redtail boa has a bacterial infection which the vet thinks came from a batch of sick feeders i got 3 weeks ago . normally i feed the rats i raise but they weren't quite big enough .
so 139.00 dollars later i learned that it's better to feed from my own stock rather than take a risk on someone elses .
 
My mice receive the same treatment as my snakes. Always clean bedding, water and food. Tamara makes a good point though, in the wild the debilitated and sickly animals are the first to go. Nevertheles that doesn't mean that we have to risk the snake's health by feeding sick rodents.

Regards.
 
i breed my own rats and they get the same high quality care that my snakes do . i figure neither the snakes or the rats asked to be kept so since i am resposible for their care , i owe it to them to give them the best care possible . even though my rats will eventually be food i figure that until then they deserve a good healthy life .

i never have and never will knowingly feed an unhealthy rodent to my snakes .
 
feeders should be spoiled :D

If your snake is good enough to be papmpered, the food it gets should be treated as well. Anyone who genuinely wants their pets to do well will avoid every possible problem they can... and yes, sick and diseased animals usually get eaten first, but that doesn't mean snakes can't be good enough or lucky enough hunters to get healthy food at least some of the time, and i imagine their healthier diet would allow them to survive tougher times than those who eat poorer-quality food in general. Animals that can afford to pass up the sick mouse because they just ate a nice fat one will be less likely to get the same disease the prey has. A desperate and bad hunter may have to take that risk...

Either way I really wouldn't feed lesser quality food on the offhand chance of it having something that it would share with my pets, and I knew this was an expensive hobby getting into, so I may as well spend good money on great food so i don't damage my wonderful pets... :D
 
Speaken of fat mice I recently had a strain that turn obese when compared to the others. I usually play genetics with my mice colony just to add some spice to the chores. There was some that were born tan with black "tigerish" stripes. They seemed really cool so I started to breed them. The females gave birth once but then they started to gain weight like crazy. I thought they were pregnant again but no, they were just plain fat. Finally I had to discard that whole group. Nice looking but very poor breeders.

Regards.
 
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