# Rodent Rescue



## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

So when I was getting feeders for my snakes, a little white baby rat caught my attention and interacted with my finger when I wiggled it in front of the tank. I spent two days thinking about the cutie before going back to the store and spending $10 to get him and a water bottle. I turned an old plastic storage bin into an enclosure with the help of a power drill, am using shredded newspaper for substrate, shredded paper towels for bedding, and I made a little cardboard house with four levels inside and four holes for poking out. 

I believe that this little one is a female because I see no sign of boybits but who knows. Either way, it's name is ******. It might not seem very creative, but it's actually fitting in with my Wonderland themed names(****** being the sexy brit in a bowler from Malice in Wonderland).

Anyway, here's a video of ****** enjoying an apple core and some cheerios in the comfort of the "mouse house".

http://s45.photobucket.com/user/straponwings/media/VID_20131206_190644_986_zpsa45593cc.mp4.html

It's crazy how sweet and tame this little rat fated for feedings turned out to be!


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## registereduser (Jul 30, 2010)

LOL @ boybits :lol:


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

lol well it was the most appropriate wording I could think of since I know that youthful eyes browse this forum.


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## RainbowhLizzie (Sep 15, 2013)

Oh my gawsh, the baby! She is so cute.
And I agree with the fact that feeder rats are one of the sweetest! My little girl, Patrick, use to sneak out of her cage to snuggle with me at night and alwayd gave me kisses when crawling around me. And she almost became snake chow before I bought her.

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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

cute. just a word of caution,they can easily chew through plastic in no time.keep an eye out for a metal cage with 1/2" spacing.they also need the extra airflow.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

be careful feeding apple to rats!! D: Apple seeds contain arsenic and can kill your sweet baby in no time I'd they eat too many. 

If you ever need to know anything about caring for ratties, let me know! I ran an actual rat rescue for years.


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## thekinetic (May 22, 2012)

Dawww cute!


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

I am familiar with the seeds being dangerous. I owned a couple of rats several years ago with a roomie and she always insisted on diligence in preparing their foods. So I actually picked the seeds out before I gave her the rind so I could let her chew on it without having to worry about just that. 

As far as chewing on plastic, I used holes that were small enough that I didn't think she'd be able to get her teeth at the edges to gnaw easily but I do intend to keep an eye and will upgrade her as necessary. 

Thank you guys for the tips though! Those are two important things for a newbie rat owner to know. 

From the looks of it, ****** needs to do some chewing though. I don't know if rat teeth are like rabbit teeth but I assume they also need to wear their teeth down and hers look longer than they probably should be. I've given her cardboard to chew on but is there anything else you guys might recommend that would help wear her teeth down?

Anyway, just finished a fourteen hour shift, so it's time for me to pass out.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

If you can get it, funny enough, Apple wood, like the branches from the tree, are very good. And they sell chewable huts at most pet stores and even Walmart that my ratties loved. :3


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## MCW (Oct 13, 2013)

zombieaddict said:


> As far as chewing on plastic, I used holes that were small enough that I didn't think she'd be able to get her teeth at the edges to gnaw easily but I do intend to keep an eye and will upgrade her as necessary.



Holes dirlled into the plastic isn't enough ventilation. Storage containers in general are unsuitable to hosue rodents in unless you modifiy the lid in such a way to attach a large mesh wire basket or hardware cloth to it. I kept a gerbil and later a mouse in a clear plastic container that had a large mesh basket fitted upside down into the lid for ventilation.

Your rat would be much happier and healthier in a wire mesh cage. Or large 20 gallon long aquiarium with a tank topper.




> From the looks of it, ****** needs to do some chewing though. I don't know if rat teeth are like rabbit teeth but I assume they also need to wear their teeth down and hers look longer than they probably should be. I've given her cardboard to chew on but is there anything else you guys might recommend that would help wear her teeth down?


All rodents have continuously growing teeth. Rabbits, too, but rabbits aren't rodents, they're lagamorphs. Pet stores sell various wooden and other chew things for rodents and rabbits. Unscented cardboard tubes and boxes are good, too. Regular paper towel and toilet paper tubes are thin so they don't help the teeth much. But you can take one tube and insert several more tubes inside of it (might have to fold them a bit) to make a harder tube for gnawing on. I used to give my gerbils really thick hard cardboard tubes to gnaw on. Most of the tubes I got from a school bathroom that always had nearly empty commerical toilet paper rolls lying around ;-) Craigslist and FreeCycle.org are places where you can post a wanted ad for free cardboard tubes to keep up with your rat's gnawing needs  After all, who doesn't use toilet paper and paper towels? It's good way to recycle those emtpy tubes. Staples and ther office supply stores that has a printing center might have thick cardboard tubes. Rolls of paper comes on the tubes for the giant printers. It wouldn't hurt to ask.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

_As far as chewing on plastic, I used holes that were small enough that I didn't think she'd be able to get her teeth at the edges to gnaw easily but I do intend to keep an eye and will upgrade her as necssary._

i should have been more specific i guess. rats can eat through plastic,wood,cement and certain metals. it does not matter if there are holes in the plastic or not. i am more concerned about air circulation though. rats can get really gnarly skin and respiratory problems from not getting enough circulation. aquariums have the same problem. i have a really good rat food recipe, if you want it pm me.


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

I have a 20 gallon that I could have used but circulation was a concern for me too. So trust me, I put a /lot/ of holes in the tub. I made like four rows of holes spaced about 1 1/2" apart wrapping all the way around the tub and included larger holes in the top since they wouldn't be as easy to access and gnaw on. But the earlier mention of cutting the top to put mesh on it actually sounds like a really great idea too so I might have to try that out too! I'm not especially keen on a standard wire rodent cage because I know from experience that they tend to be extremely messy but I do plan to construct a modified wire cage in the foreseeable future that will offer the benefit of full ventilation with a protective barrier around the bottom to minimize on nastiness in the area around the cage.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

What you can do is build the cage.coming up from the tub you already have him/her in... I would also get a buddy since rats are really.social. lol


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

Yeah, I'm all about making my own cages and pens. Cheaper and I have more control over it.


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## Elliriyanna (Jan 25, 2013)

Can you get ahold of a friend for her and a rat manor or similar cage? Mine also LOVE Hammocks and willow tunnels. I have 4 girls. She is a very cute little girl.

You can even make her like a martins topper but the tank will need cleaned fairly often because of ammonia.


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

Oooooh, I like the idea of the martin's topper. I think something like that combined with a tub with holes for ventilation would be a good thing to work towards. I will see about getting her a friend. She currently has a mouse in there with her that my snake didn't eat this week but that's only temporary.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Rats will kill mice, I've seen it happen... Funny enough though, they will take in and raise/nurse mouse kittens... Had a mouse abandon her litter after they stayed to geta little bigger, so I tucked them in with one of my momma rats that had just hada liter, she started nursing right away. It was adorable.


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

These two seem to be doing alright at the moment. It could be because the rat is female and the mouse is still just a little hopper. So maybe that's why?


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Maybe, but I wouldn't leave them together long, you may wake up to a mess. Or you may not. Lol there is no telling.


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

Thanks for the advice! I have been keeping an eye(and an ear) out for any signs of aggression or distress. But in a couple of days, the mouse is going to be dinner anyway. In the future I'll store any "leftovers" separately though.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Lol that's horrible and I shouldn't laugh... but Omg leftovers... xD


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

I know, I'm horrible. XD

As an update, I've noticed that ****** licks my palms a lot. I assume it's to get salt from my skin. So that means I should get her a mineral lick, right?

Also, I thiiiink she might be pregnant. I'm pretty sure she's more than five weeks old and I've read that they can start breeding as young as that. I actually noticed when I first brought her home that she was a little pudgy and it seems like her belly really is quite plump. Maybe she was just well fed but that seems a lot less likely than preggers for poor little rattie raised for feeding.


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## RainbowhLizzie (Sep 15, 2013)

Baby ratties could just be fat. I remember my little girl was really plump for the first few weeks after I got her. She was housed with her brother and they were both 8 weeks old. I was terrified of her giving birth so small but she got skinnier as she matured. 
Fingers crossed that this is a same situation for you!

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## JellOh (Mar 13, 2013)

Hey, you really should be feeding your snake frozen mice. They are just as good nutritionally and it's more humane for the mice. Plus, with live food you run the risk of the mice biting and hurting your poor snake. It's a win win situation both ways.


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## CochinBrahmaLover (Nov 4, 2013)

I love my rats. Very cute sweeties! I remembered we got 2, and my siswanted a Boy, and I wanted a girl. So we got a girl and a boy, and for some reason my mom said we could leave them together for a few weeks. Well this was like a 6 week old girl with a 12 week boy... Yeeaaahhh not the best idea. Few weeks later we had babies! Cute but ugly, lol.

If you want, you can start your own breeding program and stop buying them.
I know a bit ago, someone was selling a colony of mice. They used storage bins w/ mesh for the lid, and they'd been using to support they're snakes. Probably be a lot more expensive, but would be pretty fun. 

Also, JellOh, not all snakes will accept frozen. And if multiple snakes prefer live then its just more cost efficient to buy all live. Or Maybe she kills them before she feeds them (c02, cervical discolation). Don't be so quick to judge


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

life itself is pretty inhumane.i do not have snakes because i would not like feeding them.other than that, i love snakes. i do not think that their natural hunting abilities should be quashed.keeping a snake mentally stimulated is always better for the snake.hunting and killing its own food is part of its natural design. sometimes lunch is going to fight back,that is a given. a lot of animals are already kept in unnatural surroundings,must we suck every bit of nature and instinct out of them? i also happen to love small furry creatures,but this does not preclude them from being part of the food chain. just my 2 cents worth.


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## zombieaddict (Nov 11, 2013)

Thank you sandybottom and Cochin! You explained it very well. 

Also there's the fact that dealing with frozen rodents is downright nasty. If you don't thaw them just right, they will literally explode when your snake strikes them. Clean up stinking mouse guts a half dozen times or so and you might not be so keen to deal with the thawing process. 

Plus with ball pythons being picky eaters, if one of them decides to skip a meal or takes a few hours to get around to eating, I don't have to worry about a thawed mouse getting all funky in the meantime. I can put the mouse back in the keeper bin I made and try again in a couple of days. When I used frozen, it was a lot more expensive and they were a lot less likely to eat it. They clearly prefer live feeders and I watch closely when I feed them to make sure things don't get wrong. Mice usually aren't the issue though, rats are the more aggressive feeders but if there was a problem, the cervical dislocation is the route that I would use to provide my sweet and slitheries a fresh harmless meal.


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## JellOh (Mar 13, 2013)

Many of you guys aren't looking at the poor mice's perspective. Yes, he is going to have to die, that's a fact of life, but almost anything/anyone would rather die after being nocked out then killed by CO2 than suffocating before being eaten alive. There's more then one side of the story to feeding any animal.

@CochinBrahmaLover- She only mentioned, one snake and it seems to me that she does in fact give the live prey to her snake. Also, breeding colonies are very expensive and hard to keep up with, so it wouldn't be worth it to have one just for one snake.

@sandybottom- Just because life isn't humane doesn't me you should willing make a bad situation worse. Adding fuel to a fire then saying "the fire was already there so oh well" shouldn't be an acceptable view. A animal should get all the enrichment they need from their surroundings. Snakes need a proper terrarium and handling time to get adequate stimulation. Also, just because animals in the wild eat live food doesn't mean captive animals need to eat live food as well. We don't feed bettas exactly what they would eat in the wild. They are not living in the wild, and as such shouldn't be treated like a wild animal. Snakes in the wild do get hurt and killed from the live prey they eat, but those snakes aren't under the care and supervision of humans. 

@zombieaddict- When you buy an animal you commit to providing the best care possible. Balls may be picky, but it's not impossible to feed them frozen food. If you were to buy in bulk or you could buy live and humanly euthanize them it would be the same amount of money or cheaper. It might be messy or gross but you have committed to your snake, and should provide him with the best care available. If the mice are exploding then it usually means that they weren't thawed out properly, so researching proper thawing methods could help massively. Mice might not be aggressive while waiting to be eaten, but some will fight back after the snake has gotten a hold of them. At that point there is nothing anyone could do to help the poor snake. Try reading this: http://www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_01.asp or any of the dozens of articles about feeding frozen mice vs raw mice. And here is a guide to thawing out mice: http://www.frozenfeeder.com/thawing_instructions.html


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

i am not making a bad situation worse.at the most i was pointing out the circle of life. and the owners right to provide live food to their pet,when the pet has problems taking other foods.i think that i stated that i do not keep snakes,because i am not willing to feed them.there is obviously going to be a difference in opinion here.animal rights is always a touchy subject with a hazy line drawn. feeding goldfish to carnivorous fish and feeding live insects to lizards is not really any different.your betta splendens is a far cry from a wild fish.they would probably not survive in the wild,much like fancy goldfish.they are hundreds or even thousands of generations from their wild cousins.their bright coloring would make them vulnerable to predation.that being said,there are plenty of people keeping both splendens and wild varieties in biotopes,feeding them live foods to simulate wild surroundings.


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## CochinBrahmaLover (Nov 4, 2013)

JellOh - you do make a lot of good points, but if someone wishes to do it one way vs another, it's unlikely to change them, esp when they like their ways very much. You have a good argument, though if one wishes do it another way, please respect that like we respect yours


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## NeptunesMom (May 4, 2012)

JellOH - You make a great argument. I agree, actually I disagree and agree. I don't think we should keep snakes as pets in general. I love snakes, I think they are beautiful. But, I think they should remain in nature. To be honest, I've grown to feel the same about Betta Fish too. But, that's another topic. 

I think that people enjoy the "rush" of power and "playing god" they get with animals. Particularly, when it comes to animals that eat others. You get to make the choice who lives and who dies. It's powerful, especially in a world where we can't control much of anything else.


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## bettaqb9 (Dec 31, 2013)

that's what happened with me!! i was walking looking at the pet shop and there was a adorable guinea pig so i had to buy it there just to cute!


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