Ohhhhhh Rats!

[M.bredl.mad]

I recently started breeding rats for feed for my snakes. I have 2 tubs each containing 2 females and a male inside.
They all sneeze ocassionally, however 1 male rat seems to be sick more than the others and sounds like his breathing is congested. He only recently has developed these symptoms, though he always did seem to sneeze more than the others before.
Will i still be able to breed this rat still or will he pass this sickness onto the offspring and making my snake sick by eating the produced rats?
Also one of the females gave birth recently and the sick male rat was the father. I only intend on growing these rats to fuzzy rat size then plan on culling them. Im just not sure if they will be healthy enough for my snake to eat, what should i do?

With all the rats i feed them good quality rat cubes, fresh fruit and veggies and also the occasional dog biscuits. And fresh water is always available.
The bedding i use is shaved pine and i clean the cages often.

Can anyone with experience in this field give me some help as im only new to doing this and i dont want to effect my snakes health.

Thanks

 

[addy]

Somehow i doubt it will effect the snakes health. I've never seen a snake in the wild asking it's prey how it felt before eating it. But if it worries you that much, seperate the ill rats and replace them with healthy ones. They are not expensive.

 

[jay76]

Has it got blood near the nose? cause 2 of my rats started sneezing and then i say alittle bid of blood in there nose it was a respitary (sorry spelling) thing that is contagious. so I put them down cause they stopped breading

 

[M.bredl.mad]

Yeah there has been blood near the nose of the mother? And i think the sick 1 might have sneezed this bloody ooze out last nite beacuse i didnt no where else it could have come from.
Is there a problem with using shaved pine as bedding?

 

[jay76]

dont know. I would put them down cause it will spread. I was told you can freeze them and they are still ok for snake food

 

[Vixen]

Yeh sounds like a respiratory infection, its actually a pretty common thing especially with rats from petshops where conditions are often pretty dirty, and being contagious, not a good thing. Often leads into pneunoma which would be fatal if left untreated. As far as I know it wouldnt affect the snake at all though.

 

[M.bredl.mad]

Do you think i could still use the rat pups just born?

 

[jay76]

let them raise the pinkis then kill the adults.I found when it started to happen they stopped breading

 

[M.bredl.mad]

If they dont stop breeding do you reckon i should keep them for a bit.

 

[Kimbully]

The pups will be fine to feed to your snakes. Chronic respiritory disease is common in mice and rats. In rats sometimes it can act fast and you will need to cull them sooner. Other times they can live with it for months. If I were you I would perhaps cull the male and allow the females to raise the pups to the age you require, then cull them. The red discharge is usually not blood, it is a discharge common to rats usually indicating stress (in this case, respiritory problems). One of the main signs they are going downhill fast is weightloss.
Once all rats are culled, clean all the cages/equipement with F10sc or something similar and try to source more rats from a cleaner source, perhaps a breeder, not a shop.
Hope this helps
Kim

 

[Kimbully]

http://www.nfrs.org/respdisease.html

Seems like good researched Info
Kim

 

[lauraschram]

CRD is caused by a microplasma - bleach should be fine to kill it but make sure you let the cages dry in th sun for a day or two afterwards...
Interestingly you can carry it and transmit it in your nose for two weeks - (lol maybe only me finds that interesting)
it is promoted by a high urea environment (lots of pee) and can spread through the whole colony - if they're breeders and not pets better to kill the sick ones off than risk loosing the lot... also it does screw them up reproductively.
ive never heard of any issue with it transmitting to reptiles from rats so id feed em off if it were me - but im no expert...

 

[M.bredl.mad]

Do you reckon there is any problem with using pine shavings as bedding?

 

[Kimbully]

Shouldn't be a problem if they are good quality and clean shavings.
Add a couple of tissues for nesting and they will be happy.
Kim

 

[raxor]

I've heard it can be bad, they can inhale fine dust etc etc.. in saying that I kept rats and mice as pets for years on wood shavings and had no problems. If I kept them again I would still use wood shavings, I've had no bad luck with it. I guess you could use paper based kitty litter if you're worried it could be causing the respiratory infection.

Are the wood shavings bought from petshops or sorced from workshops, as I think shop bought wood shavings would have less fine dust in them?

 

[M.bredl.mad]

Thanks for posting that link kim, really helpful.

 

[M.bredl.mad]

I got them in a huge lot id say that they were sourced from workshops. Is that what you where using?

 

[Raptor_Reptiles]

rats

You may find that the wood shaving contain trace elements from treat wood and glues i had a problem once when using the brand hydro sorb even gave me head aches after being in the rat room and had rats die for no reason a few days after using this brand as the one i normally get was out of stock.I produce alot of rats and have shown many snake breeders how to breed and set them up for best result .They could not believe the amount produced.Best to buy the shaving from a reliable source.Quality food takes alot of effort to produce and keep mite and lice free the cleaning is endless and labour intensive.

 

[M.bredl.mad]

Oh thats sounds really interesting. Id be really interested gaining a bit of knowledge from you. Though i dont have a room full just got a couple of tubs so i dont have to keep forking out money out of my pocket to feed my snakes.

 

[Raptor_Reptiles]

rats

i only keep 260 females