Breeding rats - mycoplasmosis?

[CharleighMars]

Hi everyone!

I have an albino darwin carpet python called Charleigh, just over 1 year old and just over 4 foot

Anyway I have bred my own rats for him. However, a few have come down with the mycoplasmosis infection, which is very common in rats.

I was wondering if it is safe to feed my precious snake a rat with mycoplasmosis, and if it is safe to feed my snake a rat who has been on medication (baytril/doxyxycline) for the infection.

Planning on only breeding from the resistant rats, but not sure what to do with the ones who are affected!!

Thank you in advance

 

[wokka]

Myco shouldn't be a problem for a snake but feeding antibiotics unecessarily should be avoided. Dead rats make wonderfull compost!

 

[veenarm]

As wokka said, I don't think their infection should be a problem, but if they have anti-biotics in their system from what I have been told they should wait 2 weeks until it's out of there system then you can feed them.

More importantly - how many rats are you talking? and how important is your snake to you in the off chance it does get sick. It's not really worth the

 

[solar 17]

Well, giving rats antibiotics doesn't make them or their offspring resistant to mycoplasma its a bit like giving a human anti biotics for a bad flu or bout there of down the track they are still prone to the virus and given the right conditions will re infect....same for the rats unfortuneately unless kept in sterile/lab type conditions.
............solar 17 (Baden)

 

[Saz]

If you are just breeding for food purposes, don't treat the rats with anything. Any that get sick or are runty, cull off and don't breed with. Over the generations you'll end up with healthier rats by selectively breeding only the healthy ones to breed with.

You can safely feed any that have been sick (assuming you didn't wait until they were in terrible condition before culling them), but I personally wouldn't feed any that have been treated with ABs unless you can find a reliable scientific source that advises otherwise.

 

[CharleighMars]

Thanks guys, good to know! So mycoplasma rats are safe, antibiotics are not. I do care about the welfare of my rats. I refuse to 'waste' lives, but I won't risk my snake either. With this info I will do what is best for all of them (in this case it seems kinder to the little rat to have him humanely euthanised for the snake rather than keeping him as a pet and letting the disease slowly suffocate him).

 

[Bax79]

All rats have myco unless born by c-section I believe, I also believe even if they are born this way they can still catch it from other rats that were not born by c-section. If rats are treated with any medication they are not fit for consumption for at least 21 days if memory serves me correct!
Most people who buy packaged rats from pet shops have fed their pets myco effected rats, they have also most likely fed them rats that have been medicated and killed before the 21 day quarantine

 

[CaptainRatbag]

You nailed it Bax.... all rats have mycoplasma. The scientists who need MP free rats breed 2 parents they know dont have it, and euthanase the mother when babies are due and deliver the babies by C section in an antiseptic solution, then surrogate the babies to a nursing mother who is MP free to bring them up. The female rats pass on mycoplasma at the birth.
I breed rats and of course some devellop symptoms, usually that rattly sniffling and possibly red around the nostrils. I quarrantine them to another room on thier own and see if it gets better (or worse) then I either return them to the colony or euthanase them. I am happy to feed my snakes with these that have had MP and never had a snake suffer any probs. As I see it, a wild snake would eat rabbits with myxamatosis or rats with other diseases.... and it would be totally impossible to have rats without MP.... so in my opinion and experience, dont worry about it.... just use them.

If you are REALLY worried, mark these particular rats bag that they had MP and the date, then make sure they are frozen for a couple of months before using..... freezing for that long should kill any greeblies

Medicated breeders not an issue, like saz said, but I wouldnt be feeding a snake with a treated rat just treated. I believe mycoplasma was engineered by humans to control wild rat numbers, same as myxamatosis for rabbits, parvo for dogs, feline aids for cats and aids for humans

 

[Saz]

Its not engineered, its naturally occurring. Apparently years back fancy rats in Australia did not suffer with symptoms anywhere near as frequently as they do now - lack of resistance is a relatively new problem within the fancy rat population. My lines have improved greatly health wise over the years, I don't very often have sickies anymore - at the beginning almost all of the rats I sourced would have it to some degree.

Here's some more info if you're interested:

Health Guide: Mycoplasma / Mycoplasmosis

CaptainRatbag - If you're on the Sunshine Coast I think you might be the breeder that got the rat community all excited for a couple of days recently because you used that google images photo in your profile for an online ad (which is a Dumbo, a breed not available in Australia). Everyone was very disappointed when they turned out not to be dumbos, hehe!

 

[ingie]

Haha you trickster Captainratbag.

 

[CaptainRatbag]

I'd love to know what you are talking about? I pinched that image from somewhere and thought it was cute? I think I got it from gumtree.....

I got the pic off gumtree... I just looked but the ad is gone. They are the people not far from me that also breed rats, I bought a male off them recently. When I got the male, he was just one of many in a cage, they never said they were any sort of special rat.... just rats? I just thought it was a cute rat (looks like a normal rat to me?), lol.

So, what are dumbo rats? Are they bigger than normal? My rats are just normal old rats as far as I know, except 2 females are devons.

I havent advertised any yet as am finding it hard keeping up with those I supply already. Will be advertising soon.

 

[Frozenmouse]

Baytril is perfectly fine for snakes i have treated a sick pythons with repeated baytril injections.
But if you want to get rid of plazmosis from your rat colony kill the sick dont treat them with medication and your population will get healthier.

 

[Saz]

Whilst Baytril is used as an AB to treat snakes, I personally wouldn't want to be giving any to a snake (or any other animal) that didn't actually need it.

CRB - Dumbos have ears positioned on the side of their skull instead of the top of their heads. If you google it there's loads of images. Sounds like the other breeder you mention is the same one, they used the photo of the blue dumbo to advertise their rats and said that the ones they had were exactly the same. Not their fault I'm sure, they just didn't see the difference LOL! Makes me giggle, something like that happens every six months or so!

There's no type called 'Devon' though - here or overseas, what do they look like?

 

[wokka]

My understanding is that stress predisposes rats to the negative symptoms of myco. Stress may be dietry or environmental but the chances of stress increase with age and so older rats are more likely to exhibit signs of myco. We have tens of thousands of rats but no sign of myco. Our rats are all less than a year old and anything which shows any defect is euthanased. When we started with "petshop" rats 4 years ago they were all sniffling but through poistive selection the problem has all but dissappeared.

 

[CharleighMars]

Thanks everyone. Really helpful Of all 24 rats, 2 have symptoms, and they live in a horse stable so the dust etc will aggrevate it. The two that have it, I have taken them into the house, and treat them with baytril. One is male and one is female, so I'm letting them breed considering I now wont use them for food. As for their offspring, they are garunteed exposure, therefore any that don't show symptoms must be more resistant to myco. I only have my litter born from the first 2 rats I bought at the moment, I am sure with careful selective breeding, in a few generations this wont be as much of a problem.
Interested to hear anout the rat breeds out there - for YEARS I tried to source a hairless rat but they're only in labs and not in the pet industry, so I settled for a hairless mouse