• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Biting grey rat..

P

Pearl

Pearl
I have a wild caught grey rat hatchling, caught her about 3 months ago. Handled her everyday, several times usually, loved attention. I went to pick her up and she latched on to my finger and would not let go. After, a few minutes of her holding on, she never would let go. I managed to get her off my finger as gently as possible and she just seemed pissed. She even tried to bite her water bowl. I noticed that she has been twitching quite badly and falling over and her neck will just jerk. I put on a glove and tried to pick her up again and she latched onto the glove and was literally pulling and would not let go. I am not sure what to think of this she was always gentle and very curious, this is my first rat, I have many corns and ball pythons and milks and never had this problem....is this just a rat? or could she just be a sign I should up her meals. She is eating 1-2 pinkies a week sometimes refusing them....Not sure what to do or think. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
I have no idea what could be wrong with her, but if you caught her in the wild and she is twitching and jerking I would say that she is probably sick with something. If she is you should probably be careful that she doesn't have any contact with the rest of your snakes. Sickness is all I can think of. :shrugs:
 
I'm no expert, but falling over to their back and twitching does NOT sound good, I'd get a vet check.. As for the biting it may because its in pain from the sickness it might have. :shrugs:
 
I would also get a check to find out what is causing the problem. It could be something the rest of your collection could get. I hope you have kept this animal in quarantine during this period. When I first read this I thought that you had been bitten by a rat...not a rat snake...especially when you said it kept falling over.
 
Hi, I have heard species of colubrids pretend to play dead. I have Western Hognose snakes, which is a colubrid and they will if frightened, even vomit up blood from their mouth to stop a predator from attacking them. If that doesnt work they turn over on their backs like a dead animal. If you turn them upright, they will immediately go onto their backs again.

I dont know much about rat snakes which from what I understand a rat snake is, but could yours be trying to play dead because it is still very frightened of you, as its wild caught?

Just a thought.
 
I don't think rat snakes behave in that manner. I've never heard of that behavior before as a normal defensive thing. No more than a corn would do it.
 
In my experience (not based exclusively on snakes, but just animals in general - 3 year internship with a vet, btw), twitching behavior that's not normal, plus irritability and getting scared easily (the biting), usually means an internal parasitic infection, injury, or nervous system/spinal cord issues. Unless someone who knows more about snakes can suggest anything else, I'd get to the vet as soon as possible. Hope everything turns out okay...
 
They do have the reputation for being aggressive, and I cant get it out of my head its recently wild caught, so it could be stressed. I'm not detracting from the fact it could be ill, but its just things I've seen in other colubrids, that seem to be similar. He's striking, grabbing and jerking away. Try feeding it extra food, see if that calms it down.
 
But the thing is she isn't saying that the snake is biting and jerking away. That would be perfectly normal. She's saying: "I noticed that she has been twitching quite badly and falling over and her neck will just jerk." Falling over, twitching with a jerking neck isn't normal behaviour for any snake as far as I know. She doesn't say that the snake is doing this when she's holding it. She is't very clear about when the snake does it, but I got the impression that the snake is falling over and jerking when it's in its tank.
I seem to remember on another forum someone mentioning the name of a specific disease when someone on there said that their snake falls over, twitching a lot. Does anyone on here know what disease I'm thinking of?
 
I was mentioning the antics of the Western Hognose earlier, and I went to look at the site I got my information off, and it says that the hognose has a few things up its sleeve to frighten off predators, one is it hisses and flattens out its neck like a puff adder and curling its tail, then if that doesnt work it suddenly undergo convulsions with much twisting and contorting. The mouth will hang open and the snake will roll belly up as if dead. There, it talks about twisting and convulsing and tail curling. Some snakes have some really weird ways of trying to frighten off attackers, but I'm not saying that it isnt ill, just a thought.

Also what I posted earlier, the nmae of the disease, the Adenovirus, that disease usually affect pythons and boas more, but it can affect other snakes.
 
It is NOT normal behavior. That antipredatory behavior found in hog-noses is rarely found in snakes. Yes, it is natural for some snakes to play dead. But the defense mechanism for an Elaphe is to form its neck into an S shape, rattle their tails, strike, and even sometimes flatten their necks simulating a venomous snake. My reasoning is based on a bachelor's degree in wildlife and an internship and independent study researching snakes.
 
ooohh, 'ark at you. If you read my posts proporly you would see that I did say what was I was saying wasn't going against the possibility that the snake could be ill. All I was doing was adding some more information. I even posted about the disease that is affecting snakes, that somebody asked for.
 
I too thought about adenovirus (there's another name for it as well as stargazing) and although it is most often found in boids and pythons, it can be spread to other snakes. Is there any chance that it was exposed to a poison such as insect spray, or any other toxic type of chemical?
 
It was a wild snake that she found, so chances are good that it was exposed to all kinds of things. It seems that she isn't coming back to fill us in on the snake's current condition. Hopefully whatever it had didn't spread to the rest of her snakes and she got it all taken care of.
 
I'd have to pull out my book to get the name I'm thinking about. I don't think it's the adenovirus I'm thinking about. I just can't bring it to mind though. It's also called Stargazing, where the snake is unable to right itself, and lacks the ability to realize it's orientation in space. 100% fatal in boids and pythons it can be passed to other types of snakes with less fatal consequences. I don't know the rate of survival for colubrids or other species.
 
The adenovirus causes stargazing in snakes too. There's also the Corona virus. Which has similar symtpoms, but isnt a virulent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top