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Am I crazy?

Velvet

Velvet

Totally corn crazy!!!!
I just wanted to know if I am the only one out there who has PET rats and mice that they use to breed food for their snakes...

I love my ratties to bits and currently have a pair but getting another girl soon. I would NEVER feed one of my pet rats to the snakes (they are too big anyway) but I don't have any problems feeding their young to the snakes...is this wrong?

My problem is that I love all animals and it's impossible for me to keep any animal for an extended period of time and not think of it as a pet and give it a name etc etc...

Please let me know I am not alone...

(I should mention that my "feeder" breeding program is not intense, it is only to supplement the frozen stock I get every month and to ease my pocket a little, in other words, the girls aren't used as "breeding machines")
 
If I'm getting what you're saying, I think I'm similar to you, though not with rats.

When I had my monitor, I quite often fed it the offspring of my 'pet' Rabbits. And my family often butchers the offspring of our 'pet' sheep, goats, etc. with little more than a thought.

I dunno...I think it's the mindset, honestly. If you set your mind to the fact that the 'kids' are to be used as food, then we automatically withdraw ourselves. Even if we do still feel an attachment to them -- it comes naturally to animal lovers. The babies are just so darn cute!

Anyway, just my .02 letting you know that I am similar to you. :)
 
Thanks Matthew! :)

That's exactly what I am saying!!! lol I LOVE my rats but I don't mind feeding their offspring to the snakes because I have known from the beginning that that is what they would be used for. So I have forced myself to withdraw.
 
lots of people have mice or rats for their snakes....I have two mice...I could feed the babies but never the first two....it helps because at a dollars something a mouse and you have 15 hatchlings to feed...then you can really save money and time to go to the store....it good to have a snake feeder at your house
 
Thanks guys! Glad there are people out there who understand.

I have two rats (girl is pregnant but not by my male) and 3 mice (one or both girls are pregnant). I could never feed my breeding animals, especially not the rats!!! lol

It's getting a bit pricey to feed my little ones. And on top of that I cannot always find food for the older ones as there is a MAJOR shortage here! It's impossible to find hopper mice and adult mice here at the moment.
 
I am a soft hearted wuss I think. I have my 2 pet rats that I love to bits, they are like little short-lived dogs to me. Both are spayed to prevent health problems in the future. I buy all my snake food already dead and frozen. Except for crickets, if it enters my house alive, I see it as a pet.
 
You are not alone :)

I had 3 female mice and 1 male mouse, and they were my pets. But their pups (not necessary right word for them...) I raised and fed to my snake.

Well later I put them to sleep, 'cos it was cheaper to buy already frozen mice from a bigger breeder and they were so old that it was too dangerous to breed them anymore or they got sick :/
 
I am the same way with my rats. I started with the one snake, and got mice to breed for food. No problems there, I never really considered the mice as pets. Then I got a few rats to breed for feeders, and discovered what great pets they make. I now have about 10 adult rats in 4 huge cages that I would never (and couldn't anyway) feed off. I breed them occasionally, working towards breeding blue dumbos, and I just got a hairless recently that I plan on breeding into the line. The surplus offspring end up as feeders.

My main feeders currently are African soft furred rats which don't make good pets like domestic rats. They tend to be nasty biters so I don't mind as much feeding them off.
 
Corny Noob said:
I'm the same way, which is why even my snails in my fish tank have a name :grin01:
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HAHA, yeah my plants have names hehe but maybe thats because I cant have an actual pet yet apart from my sea monkeys :crazy02: (and no they don't all have names !)
But as a child we used to eat the lambs of our sheep and they was no problem with that. Would you have those rats if you won't going to feed their babies to the snakes? And if you did, would you let them breed if it wasn't for the snakes? Snake has to eat, I think its normal. We' r not used to it anymore because we don't live like we used to, killing what we eat and all but at least u know the mums and babies haven't been mistreated!!!
 
My breeder rats are pets, however, when my BP or BCI are bog enough and the breeders have retired, they will certainly be fed. Not that I am heartless or uncaring, just that...they ARE going to die, eventually, and I may as well let their bodies be used as food for my other pets. It's better than throwing them away or burying them in the backyard...simply quick and easy disposal.

My mice...not so much. They are purchased, used as breeders, and I decided that all retired breeders will be used as food.

My rats DO have names, however, and my mice do not. Don't know why I drew that particular line in the sand...maybe because rats are so much BETTER as pets than mice... :shrugs:
 
I have one BP but from what I have read, even full grown Ball Pythons shouldn't be fed larger than a small to medium sized rat.
 
Velvet said:
I just wanted to know if I am the only one out there who has PET rats and mice that they use to breed food for their snakes...

I love my ratties to bits and currently have a pair but getting another girl soon. I would NEVER feed one of my pet rats to the snakes (they are too big anyway) but I don't have any problems feeding their young to the snakes...is this wrong?
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I am just getting set up to do the same. The plan is to have two male rats in one cage and four females in another. I'm going to breed just two of the females once each month, limiting my output to two litters per month. The offspring will serve as additions to the feeder inventory, while the parents remain, primarily, my pets.
 
YAY!!!! I'm so glad I am not alone!!!

I thought that I was contradicting myself...most non-snake people do not understand how you can have rats as pets but feed their young to snakes...

I have mice too but although they have names, they are not "pets" as such. Only the little male I have will never be a feeder because that was one of the conditions from his previous owner when I got him. He was used on an advert or was going to be and the guy has a rule to never feed off animals he's worked with. Which I really respect about him!

But I have to agree, rats make MUCH better pets than mice! lol The mice are too busy and jumpy, I like being able to pick my rats up and give them a good cuddle!! :)
 
ya the way i look at it is.....you get to first set of mice or rats....they become fimilar with you and you begin to attach to them...so you name them and call them your pets...but once they have babies thous babies take to much time up for your pets and you can't hold them as much so you much despose of the enemy and what way is better then feeding them to your snake...haha...just a thery of mine
 
howhigh402 said:
ya the way i look at it is.....you get to first set of mice or rats....they become fimilar with you and you begin to attach to them...so you name them and call them your pets...but once they have babies thous babies take to much time up for your pets and you can't hold them as much so you much despose of the enemy and what way is better then feeding them to your snake...haha...just a thery of mine
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You won't find any support for your theory in my situation. My rats were initially acquired as pets, not re-delegated as pets because of familiarity. The only way for them to have babies is through an overt act on my part, as the males are housed apart from the females: no cohabitation, no offspring. The offspring aren't the "enemy", but food specifically produced for my snakes. The pups aren't being fed to the snakes because I lack time to handle them, but because that is the purpose for which they were produced. The only reasons to keep and convert a pup from "food" to "pet" are either to replace the current pets as they age and die or to provide a pet to an outside party.
 
ok i get ya......but i just got mice so i guess it takes time for them to have a tru impact on me...ill probly end up getting attached and have to start to buy f/t mice again...i hope that i don't because then i would have lots money to spend
 
I agree with Jaxom...the babies are not "the enemy" to me, they are just purpose-bred as feeders.

My circumstances regarding getting the rats is slightly different though. I did not plan on getting rats at all. There is a major shortage of rodents here (breeding season is just over so market is flooded with new hatchlings! lol) and the only thing I could find to feed to my large corn was a very small rat (weaned). I have only ever killed mice for the snakes (when I can't find f/t) and when I was about to (forgive me) zap him, he looked at me and the look as that of an intelligent animal and that's how I got Graeme! lol The very first day I got him he was tame, slept in my t-shirt and in the nape of my neck! lol Too precious for words!
 
Velvet said:
I agree with Jaxom...the babies are not "the enemy" to me, they are just purpose-bred as feeders.

My circumstances regarding getting the rats is slightly different though. I did not plan on getting rats at all. There is a major shortage of rodents here (breeding season is just over so market is flooded with new hatchlings! lol) and the only thing I could find to feed to my large corn was a very small rat (weaned). I have only ever killed mice for the snakes (when I can't find f/t) and when I was about to (forgive me) zap him, he looked at me and the look as that of an intelligent animal and that's how I got Graeme! lol The very first day I got him he was tame, slept in my t-shirt and in the nape of my neck! lol Too precious for words!
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Meg that is a great story! Since I added patched mice I'm having to kill off at peach fuzzy stage or I just can't do it. So any that are too cute are either keepers going to my local petshop to be swapped for mouse food! With p-e-w I had no trouble, but these are all so nice I'm having to buy in small adult mice frozen!
 
lol Thanks! lol

I've got 3 mice for breeding now too, two girls and a boy. The one girl is preggers for sure. I actually have alot of frozen pinks in stock at the moment so when she has her babies I will most likely let her raise them and then kill them off at the hopper stage. I will most likely keep a few of the females though as I need more females for breeding and it's virtually impossible to find adult mice at the moment.

At the moment I just need mouse pinks, hoppers or Rat fuzzies and adult mouse size items.
 
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