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House mice

A

armstrol

New member
This morning we caught a mouse in a trap that had been maurading our home for the last week or so. There was no poison involved. Would it be safe to feed this mouse to my snake? She normally feasts upon frozen mice, which I have plenty of. Just a random question. Hate to let something go to waste if it is ok to feed.

Thanks!
 
what kind of trap...

did u use? if it was the kind that the mouse sticks to or the one that you put cheese or PB on with the metal piece that snaps down on the mouse as they go for the snack i would not feed the mouse to your snake because you never know what kind of bacteria may have developed in the mouse during the time spent in the trap. you need to take into consideration how long the mouse may have been in the trap. was it dead when you found it? if it was a non-harmful trap then maybe it would be alright. the only concern i would have is that you don't know the health of the mouse or where it has been. if the mouse is completely unharmed you could freeze it and then offer it to the snake.
 
It was a snap trap with PB. It has probably been in there less than 8 hours because it hadn't been caught when I went to bed.
 
i would recommend...

that you toss it.

i'm very picky when it comes to food for my snakes which is why they sometimes get fed a day late. i get frozen pinks from petco...if they are broken or have freezer burn i don't buy them and complain to management (something i do almost everytime i go there). i bought a live one last week that looked ill, i wound up tossing it.
 
Personally I wouldn't. Do you really want to introduce wild parasites, etc to your captive snake?

Quigs
 
For me, it entirely depends on the location of where the mouse was caught. City vs Country.

In the city, you live in close proximity to other people, houses, and businesses all of which have a higher likelihood for opting for the mass baited poison traps instead of the "BAM" traps. Sorry, Emerilisms are addictive. :D

So theoretically a mouse that's just dined on some Poison a la Rat, and in a few hours could run into your home where he just can't help himself and gets caught in the traditional style trap, before letting the poison go to work.

In the country, I can't even SEE my nearest neighbor's house and the mouse would more than likely succumb to the poison before ever reacing inside my house to get caught in a trap.

So generally the mice I catch here at home, go in a baggie in the freezer for future use. To opt for as much safety as possible, I freeze them for 2 weeks to a month before ever considering using them, to make sure whatever parasites they might be harboring are rendered dead and harmless.

I don't use them as a sole source of my snakes' diet, I raise my own mice for that job. But I use them more as a scenting aid for a finicky eater or to perk up appetites after brumation or breeding. It seems my snake knows wild mouse from domestic, and just can't resist it...even males more interested in l'amour than food.

So if you live in the city or near enough to someone else where a mouse could make it to your house within a few hours of dining on poison, throw it out. If you're like me and live in the sticks, I use them occasionally.

In the course of two years of fecal tests, I've yet to have anything out of the ordinary show up. Maybe I'm just lucky, who knows. =)
 
i would say throw it
i know it has been stated allready but just one more voice to help :cheers:
 
Aye I wouldn't do it, with frozen thawed you know most parasites are killed. I have colonies I raise and when we had a mice problem outside our colonies. The rogue mice got in to the food and bedding which I quickly got rid of.

To me I could not risk it.

I want clean snakes for my breeding project. :)
 
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