Rats and Snakes?

[sherriwat]

as stated i breed snakes and i have my pet rats. i do feed frozen thawed but i buy my frozen thawed from local breeders and i refuse to buy from them until i can see their rat room and conditions the rats are held in. once satisfied i will than start buying from that breeder and honestly most are happy to show me as i fork out hundreds of dollars each time i stock up. conditions the rats live in is a big concern and a big deal for snake breeders. yes i know that the frozen rats you get from pet store are kept in horrible conditons but most the time you wont see a true snake person or breeder buying from the petstore because 1. petstore charges too much and 2. us snake people who house numerous snakes know better and know importance of quality rats.

to answer your question about snakes and rats living in same house its no problem. infact one of my snake rack (my breeders largest rack) is in my bedroom and on top of the rack is captains cage. my snakes arent bothered and captains not bothered my snakes arent going crazy smelling food and captain well he just doesnt care. my snakes are also fed on a regualr basis so they dont get a chance to get hunger agressive (best way to describe) and my girls are all too big and fat and lazy anyways.

now cute story. a friend of mine who was going away on vacation was in a hurry and fed his snake live and ran out the door for a 2 week vacation (this snake was one of my babies so it never ever knew live and normally he got his frozen from me, but he stopped at the ept store and bought a live one as i live a ways from him. anyways 2 yr old snake never had live before. went on vacation 2 weeks later come home and rats still alive and snake is unharmed. took rat out of cage next day told me story and got a stock of frozen from me went right home and offered one to his snake (he thought his snake was sick and was right worried cause it starved for 2 weeks lol :P) anyways offered the frozen thawed and the snake took it instently. 2 weeks later threw the rat back in with snake and again snake didnt take the live thawed one and offered and snake took it on same night offered live. now not saying this is normal and happens all the time just thought it was cute story about snakes and rats and wanted to share.

[LightningWolf]

I've heard stories like that too. There are even some stories where the snakes have no idea how to eat live prey that they just completely ignore the rat (or mouse) for months.

[RatBreeder]

I breed my own rats for the simple fact that I don't want to rely on others to feed my snakes. I know the conditions they are in 24/7 and know if I have a sick one. Some breeders might be okay with you looking, but that doesn't mean that they won't breed a sick one behind your back.