Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I caught a juvi black rat a couple of days ago. He was very active and therefore proceded to pick him up. After catching him i realized that he was a bit dehydrated (I have already taken care of that problem). I also noticed that his bottom jaw was screwed up. I thought he might have mouth rot, so now i had to keep him I couldn't just let him die.It seems he doesn't have mouth rot he was born with a way receded jaw. He obviously can eat since he lived this long, since he would have hatched much earlier this year. Any help on what and how to feed him would be much appreciated.

for your post on the Ratsnake forum here on kingsnake.com. Hopefully you will get more help.
Ratsnake forum

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phflame
kingsnake.com host

>>I caught a juvi black rat a couple of days ago. He was very active and therefore proceded to pick him up. After catching him i realized that he was a bit dehydrated (I have already taken care of that problem). I also noticed that his bottom jaw was screwed up. I thought he might have mouth rot, so now i had to keep him I couldn't just let him die.It seems he doesn't have mouth rot he was born with a way receded jaw. He obviously can eat since he lived this long, since he would have hatched much earlier this year. Any help on what and how to feed him would be much appreciated.

I think you are right in that it must be able to eat so I would start with a small live pinkie and see how it goes. If it eats a live pinkie then I would feed it live a couple of more times to get some nourishment in it and then try frozen/thawed. I bet it will do fine. You may just end up with a little rat snake that looks like a dork fish.
Bill Engval reference there...lol
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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

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LOL...just another example of how resilient ratsnakes can be...keep him on a small mouse deit even if you have to feed him more smaller objects instead of one big one and it should do fine!...

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0.1 c.b.97' 9' 60 lb. common boa "scarlet"
1.0 c.b.02' 6' 15 lb. "hi pink" common boa "maverick"
0.1 c.b.06' 17" firebelly x pastel boa "betty boa"
1.0 c.b. 06' 15" ball python "bart"(i finally got one that eats lol)
?.? 2 savannah monitors:3'"ozzy" 2'"uggy"
1.0 everglades x yellow ratsnake c.b. 04' 4' "pooh"
1.0 c.b.06' redear slider "dweezil"
1.0 c.b.04' emorys ratsnake "zeus"

"...does it bite?"

I have a wild caught Sonoran Gopher that a buddy of mine found last year. His face obviously suffered some sort of trauma in the past. His jaw doesn't close all the way, leaving a gap, and it's kind of twisted. His name is Rocky (for those of us who remember the movie "Mask".

Anyway, whole point is, he can eat just fine. Seems no way that he could possibly stretch his poor jaws around a 100-150 gram f/t rat, but he does it like a champ every time.

As far as keeping him, I keep most of my snakes on loose substrates such as soil mixes or aspen. Rocky is the one exception. On a couple occasions I walked into the room only to find him with a mouthful of substrate, so now he is kept on newspaper.
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Diego

Diego & Tiffany's Zoo:
SNAKES
4.3.0 Corn Snakes (Different morphs)
1.1.0 Everglades Rat Snakes
1.0.0 Boa Constrictor
0.1.0 Dumeril's Boa
1.1.0 Rosy Boas (Mexican & Mid Baja)
1.1.0 Kenyan Sand Boas
0.1.0 Indonesian Dwarf Pacific Boa
0.1.0 Tangerine Honduran Milksnake
1.0.0 Honduran Milksnake
1.2.0 Ball Pythons
1.0.0 Woma Python
1.1.0 Cape York Spotted Pythons
1.1.0 Macklot's Pythons
0.0.1 Ribbon Snake
1.0.0 Western Hognose
0.1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher Snake
0.0.1 Sonoran Gopher Snake
0.1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
1.1.0 Gray Banded Kingsnakes (River Road)
0.1.1 California Kingsnakes
1.0.0 Yellowtail Cribo
0.1.0 Blacktail Cribo
0.0.2 Northern Ringnecks

LIZARDS
1.0.0 Frilled Dragon
3.1.0 Bearded Dragons (2 Normal, 1 RedXGold, 1 Citrus)
1.1.0 Eastern Collared Lizard
0.1.0 Merauke Blue Tongue Skink
2.3.0 Leopard Geckos
1.0.1 Yellow Niger Uromastyx
0.1.0 Chuckwalla
FROGS
2.2.0 Southern Bell Frogs
1.0.1 Green Tree Frogs
1.0.0 Striped Walking Frogs
1.1.1 White's Tree Frogs