Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone I was at my local petstore getting feeders for my ball pythons and as I was leaving the owner, who is a good friend, brought out a yearling ball that acted like it had lost all the muscle tone and control. This problem came up suddenly and she told me that a few days earlier a different one had the same problem and died. She asked me if I had any idea and I told her no and brought the rats home to feed. The next day, when i was check to make sure everyone had eaten, I noticed one of my 2007 normal baby had the same symptoms and basically they just keep turning over onto their back and have no control over their body. This morning the baby was dead, and I was wondering what this might be and if it could have come from the food the rats were eating.

Thanks,
Jacob at Spaid's Retiles
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Web page link :
http://www2.naples.k12.ny.us/naples2/HS/teacherpages/hendricksonhp/studentfolder/jacob-spaid/webpage.html
sorry it's too long for the link box

This is one of the best reasons to have your own rodent colony.

I don't know if the rats are the problem. I have always been leary of rats from the pet store. Someone could have sprayed chemicals in the store. One local rat breeder in an attempt to control parasites in his rodents sprays them with diluted chemicals and lets them drink the water from their bodies to get the wormers etc. I never bought another rat from them after hearing this many years ago. If I was low on rats, I did without.

I like being self sufficent and producing my own.

There was a thread a while back about producing your own or buying them. This type of thing was never mentioned, but is an important consideration.

i recently had an issue with microscopic mites on my rat breeders. since my system uses a auto watering system, to cure them i shut the system off, and then added the agent to individual water bottles. i issued one water bottle to each cage for one day. then turned back on the auto watering system. i repeated this step for three weeks and all is good now.

the key to killing the parasites is to give a low dosage to kill off the living, then continue so that when the eggs hatch they drink the blood that contains the agent.

making the rats drink water off their fur is pretty ridiculous. this proves how smart some people really are in this world.

if he did that who knows what else he probably did to those rats.

Pitoon

Ok thank you for the input i will try it and hope that this does not happen to others
Thanks Again
Jacob Spaid's Reptiles
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Web page link :
http://www2.naples.k12.ny.us/naples2/HS/teacherpages/hendricksonhp/studentfolder/jacob-spaid/webpage.html
sorry it's too long for the link box

having a problem with them currently?
Thanks,
Casey

I have been using advantage for cats...just one drop on the shoulders of the breeders and reapply when needed. I don't do this on my babies or ones I pull as feeders. Works well on even pregnant moms. I don't use it on the feeder size ones just to be safe and it always my older breeders that get mites first. Also works on guinea pigs. It is out of thier system in 4 to 5 weeks. I've found it effective and safer than using pyretherins.

I have raised my own rats and mice for over 15 years and I have never even heard of mites on rats. Are these rodent- specific mites and have you taken one of the rodents to a vet for advice on treatment? That would be my first choice in treatment. When you have animal populations, you can't treat for pests and parasites like you do with cats and dogs. The chemicals are too dangerous, so you want to get the opinion of a professional who can guide you.

Susan Sentman
SSNAKES Reptiles

I am not certain about the regional habitat of mites but we get them once in a while in the summer and the bedding is usually where they come in from. I use a soft grass hay so it comes from outside. As for checking with a vet, I have done that. I work part time for one and we have done skin scrapings to identify the species and have used ivermectin in the past. Using advantage was an experiment of my own but I did discuss it with my vet before trying it.

dude
did you handle the funky sick ball at the pet shop ?
did your dead ball previously come from that pet shop ?
are any of your other balls (if you have ) sick ?
ck

yes I did handle the ball at the petstore but I washed my hands right when I got home before I feed and did not touch the particular ball that died until it was pretty much dead. The ball at my house was produced by us this summer so the only contact with be petshop was the rats or maybe it was an airborne problem but only one ball got sick.
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Web page link :
http://www2.naples.k12.ny.us/naples2/HS/teacherpages/hendricksonhp/studentfolder/jacob-spaid/webpage.html
sorry it's too long for the link box