Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been trying to get info on genetics and health. I end up on several different pet rat sights to get info. No sooner than I let slip I even breed on a regular basis (both exotic pets and feeders) They FREAK OUT!!! I get banned faster than I know what to do about. KINDA FUNNY how closed minded some people are.... Any good storys?

Even though I breed rodents as food for my reptiles, I feel taht it is both insensitive and disrespectful to be flaunting in the face of people who keep rats and mice as pets and love them a a member of the family, that you indiscriminantly breed rodents for food. Have some respect. Ask these questions among "our" group or do the research on your own.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

You shouldnt have said anything why give out that info in a pet type forum

now don't start flaming here. I didn't get on there and kick the bee hive or anything. I went in and tried to just be sivil and then they find out i breed on a regular basis and thats close enough. Weither for pets or not. I love the Q i got..."well how closely do you screen your buyers?" My responce.... "I don't if they want a cute rat I let them buy one" Boy that sure makes em mad.....
Here is an e-mail I got from starting a "rat lover group" Forum....
"you are not a rat lover. You breed them for snakes and your rats look like sh(crap)t and they stink. You do as well so how can I expect them not too! I have told everyone about how you take care of them so I hope no one buys from you again! You are rude to paying customers and don't know how to try and run a business. So take a bath and clean your cages and stop placing stupid ads everywhere!!!"
Highly intelectual..... But I could not respond to that e-mail as it was a deeply hidden non existant address. Funny how they come buy sucker punch me and keep running....

Here is a good source I forgot about and found the other day after I started this....

http://www.afrma.org/rmindex.htm#show

Ha! Ever get the feeling that you ain't welcomed there? Haha! Been there, done that. Years ago.

Based on what you said in your first post it doesn't appear to me that you were there flaunting or antagonizing, although I personally know how tempting things can get once they all start in on you.

As hard as it is sometimes I always try to see things from other's POV (point of view). How would we feel towards someone raising our favorite species of snakes (or other reptiles) as feeders?

Well, I'm from the old school, I have that "farm mentality". I spent my chilhood summers working on my great-grandparent's farm. There's this thing called "the food chain". Seeing Ma petting a chicken one day & wringin' it's neck the next was eye-opening. Like she said when I asked her about it, "We have to eat. Enjoy 'em while they're alive & enjoy 'em when they're dead."

I raise rats primarily for snake & monitor food. I've had several that became pets. Only one died from what appeared to be old age (uh-hmm).

What most of those type of people fail to realize is that you and I were asking for genetic & health info, which seems to imply some concern for the rodents. In fact, it is concern for the rodents, in one way or another. Is it about animal health or animal rights? Could be somewhere in between with some people. But even if they are vegetarians due to stringent animal beliefs, have they never heard that some scientists claim that plant life responds to human interaction, conversation? Hhmmmmmm.

Food Chain. And I'm on the top.

One of these days we'll send Dave (rainbowsrus) to some of those forums.

I think FreedomDove's got some good stories, or at least fond memories, of those forums. Hahaha!!!

But all-in-all, it is their forum and their right.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

"The Rules" would be accepted on those sites?

Don't produce - fed off
Kill babies - fed off
Sick - fed off
Jumpy - fed off
Bite me - whacked on cement then fed off
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Hahaha!!! That's exactly what I'm talking 'bout. You'd have to have that as your signature.

Catch ya later!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

They hunted me down on the Kingsnake monitor forum and posted this pic of a mongoose eating a snake like it would hurt our feelings. It was a cool pic. They are just crazy IMO. If they bred like us they wouldn't have such poor quality animals, all sick and full of tumors, gross. Then they act like they know everything and you can't tell them about rats.

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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
0.1 Black rat snake
0.2 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend

That's doesn't surprise me. But these same people will scream and run for a shovel if they see a snake in their yard. And they'll spew the old adage, "the only good snake is a dead snake." I can't count how many times I've had people make derogatory remarks when I talk about my collection or show pictures, or had people say, "why don't you just kill all those nasty things?." Or my favorite: when one of my snakes died, a co-worker shouted, "GOOD!" It's really rude, and in bad taste, but reptile keeping still isn't as widely accepted as the keeping of small fuzzy things.

I bought two pet rats for my girlfriend and had to sit through ten minutes of filling out forms and waiting for the high school kid to read her the care sheets. I didn't tell him that I've raised mice and rats as feeders before and probably know more than he does. I should've just gone to the reptile-friendly pet store and bought them there. It woulda been quicker and cheaper. She still has the rats I bought her, one hairless and one blue and one mentally challenged offspring, but in the next room I have a freezer full of dead ones. Mice, too. I see how some people would have a problem with that, I guess. But then again, I've known people from other countries who ate dogs and that doesn't bother me in the least. As long as it's their dog and not mine.

People are just too sensitive sometimes.
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1.1.0 Hondurans Het Amel
1.1.0 Hondurans Anery, Het Hypo
0.1.0 Honduran Hypo
0.2.0 Pueblans
1.0.0 Thayeri MSP
0.0.1 GBK Blair's Phase
1.0.0 California King
0.0.1 Speckled King WC
0.0.1 Jungle Carpet
0.1.0 Ball, Normal
0.0.1 Sulcata
0.1.0 Girlfriend, Caucasius Mexicana, Fiancee Phase

thought this thread may get some attention. LOL I just tell people strait out I sell for pets and food. Let the hate start there. So I loose a SMALL amount of buisness to the snake haters. So what. It's kinda fun. But I think the next one I run into in person is gonna get it

What's really funny is that I sell rats as pets for $10 each and for food $2 each.

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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
0.1 Black rat snake
0.2 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend

not only come from the same litters, they also get fed off if not sold as pets!!

I have many colors in my colony and MOST get fed off. My snakes don't seem to care, white, black, tan, agouti, blue, siamese solid/hooded/caped. They all taste the same and make for healthy snakes!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats