Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been told that I must get rid of the mice and rats that I have in my freezer, because it is ILLEGAL to have frozen rodents. I also have to get rid of all of my live rats. Supposedly, they are a health hazard. I will probably end up paying large fines, doing jail time; and never be allowed to own animals ever again; all because I want to feed my w/c pet gopher snake. Also, my mother may loose her cat, whom she regards as her sister.

If I can't feed live, and I can't feed F/T (not that I have convinced my snake to eat F/T), what can I feed my snake? I don't think my snake is suddenly going to become a vegetarian; but is there anyway I can feed tofu, or vegieburger, etc.?

Has anyone run into this problem? What can I do? HELP! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Early tomorrow, Friday, morning a friend is going to destroy all my rats for me, using car exhaust, instead of CO2, and dispose of the bodies.

Without rats or mice, live or frozen, what can I feed my finicky snake? Should I force feed meat or poultry, if so, how much, and how often? What about vitamins and minerals? Is there any source for very small bird eggs?

Apparently, in order to breed rats or mice, I need some kind of expensive license, requiring regular inspections.

Maybe, I should just turn my finicky w/c Great Basin Gopher snake loose again. But, if my understanding is correct, once a snake is captured from the wild, it is illeagle to release it, because of possible parasite or disease transmission to the wild population. Also, its territory will have been taken over by some other snake; so, this one would have difficulty re-establishing territory, if that is even possible. If I turn it loose, it will probaly die as a meal for some larger preditor, or be roadkill, and I don't want that.

So far, this Spring, this snake has eaten two small rats, and a couple of pinkies. I hope that this is enough (but probably not) to last for the whole next year. This snake will usually only eat in the Spring, and now I am not going to have any more food for it, because it is ILLEGAL!

SnakeyLakey

Don't take this personally.

Is this the same poster, or possibly under a new account, that was repeatedly wasting everyones time in the cornsnake forum here by asking rediculous questions just to get a rise out of everyone?

If not then all I can say is you musta seriously pissed some people off to have them throw the book at you for what would normally be a minor fine, assuming they didn't let you off with a warning.

Sean.
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1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

I have never been to the cornsnake forum. My other snake is a w/c wandering garter snake.

I am in a very, very serious situation. Some people on these forums have three or four hundred rats. I wonder how they can get away with it. I only have about one hundred rats.

There are only a few weeks out of the year when my gopher snake will eat. Right now is the beginning of them. Now I wont have acess to anything to feed him/her.

I didn't know that I needed to have a permit to have rats.

SnakeyLakey

Since, I can no longer feed rodents to my gopher snake, I MUST find an alternative that my extremely finicky snake will eat. And I MUST find it NOW! Otherwise I will have to release the snake, and I am sure that if I do that, the snake will die. Or do I just have the snake killed along with the rats? I DON'T want to do that! (But maybe it would be quicker.)

How do I force feed beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, or anything else I can get at the meat counter or butcher, to my great basin gopher snake? How much, and how often? What supplements should I add? The snake is almost 4 feet long. Is there any place that I can get very small bird eggs?

I am very desprete! I am franticly trying to find a solution, . . . this morning. Today is the day all my rats get killed, so my snake will not have anymore food.

Help me please.

SnakeyLakey

I am very upset, and very frightened. I do NOT want to go to jail. I have heard that the jailer is very mean.

A lady in this town was fined, jailed, and prohibited from ever owning or having contact with any more animals; merely because she had too many dogs.

A lady from the Humane Society says I have too many rats, and it's a health hazzard.

SnakeyLakey

Well, I don't know if this message is a fake or not, but on the odd chance that you are serious, I have a few questions for you:

1) Where do you live (what country or if in the USA, what State)?

2) Do pet stores in your area sell frozen feeders?

3) Why do you have 100's of rats when you only have two snakes and one that only eats a few times a year?

Possible solutions:

1) Don't breed rats. I figure the only reason you may be in trouble is that you are breeding and selling them. Not just because you own them.

2) Buy F/T rats from your local pet store or from the internet.

2) Send your snake to me, or anyone else, who would be able to care for it properly.

My gosh do you live in Russia? or soviet California? Have you broken some laws regarding animal husbandry? That is insane I have never heard of keeping frozen rodents illegal unless the health dept has an issue with you keeping them with food for human consumption, like eating at any fast food resteraunt is any cleaner! THE LIBERALS ARE COMING! It is your right to offend not to impose!!!

I would call the papers and publicly sign the ownership of your animals over to the authority requesting this action and have the media inquire how the animals will be fed, Then move!

f/t mice are perfectly legal her in the Union of Soviet Socialist Californians.

In fact, they recently (year or so ago) tried to sneak a law through that would have made it the only legal way to feed a snake. Fortunately they failed, and live feeders are still legal as well.
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I decided my old sig was too big.

I live in eastern Oregon; the land of ranchers where it is commonly believed that the only good snake is a dead snake. Many people here can not tell the difference between a gopher snake and a rattlesnake.

I enjoy my snake. I do not want him/her to starve.

I am not bothered feeding rodents to my snake, but other people are against my keeping rats inside my house. They say that rats, live or frozen, are unsanitary and a health hazard, even if the live rats are confined in cages, and not running loose. I don't understand how a frozen juvenile rat can contaminate commercially packaged frozen human food. It's not like I had wild rats running around loose in the freezer.

I don't freeze large rats. That is where I got into trouble, I had too many rats that were too large for my snake to eat. They are gone now.

It is too cold here to keep my rats outdoors. We are still getting occasional snow storms. Sunday's high temperatue was about 31 F, then dropped into the low twenties.

SnakeyLakey

You said: "They say that rats, live or frozen, are unsanitary and a health hazard, even if the live rats are confined in cages, and not running loose. I don't understand how a frozen juvenile rat can contaminate commercially packaged frozen human food."

Please define who "they" is. I believe I remember who it is, but others here may have not have seen the post before it was deleted.

When our renter came over to pay her rent, she noticed my rats. She is involved with the Humane Society. She later, brought over another lady to rescue some of the rats. This second lady is now planning to go to the authorities. Our renter who is also a member of our church, also called the pastor. Apparently the pastor doesn't like rats, or snakes, of any kind.

Our renter also called the rancher who volunteered to kill the rats, using engine starter (as ether) and engine exhaust, as recomended by the veterinarian his son works with.

The nearest petstore is over 130 miles away. I live in a small ranching community. The feed stores only stock food for livestock, not snakes or rats.

SnakeyLakey