Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tonight before bed I went to check on all the rodents for food, water, new babies, etc... and also to check on an old breeder male. When I went to open the tub he is in, I heard a squeal from one of the rats and thought maybe the tub pinched someone's tail, which happens occasionally. I closed the tub and heard a squeal, opened it and heard another squeal. With the tub half open, I looked into the tub and saw that the male was stuck by his face somehow near the hardware cloth. I moved the lab block that was hiding his face and was surprised by what I saw. He had somehow gotten his nose and upper teeth stuck through the cloth. He had spun and turned around so much by the time I found him that the wire had cut a full circle into his skin. After spreading the wire apart and manipulating his nose I finally got him freed from the mesh. I've never seen or heard of this before but I thought I'd post it as a caution to everyone using this hardware cloth with rats.

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-Diana
www.LunarBoids.com

A little Neosporin and he should be ok, but yeah...that is odd.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

one reason I have always been leery about the idea of having food ontop of a wire mesh where the rats have to try and eat through it. Though for rats its the half inch wire mesh that should be used instead of the quarter inch.
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PHLdyPayne

not 1/4"
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-Diana
www.LunarBoids.com

these types of things happen all the time
mice too....
hopper mice will crawl up through the screening then have no footing,so they crawl back down through another hole....yet they are still stuck halfway up through the first....meaning they can be bent backwards through 2 holes with no way out....till we pull the box out and ...well...let's say it'll hurt (and the foot was stuck under a box to boot)...

rats ,gerbils ,etc with teeth and nose like yours did too...it happens...

lab cages have all different sized screen meshes....so different types of wierd things can happen ...

good luck....hopefully he learned his lesson....

(although I have had female adult mice get their heads stuck like 5 or 6 times.....like are they that stupid?....)....
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two digit morphs...who woulda thunk it.......

Thought it was strange because I've never heard of it happening before, but apparently it's not all that uncommon.
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-Diana
www.LunarBoids.com

I have never had something like that happen before but I have had the hopper mice and hopper ASF slide out of the 1/2 screening and jump to their deaths. Thats why I switched my mouse rack to 1/4 inch but I kept my rat rack 1/2 in.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

I have 1/2 inch on my mouse racks......yes the hoppers can get out if they are small for their age,overpopulated,or just really unlucky or stupid........usually well fed mice won't escape that much....(by that much I still have some get out all the time....I always have traps set and always see white things run across the room..)LOL.......I just don't think mice can eat from 1/4 inch that well at all.....(a friend had rats on 1/4 inch...ouch...).....(my rats are fed IN the cage or are in rat lab cages so the space is 1/2 wide and like 3 inches long?....)...

..anyways........no matter what you have or keep them in....rodents will chew and chew and rip and stick body parts where you don't want them....

...good luck.......
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two digit morphs...who woulda thunk it.......

It happens. I've had a couple rats get stuck to the feeding trough in my 4 ft. Freedom Breeder holding tubs. I wouldn't say it's common, but something that happens from time to time.

Eric

after seeing that im wondering if thats what happened to one of my rats? her face looks deformed like her tooth is exposed on the side of her mouth and when i first seen this it was bloody but never seen what happened but now after seeing your rat thats what might have happened to mine but just got loose before i came there? i use big apples rat tubs i love them! would love to buy ars cage just too much money.

OUCH!!! I bet it won't do that again. I've never witnessed it myself (knock wood) but I can see how it would happen.

Quig