Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Everytime I try to keep a w/c grey rat, it eats like gangbusters for about a month, then totally quits eating. It has bad sheds, stuck eye caps, etc. I wind up releasing them for their own health.

Even the baby I rescued and nursed back to health did this after it got well so I released it. And a yearling I just released today, same thing. I only had it a short while.

My everglades rat and my blue beauty are doing wonderfully well.

Do these guys require extra humidity? I guess so, duh, from my description of problems, above.

Guess I'll have to get a captive bred baby and try it that way.

Just rambling, I guess.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

Since the greys are native to your area, they shouldnt have humidity problems, etc. No more than your everglades anyway IMO. Very odd. It could be a stress factor being they are WC, but still, greys are pretty bullet proof as far as NA colubrids IMO as well. Are you housing them in a different area than your other snakes which may be drier/hotter?? You could try keeping a moist hide in the cage, but usually a decent sized water bowl is all that is required.

Thanks, Kevin. I remember now that I was successfully keeping a grey youngster a couple of years ago on reptibark substrate. Unfortunately, I bumped and loosened the clip on it's cage and being a rat snake, it dissappeared. I'm thinking aspen may not work well for them. My yellow rat is doing fine on aspen, but I put my blue beauty on reptibark so I can mist it prior to a shed. He had trouble a few times early on. The yellow and blue definitely don't have an eating problem!
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.