Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Was feeding the bp's on Sunday and the rat slipped from the hemostat and got away from me. Went to Wal*Mart and bought several large rat traps and a 1000fps pellet rifle with some hollow point pellets

Set three traps with peanut butter yesterday but the rat hasn't taken the bait "yet". I'm going to set another three and place them in the basement area since this is where I keep the snakes and where the rat took flight.

Thanks for ASF Reptiles for giving me some pointers yesterday. Andre is a stupendous guy, bar none!

BTW, have you ever had a rat escape and if so, how did you recover it? In addition to this question, when feeding live rats, do you pick the rat up by the tail with your hands or do you use a hemostat? If using a hemostat, do you pick it up by the tail or the scruff of its neck?

Man you gotta get that rat before it chews you out of house and home...I pick it up by the tail with a pair of hemostats...Two reasons..Rats like to bite, and they go right into the snake bin where the continue to dangle until the ball takes them...So I really don't feel like having my fingers bit by a rat or having my ball pythons mistake them for dinner.....Just grab in like mid-tail..

np

dont pick up the rat by the tail if it's alive...they can very easily turn up & bite you well...now if you're feeding a ball python a large rat I recommend you either stun or kill it before feeding. I always liked feeding live but no longer can do to space & cost so I have a freezer of frozen..but when I did I feed small rats without much worry but I stopped feeding large big rats because it seemed like it was a real struggle for the ball to kill it..it would kick longer & also increase the chance of your ball getting bit...this will also reduce the number of escapes..lol either kill or stun. stun will leave it moving some but in a daze & unable to escape or stuff like that. A quick knock on the head with a screwdriver handle or something like that

Lol !!!!!!!!!!!! I've had a few escape.

I breed my own, and they are tame friendly, never bite no matter how I handle them.
Although, I usually pick them up by the tail, sometimes I grab them around their body behind the front legs (only babies up to med rats).

As for recapturing them, I have a metal live capture small animal trap; the center pivot food tray closes the end doors.

A few times they just came walking over to me, and I picked them up and put them away. Other times it took me like a week to trap them.

Good luck with the rat hunt, I have a mental picture of someone sitting with the pellet gun waiting for the rat. lol

TomChambers

I feel your pain, believe me. I have tried everything to get all my balls on frozen but we all know how that works. Live rats are a Pain. Not only do you have to find someone to breed them for you then when your snakes decide not to eat you have to keep and feed them until your snakes decide they are hungry. My story is similar and I have had many rats get away from me, luckly for me I guess, I have recaptured them all, dead or alive I guess.

The worse was when I left the rat container on a chair and they managed to knock it over and about 15 got out in my garage. At first I started trying to catch them, but I have too much stuff in my garage and it got real frustrating real quick. They would hide under my fridge and not move. So I resorted to the BB gun trick. I dug my old C02 pistol out from the attic and got ready. Luckly I had one CO2 left and needless to say it did the job. They are just too hard to catch, I hunt a lot so it was almost as an off season hunt for me.......hahaha. But yeah it was a funny sight to see me sitting there with the lights off and a flash light shooting the rats. What fun............
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Paul Farmer
F & B Reptiles
pj_farmer@hotmail.com
Our Website

I had a rat get away from me once, I put out a few d-CON bait traps and had the rat in 2 days. The poison made the rat real slow almost drunk looking, I found the rat eating the poison. It didn't even try to run, it was just stumbling around, Till I smashed him with my snake hook, then he was trash.

Jay Cassidy

Take a clean 5 gal empty bucket.
Put the bedding the rat was using in the bucket.
Place bucket open end where the animal got loose.
A little food in it.
and make sure the bottom is pointing to where you enter the room.
Walk over real slow and lift up bucket.... I did this a few times. I did it as soon as the rat got loose. Also look to where the cages are that you keep them in.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

My cat has always been a great help in recapturing rats, even though it's usually his fault they're loose. First, the cats busted through the screen top on my 40 gal rat tank by jumping on it repeatedly. My cat stole a young rat and put it in a cardboard box in my room and then jumped in and out of the box while I was trying to sleep. I kicked him out of my room for being loud and found the poor rat huddled in the corner of the box in the morning (completely uninjured). I still haven't found the right size top for my tank, and my cat still manages to steal a young rat every now and then. He doesn't do anything to hurt them, just carries them around by the scruff and usually puts them in the bed while I'm sleeping. Awwww, cute! He even had one that was his little buddy that he stole all the time. Besides that, my breeder rats can get out of their tank where the screen's ripped, and they do a little foraging now and then but always go back home (the tank's in the basement so it's not a big deal).

Here's my harmless rat catcher as a kitten...

Pitbulls are excellent rodent control, and groundhogs, raccoons, skunks, opposums ect,ect. It does make a mess sometimes though....LOL..Gamebred dogs ROCK!!
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CB

"Maybe the venom has gone to my head"

See, cats can squeeze into some tight spots that dogs can't, and they're a bit sneakier. Not only that, but my kitty will return the rat to me unharmed to be used for feeding later - no mess (not that I particularly like waking up with a rat in the bed). Oh, nice!

Okay, you got me there. My dog would swallow anything small enough, so no mess, but large rats would make lots of messes.

BTW:My dogs favorite animal friend was a cat, after people of course.

Furry animals rule.

Take care,
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CB

"Maybe the venom has gone to my head"

I sympathize with your dilemma. However, snake owners bear a social stigma because we feed live rodents to our beloved pets and many people feel that is inhumane. We know it is not inhumane and that it is just nature, but when you mistreat the prey, then you are being inhumane.
If you were holding a live rat with hemostats, by scruff or tail, you were hurting it beyond what nature intended and that makes our social stigma that much harder to shake.
If you are 'hunting' the escapee with pellet guns, sticky paper, cats or dogs, then you are hurting the prey beyond what nature intended.
It is not necessary to feed your full grown snake a large rat. If you choose to feed live prey, feed him/her small rats, which will not cause it harm or be difficult for the snake to constrict. You will have to watch the snake closely to ensure the snake's safety. J
Just because the snake is big does not mean it's prey must be as well. Yes, you will have to feed more often but it's worth it if your snake is eating and growing safely and you can avoid feeding larger, possibly dangerous prey.
I hope you find the rat and are able to humanely capture it. If you do, gas it, freeze it, and hope one of your pythons will eventually eat it.
Good luck!
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...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.1 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
? Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
1 pet mouse and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!

I agree (though you may not think so with my cat statement). I like rats and I've had pet rats (and some of the breeders now are more pets than anything). They're smart animals and I do make a point to be as humane as possible. I treat my rats very well and since I mostly feed pre-killed, I do that as quickly as possible. I'd definately avoid sticky traps and poison, as they inflict quite a bit of unnecessary suffering. Pellet guns sound barbaric, but if you can dispose of them in one shot at least it's quick. About my cat comment, using him is actually a very humane way for me to catch rats, as he doesn't harm them at all and he's much better at capturing them than I am. It was just a funny story about my cat more than a real suggestion. I just wish he wouldn't steal them in the first place!

I can see using a cat to find an escaped rodent because they won't harm them - at first. As long as the cat is being used to catch the rat, and not as 'kitty treats' then I support that. It's logical!

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...got balls?

graycat

Letting me live here:
2.1 normals
0.1 pie ball
1.0 hetpied
? Suriname
? Common snapping turtle
? Alligator snapping turtle
1 Guinea pig
2 gold fish (turtle survivors)
1 pet mouse and
3 cats
Oh yeah, and 3 children!