Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got a kitten that had fleas and so fleas were in my living room. The kitten is gone now, but the fleas remain. I plan to bug bomb my downstairs area (living room, dining room, and kitchen areas) on Friday, but wonder if my rats would have fleas. They are mostly dark colored so I don't know if I would see any. I plan to put the rats' cage in my bedroom (where my cats stay), but if they have fleas, they might spread it to my cats, and vise versa. How do you treat fleas on rats? I would like to do what I can as a precaution before returning the rats to the living room after things are safe after the bug bomb. I have 2 boys, 3 girls, and 5 babies (under 1 week old).

At least my backyard is already treated and my dogs are on flea prevention medication. Now to take care of the house in sections, the cats, the rats, and keeping my roaches, snakes, and birds (including babies) safe...sigh

I would think they would get fleas. Check closly or just wash them with a flea bath for cats, but not as much.
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irtBikeBoy50@aol.com" target="_blank">DirtBikeBoy50@aol.comMy pets: Savanna Monitor, 2 pictus geckos,hamster,cat,and 6 goldfish.

The cat fleas should not spread to your rats, no. Fleas tend to be very host-specific creatures--cat fleas will not infest dogs, and dog fleas will not infest cats, for example.
However, fleas of any species when deprived of their primary host WILL bite whatever mammal is handy, even if they won't set up breeding. If you aren't being bitten, chances are your rats aren't either.

Rodent fleas, on the other hand, can be extraordinarily dangerous creatures....several species of these carry the Yersinia pestis bacteria--the bubonic plague. Never allow wild rodents access to your captive rodents.

My boyfriend has been bitten many times since we realized we had fleas in the living room. I have been bitten twice within a minute one day, but not more since.

How do people treat rats with fleas? I rather be safe than sorry and kill off the fleas quickly as possible to reduce population booms.

A good flea powder made for cats and safe for kittens should work... you sprinkle it into their substrate...you can't feed off for a while after you change it out, but it works. *nods* I had to do that, we brought a sick kitten in from outside that had fleas and they quickly went through the house and onto my dogs as well.. My one dog is severely allergic to flea bites. It took us well over 4 months to get her sores to go away after that.

Thanks for the advice. I also have one dog that gets bad sores when fleas bite her and she chews herself up. That is how I can tell the dogs don't have any fleas... Anyways they have advantage on them.

I will go and buy kitten flea powder. Or would the kitten mousse work to? What about using 'Black Knight Roach Killer'?

I intend to use the babies I have as feeders so I guess the mom will have to be untreated for the time being. I don't see any fleas running around on them so they might be okay.

Use a kitten flea spray that is pyrethrin based and mild. I want to say 0.18%pyrethrin and not all the additional stuff. Rats will lick off the powder and it will cling longer. Also remember NOT to feed those rats til 2 weeks after all the flea treatments are GONE. Don't keep powder in the cages or if you do, DON'T feed off the rats.
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Sonya

Yeah, like I said, you probably won't have to treat the rats anymore than you'd treat yourself--they'll only bite the rats as an incidental, just as they bite you, they won't stay on them. Just change their bedding extra often while you're treating your carpets.

With only ten rats, you can easily dispose of all fleas that may be on the adults by giving the rats twice-weekly baths using an anti-flea cat shampoo. Be sure to replace the rats' bedding each time that you bathe them. This will take three weeks, but will work. As for the five babies - if you intend to feed them off, just give them one bath in warm water without shampoo, to remove any living fleas. If any eggs remain on them (and there probably won't be), their consumption by your snakes will do the snakes no harm.

Bathing, using the above regimen, is also helpful in ridding rats of lice, and scabies. Used in conjunction with oral or injected treatment by certain drugs (Ivermectin is most commonly used - two doses at a ten-day interval, and is highly effective), you can eliminate all ectoparasites from your rat population within 21 days. Following such treatment, you need to ensure that you routinely quarantine and treat any new animal that you bring into your home, prior to permitting it to have any contact with any of your resident animals.

As stated by other respondents - don't feed off any drug-treated animal for at least ten-to-14 days after the final treatment. Although, if your snakes HAVE ectoparasites, feeding treated prey would be a means of treating the snakes, provided that the drug used was one that is also used for cold-blooded species (i.e. Ivermectin).

>>I got a kitten that had fleas and so fleas were in my living room. The kitten is gone now, but the fleas remain. I plan to bug bomb my downstairs area (living room, dining room, and kitchen areas) on Friday, but wonder if my rats would have fleas. They are mostly dark colored so I don't know if I would see any. I plan to put the rats' cage in my bedroom (where my cats stay), but if they have fleas, they might spread it to my cats, and vise versa. How do you treat fleas on rats? I would like to do what I can as a precaution before returning the rats to the living room after things are safe after the bug bomb. I have 2 boys, 3 girls, and 5 babies (under 1 week old).
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>>At least my backyard is already treated and my dogs are on flea prevention medication. Now to take care of the house in sections, the cats, the rats, and keeping my roaches, snakes, and birds (including babies) safe...sigh

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tricia