a bucket-full of crap

Hi. this is DizzyStar. i lost my password and have since deleted the corresponding email account, so here i am as myself, with no confusing nicknames or whatever. And unfortunately it took a horrible story like this to get me to sign back up. i had been meaning to anyway, but i'm lazy and this prodded me into action because i dont think anyone else will understand better how i feel right now than you guys.i think i curse once, sensitive eyes beware, but its rare that i do and when i do i MEAN it.

*copy/paste from LJ*

i have two snakes, roswell, my python and grimm, my kingsnake. Grimm is still little so he eats frozen/thawed dead baby mice.

i have no problem with this.

Roswell eats feeder rats, live ones, the white creepy ones that make you think of the rats kept in labs that still test crap on animals.

i have no problem with this.

however when i went to petco yesterday to get their food they didnt have any white rats, they only had the patched "fancy" rats and.... solid blackish brown ones. One in particular was absolutly beautiful. i love rats... when kept as pets they are some of the cleanest rodents you can own, and some of the sweetest. i had a black rat a long time ago names nikki that would hang out on my shoulder and eat ritz crackers alll the time. my mom accidentally killed her. i never thought i'd cry over a rat, but i did, for a while.

so i buy these two brown rats thinking "no problem, i've been feeding her rats for over 4 years now and a rats a rat. no big deal." jeff fed her the first rat. we whack them up against a wall pretty good to stun them so they dont really know whats going on, and the chance of them hurting my snake is reduced to about zero. when time came for her to eat the second one, i whacked it against the wall... it didnt stun it, so i did it again a bit harder. i dropped it in the tub and it kind crawled over and sat on my snake, who just cowered underneath it. this is a full grown ball python, up against a small rat. after a few moments i picked up the rat and whacked it again the dropped it right in front of roswell. she wasnt interested.

by this time i'm feeling really really really bad abotu the rat... so bad i started crying and jeff had to try. roswell still wasnt interested. so we picked up the rat, who was trying to hide under my snake (!!!) and squeeked in fear everytime we barely touched it.

by this time i was really crying.

now its in its box with some water and crackers, looking healthy and alive, but its bunched all its paper towels in a corner and is kind of hunched/curled up int he corner. its alive, its alert, but when i reached my hand in to give it more water, she winced and curled up tighter.

i feel like a total ******* because i hurt a rat and my snake didnt eat it and now the thing is terrified of me. i feel like a scum-of-the-earth 100% ******* *******. *cry*

 

oh, it edits the curses... thats good i guess... but the full feeling of how crappy i feel isnt really conveyed with "silly person" ='(

 

Are you still intending to feed it to your snake?

 

as long as its is healthy, yes. we dont have a tank to keep it in. i cleaned out the little box they came in and put down paper towels for her to curl up in, but other than that we have no way of housing her. so... yes. as much as i'd like to just keep her and take care of her i'm afraid thats not an option. besides, other than instilling sheer terror of my hand in her, i dont know what kind of damage we've done. its probably better if she's eaten, and eaten soon. =(

 

You could kill it and freeze if you think its in pain, thats what I would do.

 

it doesnt seem like its in pain, just very very very scared. i just checked on it and heard it moving around alot in the box, when i opened the lid and looked in it went right back to its corner. i feel absolutely horrible.

 

Thats too bad. Makes me feel bad for the rat. If I were you I would go buy a tank for the rat and nurse it back to health and keep it. I wouldn't put it through any more trauma by trying to feed it to the snake again. Just my opinion though...

 

i took ros out just a moment ago and she was lively and active so i tried again. the poor rat, who's name was Curry, to go with Chicken that ros ate yesterday (we nameour rats food-type names) actually tucked her tail under her so i couldnt reach it when i went to open the box. i feel so bad... but she was still beign very timid so i didnt even try to stun her this time. as silly as it seems, i think after yesterdays experience she understood her fate and didnt even put up a fight. still, i've never felt this bad about feeding my snake before. but roswell decided she was still hungry and killed her unconventioanlly quickly... so, its over. snake is fed and full, rat isnt scared anymore.

and i still feel like a monster.

 

I would not use that way to kill the mouse. It is cruel, if you buy live, make a CO2 chamber or freeze it. Also you did the best thing by feeding the mouse to the snake, it probably had brain damage so it would not have been good to keep it.

 

Instead of knocking it out, you would rather suffacate or freeze it to death!?

 

Yagh yea I don't think suffocation or freezing is a more humane death than being knocked out.
Slowly gasping my last breaths as my life is sucked out of me..... or a quick bang to the head. I think I'd prefer the bang to the head than having my air taken away... or slowly freezing til I finally die (brrrr!)

Rachael, I can totally understand how you feel. It is not silly to cry over a rat b/c they are living things too, and it's sad to see any creature suffer.
I used to have pet rats as well, and I agree with you about how clean and gentle they are. Every hamster and mouse I owned was hyper, smelly, and bit alot. My rats were always gentle and clean. I was never bitten by rats- Always bitten by hamsters/mice/etc.

 

Awww that is soo sad I sympathize. It's not easy to see an animal suffer, especially when you're the cause. But at least it's over. I don't agree that freezing or suffocating it to death would be an easier death UNLESS when you knocked the rat on the wall, it was meant to kill it not stun it. But either way you look at it, you'll have to hurt or kill it. I had rats up until a couple months ago. I cried when the last one died. They were all old. But I loved them all.

 

It's fine if you stun the mouse right away, but if it takes 2 or more tries then it is much worse.

 

sicko...lol jking u do what u need to do. i would cry if i were u too but not in front of my friends i got ta keep my rep.... when i get one....

 

You are not suffocating it but using C02....It goes to sleep, and doesn't wake up, very quickly. Dizzy, that's terrible, I feel for you, and the rat....I cannot use the whack method for that reason....CO2 is easy, no mess, and very humane...

 

Freezing is a horrible, painful way to kill anything. Feed frozen and you won't have to deal with that kind of thing anymore. Made me sick reading about it....

 

she wont eat frozen. it has to be moving, even a little bit. she's been raised on live so its what she likes. Grimm, on the otherhand, is on F/T and if i get anymore snakes i'll be sure to keep them on that as well. as much for their safety as for my sanity.

 

Yeah I don't blame you. Hopefully you won't have to go through that again. There are a couple of techniques on how to successfully kill a rat and as far as movement goes have you tried the rat zombie dance with tongs? I mean how does the snake know why it's moving and why it's not. At least that would allow you to completely kill the rat instead of just stunning it. Just a thought.

 

rat zombie dance?

 

Pick up the dead rat with the tongs and move it around lol It's aliiiive!! No it's not. But how does the snake know?