# Anyone feed whole mice/rats?



## voodoolamb

Just wondering if anyone here includes whole rodents in their raw fed dog's diets and if they did how their experiences were. 

I have exotic pets, tarantulas and snakes, and a small breeding colony of mice to support them. I'll probably be producing rats this year too. I've been considering popping the extras into the dog bowl.

Might need to adopt a cat and have them on a raw diet too lol


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## Stonevintage

My brother used to maintain a colony to feed his snakes. The thing I would worry about is disease transmission from mammal to mammal vs mammal to reptile or insect.

I took a brief look and there are some nasty transmissions that can occur. Lepto and Toxoplasmosis being just 2. The problem I see is if you ever had to introduce a new mouse to your breeding stock. Then, I would have a huge concern that disease transmission could occur thru the new one to all..... The Lepto virus is very shady and the vaccine is not as efficient as many think it to be, so I wouldn't trust that to protect if you introduce a new one....


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## voodoolamb

Good points stone. 

Standard operating procedures around here is a minimum 90 day quarantine for all new arrivals as far as breeding stock. 

Also my snakes are all on frozen/thawed. I raise the rodents, humanely Euthanize them, vacuum seal, date and into the freezer they go. I follow the guidelines for wild game to kill off any nasties. 

But there is always a risk. 

Every so often the snakes refuse their dinner and im stuck with a dead rodent. I hate to see a life go to waste ya know? Pains me to toss the little bugger away.


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## Stonevintage

I hear you. Good you are taking precautions. I'd still research the heck out of it though for buggers that survive freezing, you know they do in the wild....

I didn't mind my brothers snakes except when they peed down my arm a couple of times. What I did mind was when I was working in an office down in South Texas. One of the General Contractor's sons (in his 30's for gosh sake) decided it would be funny to dangle a baby rattlesnake by the tail in front of my face when I was on the phone talking to a client. He had found it in the parking lot. I held my mug and maintained my cool with the client until that darn dangling baby rattler puked up a dead baby mouse in a pool of slime on my timesheets I was completing!!!! Arrgh! 

There, at the same job by new IBM Selectric II (lol) quit working. The repairman picked it up for repair... diagnosis?... dead baby mouse in the workings under the keys.... Arrgh! I really hated Texas.


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## selzer

Ew!

I have considered raising rabbits and chickens to feed my dogs. But then I would name the darn things, and then I wouldn't be able to slaughter and butcher them. I'm better off passing out anonymous chicken legs. 

I do tell my girls that they can kill any rodent they find. They sometimes get one outside, but they do not eat them. They just kill them. I take them away and dispose of them. 

Ew! 

I have considered a cat. 
And a rat terrier. GSDs are not in the top 5 at rodent control.


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## voodoolamb

Stonevintage said:


> I hear you. Good you are taking precautions. I'd still research the heck out of it though for buggers that survive freezing, you know they do in the wild....
> 
> I didn't mind my brothers snakes except when they peed down my arm a couple of times. What I did mind was when I was working in an office down in South Texas. One of the General Contractor's sons (in his 30's for gosh sake) decided it would be funny to dangle a baby rattlesnake by the tail in front of my face when I was on the phone talking to a client. He had found it in the parking lot. I held my mug and maintained my cool with the client until that darn dangling baby rattler puked up a dead baby mouse in a pool of slime on my timesheets I was completing!!!! Arrgh!
> 
> There, at the same job by new IBM Selectric II (lol) quit working. The repairman picked it up for repair... diagnosis?... dead baby mouse in the workings under the keys.... Arrgh! I really hated Texas.


OMG! You are a braver lady then me! As funny as it sounds considering I have several pet pythons... I'm actually 'afraid' of snakes!!! If I'm out side and I see a snake, or a snake like twig, or a garden hose... I jump! Total panic moment. Then I realise, oh hey, it's a snake. And ger all curious about it and am fascinated by watching them. Last week I had a bloody copper head sunning itself on my front porch. Had to scoop the little bugger up with a shovel and plop him into a bucket. Then put the shovel through the handle of the bucket and carry the guy to drop him over the back fence. Lost the bucket over the fence in the process. Still have yet to retrieve it! 

I get anole lizards in the house all the time in the summer. They make me jump too when they dart in front of me. Then I get to pounce on them to try and get them back outside. 

Mako is no help at all on lizard patrol lol


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## NancyJ

Stonevintage said:


> There, at the same job by new IBM Selectric II (lol) quit working. The repairman picked it up for repair... diagnosis?... dead baby mouse in the workings under the keys.... Arrgh! I really hated Texas.


IBM Selectric II, wow take me back to the early 70s! My high school had a couple and the balls were guarded like treasures. Woe to the student who broke a nub off.


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## voodoolamb

selzer said:


> Ew!
> 
> I have considered raising rabbits and chickens to feed my dogs. But then I would name the darn things, and then I wouldn't be able to slaughter and butcher them. I'm better off passing out anonymous chicken legs.
> 
> I do tell my girls that they can kill any rodent they find. They sometimes get one outside, but they do not eat them. They just kill them. I take them away and dispose of them.
> 
> Ew!
> 
> I have considered a cat.
> And a rat terrier. GSDs are not in the top 5 at rodent control.


I do hatch out and raise up quail for the boys a few times a year. They aren't as personable as chickens so it makes signing them up for freezer camp a little easier. 

But I hear you. I have a few pet rodents that were just too darn cute or friendly to become food. I have a rat that as I was dropping into the C02 chamber literally grabbed my finger in her little paws and started licking/kissing/grooming me. Couldn't do it. Went out and dropped $80 on a luxury cage. She now knows her name, how to shake paws, and roll over. She still gives kisses anytime you pet her. 

I would basically suck at real farming LOL


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## Stonevintage

voodoolamb said:


> OMG! You are a braver lady then me! As funny as it sounds considering I have several pet pythons... I'm actually 'afraid' of snakes!!! If I'm out side and I see a snake, or a snake like twig, or a garden hose... I jump! Total panic moment. Then I realise, oh hey, it's a snake. And ger all curious about it and am fascinated by watching them. Last week I had a bloody copper head sunning itself on my front porch. Had to scoop the little bugger up with a shovel and plop him into a bucket. Then put the shovel through the handle of the bucket and carry the guy to drop him over the back fence. Lost the bucket over the fence in the process. Still have yet to retrieve it!
> 
> I get anole lizards in the house all the time in the summer. They make me jump too when they dart in front of me. Then I get to pounce on them to try and get them back outside.
> 
> Ew! perfect term Selzer. Voodoo, I moved from Lake Tahoe down to S Texas in the fall. YOU are braver than me. I couldn't take it.
> 
> For Christmas, my husband gave me a very expensive pair of Frye Boots. I said they were lovely honey, but hurt my feet so I took them back to the store. Truth comes out from my no nonsense bro in law.... Look girl - you need to stop runnin around barefoot here... theres screw worm, baby rattlers that sun themselves on the front walkway, everything else...the boots are for your safety! I said, well that really wasn't in the brochure...
> 
> neither was my getting stung by a Man-O-War the first time I tried to go swimming at S Padre, neither was my dog foaming at the mouth when he caught a toad, or when he got gored in the neck by a Javelina, or all the cattle ticks big as a lima bean, neither was my getting stung by a Brown Recluse or getting poison injected into the arch of my foot by a hard head head catfish.....
> 
> I started a Leave the Deep South Fund and we were outta there 14 months later. Oh, didn't mention the hurricane when we were in the mobile home.... EW!


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## voodoolamb

> Ew! perfect term Selzer. Voodoo, I moved from Lake Tahoe down to S Texas in the fall. YOU are braver than me. I couldn't take it.
> 
> For Christmas, my husband gave me a very expensive pair of Frye Boots. I said they were lovely honey, but hurt my feet so I took them back to the store. Truth comes out from my no nonsense bro in law.... Look girl - you need to stop runnin around barefoot here... theres screw worm, baby rattlers that sun themselves on the front walkway, everything else...the boots are for your safety! I said, well that really wasn't in the brochure...
> 
> neither was my getting stung by a Man-O-War the first time I tried to go swimming at S Padre, neither was my dog foaming at the mouth when he caught a toad, or when he got gored in the neck by a Javelina, or all the cattle ticks big as a lima bean, neither was my getting stung by a Brown Recluse or getting poison injected into the arch of my foot by a hard head head catfish.....
> 
> I started a Leave the Deep South Fund and we were outta there 14 months later. Oh, didn't mention the hurricane when we were in the mobile home.... EW!


Leave the deep south fund. I love it. I'm from the north less creepy crawly things and far fewer venomous things. Plus growing up there I knew where the scarey things were. Worse i had was water snakes, lived on a lake and they were aggressive sons of guns but non venomous. Down here though creepies are EVERYWHERE. First year in the south my cat brought in a LIVE baby copperhead. It was loose in my kitchen. Cat lost porch privileges after that one. 

Last summer I was out in the back yard potty training mako. I was wearing a tank top and sports bra. Felt a tickle on my chest. Looked down and there was a black widow IN MY CLEAVAGE. Yes. I stripped in the back yard in broad daylight lmao. It must have dropped down from the tree we were under.

So basically.. [email protected]#/% the south 

Western NC is as far south as I'm willing to go. I am just north west out of the range of cotton mouths, coral snakes, and alligators. I totally intend to keep it that way! 

I like my spideys and snakes in their glass tanks where I get to sneak up on them! Not the other way around. 

My BF doesn't understand me at all. I get all animated when I stumble across a creepy crawly out and about, yet get all excited and demand we go out and celebrate over hatching out several dozen big hairy mean tarantulas. (To be fair, it was a very hard to breed in captivity species that is endangered in the wild!)


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## ipopro

Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, consisting of small or medium-size rodents. I feed them 2xmo.


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## voodoolamb

ipopro said:


> Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, consisting of small or medium-size rodents. I feed them 2xmo.


Do you feed them whole hide and all or do you skin them? Did you have to do anything special to get your pups to accept them at first?

My guy is iffy about taking feathered quail. He prefers them plucked or skinned. Not sure how he would take to furred critters.


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## ipopro

voodoolamb said:


> Do you feed them whole hide and all or do you skin them? Did you have to do anything special to get your pups to accept them at first?
> 
> My guy is iffy about taking feathered quail. He prefers them plucked or skinned. Not sure how he would take to furred critters.


Whole : same as rabbits, chickens! Feathers are usually left and are utilized for different purposes.

Pork & Beef also skin on.

Serves a purpose!


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## Emoore

selzer said:


> I have considered a cat.
> And a rat terrier. GSDs are not in the top 5 at rodent control.




Took me a minute to figure out that you weren't considering a cat to feed to your dog. Time for that 2nd cup of coffee. . . .:nerd:


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## Stonevintage

Well Voodoo - I'm glad you're North of the gateway to heck. I did meet a lot of good people down there, just such a hostile environment.

Re: the big crawlies - I saw the strangest thing when we were on the road and just crossed into Texas for the first time..(I should have known then it was going to be bad....There's all these people pulled over on the side of the highway, dangerous but they were out there with mayonnaise jars collecting something off the ground....little kids too..

Took us a few miles to get what was going on. It was harvest time for some type of grain. The trucks hauling the grain would drop some and it would lay on the side of the road. That attracted bugs and small furries and that attracted the Tarantulas! People were out there catching the Tarantulas for pets. Eeeek!


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## wolfstraum

You guys just cured me of ever living in the South - have considered it for retirement - but no way, no how.....crappy weather here - not catastrophic but just alot of overcast, some rain, minimal flooding (comparatively!!!) few storms bad enough to do major damage to large areas....not real hot for long periods in the summer, or in winter not deadly cold.....but the creepy crawly nasty poisonous creatures not so common or bad....

Will stay up here in teh North Thank YOU!!!!


Lee


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## Stonevintage

jocoyn said:


> IBM Selectric II, wow take me back to the early 70s! My high school had a couple and the balls were guarded like treasures. Woe to the student who broke a nub off.


Hard to believe, but some people are apparently still using them. I always buy those little plastic cases of ball heads at thrift stores when I see them. I sell them for $25.00 online.


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## Magwart

Voodoolamb, I do feed treats made from Nutria -- Nutria are gigantic swamp rats. It's clean, wild-harvested meat, and my allergy dog handles it very well.

There's a company called Marsh Dog in Baton Rouge that sells Nutria jerky...and I use a lot of it. I highly recommend this little company --they make things in small batches. Dogs go bonkers for it. There's something primal in them that recognizes the taste of rodent as "food," I think. Seeing a terrier taste it for the first time was kind of hilarious_._

Nutria are an invasive pest in Louisiana, destroyers of wetlands, so there's a government bounty on them--the Marsh Dog owner figured out how to use the unwanted meat for something very good for dogs. I wish he sold the raw meat in addition to the jerky--old timers tell me that you used to be able to get the Nutria meat in the grocery store in South Louisiana, but it fell out of fashion. If I could find a reliable source of it, I'd likely feed a lot of it, since there aren't many proteins my dog can tolerate.


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