#rat parasites

Since our new rat surprised us with with 11 bonus rats and everyone seems significantly more healthy than past local rats, Lieblings suggested I go back for a male and start breeding. We have three snakes at present and spend a small fortune shipping boxes of frozen rodents completely with bricks of dry ice since local sources are spotty. I’m already raising meat, eggs, and dairy on the farm as well as feeding the dogs, might as well get the snakes on board.

So I brought home this guy and after a few days and some rashey humans discovered he had mites. It’s very hard to see in the photo and not much easier in person except the specks move. Back in my hayday of raising pet rats (early 2000s these guys were my whole life) there wasn’t much known about treaing parasites. When Petco sold me licey rats, my vet sort of shrugged and gave me a puppy/kitten shampoo and I fought a losing battle for years though at the very least it was species specific and not transferable to people or larger pets. Nowadays, a quick internet search revealed that Revolution for kittens works wonders with a single application, that’s 15mg Selamectin. The adult cat version is the same thing, just a bigger dose, so you can measure out with a syringe. It contains 45mg or three rat doses at 15mg each. I treated both adult rats and the nursing mother will pass her dose onto the babies.

July 6, 2017