jb's blog

What's written below has been copied/pasted from redtailboas.com. It was written by the user "AaronZav" and I received his permission to repost it here and share it with the masses (HUGE THANKS Aaron). The link to the post is: http://www.redtailboas.com/f75/mouse-factory-closing-59350/#post617238

I think this information is ABSOLUTELY vital for EVERY RODENT EATING ANIMAL OWNER OUT THERE. You absolutely MUST ask your supplier if they produce 100% of the feeders they sell - otherwise, you risk getting "more than you bargained for". Here's the post:

Saw this thread and had to jump in on the LAB portion of it. A few years back I worked at TACONIC, one of the labs that provides surplus to these companies. I wil say this, these rats/mice live in precisely controlled environments under conditions that are ridiculously sanitary. I used to have to change into scrubs, gloves, a mask and slippers before entering the animal controlled section of the company. Then walk to my "bio-bubble", which is a tranparent soft plastic tent that is about 12ft x 30ft. Each "bio-bubble" is positive pressure which means individually controlled filtered forced air is pumped into them through thousands of holes in the ceiling forcing continuos new air in and old air out via the bottom of the bubble. I would then have to strip down to shorts and t shirt, enter the first little portion of the bubble, don new scrubs gloves, shoes and mask, tape sleeves and legs and then enter the bubble. Huge stainless steel containers were delivered to each bubble that had been heated to a ridiculous temperature. These were full of supplies, cages, food, bedding, paperwork, etc. These were then attaches to the bubble via a port and then sprayed with sanitizer and then were allowed to be opened. Quite the operation huh

So as far as the conditions of the animals, excellent. My bubble was in charge of producing projects for AMGEN. All kinds of selective breeding, some lines of rodents were huge, for big projects and some small. Essentialy the customer states what they want in the end, sends you a couple of mice and you breed to the end result. Just like boas, you get hets, homozygous and the wild types, so whatever is not needed gets sent out daily and is euthanized in a giant gas chamber, litterally thousands daily, then they sell those to Zoos, breeders, etc.

Perfectly clean animals? Yes. Would I use them, no. Reason being as stated above, there are so many genetic traits bred into these animals and you never know what you are gonna get. We had white mice that luminessed certain areas under certain lighting, mice with alzheimers that forgot everything, hyper active mice, hairless with no imune system, etc. oh, and microchipped animals. These animals are euthanized by the thousands and different strains all together, so I think its pretty difficult for them to say exactly what you are getting other than a rodent.

Just thought I would give a little firsthand experience for those that cared to read. Ultimately its your decision, and im certain that some of these genetically engineered rodents will do no harm to your snake, but, I think it is pretty hard to be certain what you are getting and the long term effects may not be known.

As always, feel free to link to my blog to share it with others!

- jb