How to Properly Care for Rat?

[RiA MaU]

So I feed live since I'm still early in the process of switching my girl to frozen (she was already used to live when I got her). She's been fasting since October and now I have to keep rats she doesn't eat. I looked into temporary rat setups and I have one, but the last rat refused food and water and was dead in two days. How do I prevent this when I have to keep them?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

How hold was that rat? You can only maintain a rat alive with food and water if it's weaned from it's mother in other words 3 weeks or older.

[RiA MaU]

Um...I don't know how to figure that out? It was a small feeder rat that I got from the pet store. I assume they're weaned since they keep them in large cages with many other rats labeled as feeders.

[Maddlesrain]

If it doesn't have hair, or has very little hair, it's not weaned and will most likely starve. I talked to my local reptile shop and they told me many of them starve to death and are simply thrown out. Pretty sad.


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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Um...I don't know how to figure that out? It was a small feeder rat that I got from the pet store. I assume they're weaned since they keep them in large cages with many other rats labeled as feeders.

Well if it was weaned and you offered food and water and it died I would question the health of the feeder itself and the source, rats are pretty easy food, water, well ventilated enclosure that's all they really need.




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[Timelugia]

Well if it was weaned and you offered food and water and it died I would question the health of the feeder itself and the source, rats are pretty easy food, water, well ventilated enclosure that's all they really need.




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I'd second this. Rodents in general are not know for their pickiness. If you gave the rat water and food and it refused- that's weird. And almost definitely not your fault.

[Dahliasmom]

It would take more than a few days no food and water to kill a rat, it was likely I'll when purchased and on deaths door already. Being prey animals they often times can hide illnesses very well.


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[wolfy-hound]

Were the eyes fully open and could the rat run about on it's legs(not crawling belly)?

A rat will drink out of a water dish and eat dog food and survive. If you give it good quality rat food and a dish of water, it should live and thrive even.

If it refuses to eat or drink, there's either something wrong with what you're offering, the rodent is too young to live without mom or it was ill/injured prior to trying to care for it.

[RiA MaU]

Like I said, they're all kept away from their mothers. They're small rats, not fuzzies or pinkies. Open eyes and fully furred. Glad to know it must have been something wrong with the rat, though. I have a proper rat cage/water bottle/everything, so I also thought it was weird. I'd hate to have to stop getting my rats where I do because it's the only store in town that sells live rats for feeding. :/

[distaff]

Like I said, they're all kept away from their mothers. They're small rats, not fuzzies or pinkies. Open eyes and fully furred. Glad to know it must have been something wrong with the rat, though. I have a proper rat cage/water bottle/everything, so I also thought it was weird. I'd hate to have to stop getting my rats where I do because it's the only store in town that sells live rats for feeding. :/

A young rat that previously had a bowl for water might not know how to drink from a bottle.
Otherwise, sounds like something was just wrong with it.

My neighbour who teaches biology, and raises rats for the class snakes, gave me two little guys this past summer. I kept them in a Sterelite latch top tote and paper towels until a CritterNation shipped. Worked fine. Used tiny size hardware cloth in the top for ventilation. I could never feed off either of them - they are pets.

At some point, I'll get an unrelated female and breed her. Hard to find rodents around here. We had a promising new ownership on a somewhat local pet store, but that seems to have frizzled. Wish someone could come up with a way to overnight them.

They are neither hard to keep, nor delicate.
Hope you have better luck with one next time.