Thoughts on switching an albino to f/t

[Hypancistrus]

I picked up a late '16 albino male in April. Breeder was feeding pre-killed rats of various sizes. He ate with the breeder on April 4 and turned his snoot up at every version of f/t I offered him since then. On Saturday last I stopped at my local herp shop and got a live fuzzy rat. Lady that checked me out breeds BP's and suggested putting him into a smaller enclosure, since I put him into a new Reptile Basics Iris CB-70 rack. It's about 33" x 17" or so. I don't have another smaller rack, so I took a plastic "shoe box" critter keeper and put it in the back corner of the rack, long ways, so about half of it rests on the heat tape. It just barely touches the top of the rack, so he is safe in there. I pushed the litter up around the shoebox to make it dark and secure, and he did eat the fuzzy. But now I feel like a bad scientist... I have two independent variables... was it the smaller enclosure size, or the live rat?? I want to get him eating, so I think I will get another live rat early next week for him. How would you go about transitioning him to f/t? Should I offer a f/t rat fuzzy the week after, or keep going with live for a while? Also, how big do you think he needs to be before I release him back into the full size bin?? My mojave did just fine moving into the bin, though I started him in a 10 gallon when he was very small.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Possibly both are at play the issue is when an animal feed on pre-killed or F/T feeding live is a HUGE step backward.

Best way to offer F/T with a young BP is thaw at room temp near the enclosure, hold the prey behind the neck with your tong and warm it up with a hair dryer (concentrating on the head) and when offering keep holding behind the neck and move the rat around slowly to simulate the movement of a live rat (much more efficient than dangling by the tail).

[Hypancistrus]

I didn't want to offer live but he hadn't eaten in two months. I tried the room temp thaw and head warming. Anytime you go near him with the rat he curls into a ball and won't come out. So I tried leaving it with him overnight. He also didn't take. I also tried f/t mice as well. No interest.

[Ragtag]

I didn't want to offer live but he hadn't eaten in two months. I tried the room temp thaw and head warming. Anytime you go near him with the rat he curls into a ball and won't come out. So I tried leaving it with him overnight. He also didn't take. I also tried f/t mice as well. No interest.

I'm no expert by any means but I've heard of people leaving a f/t rat with the live to try and get some of the lives scent on it, that may be a viable method, but I'm no expert. Just a suggestion.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I didn't want to offer live but he hadn't eaten in two months. I tried the room temp thaw and head warming. Anytime you go near him with the rat he curls into a ball and won't come out. So I tried leaving it with him overnight. He also didn't take. I also tried f/t mice as well. No interest.

You should have tweak the husbandry first (always make husbandry changes before prey changes).

Now you just gonna have to be patient it may switch in a week, a month, a year it will it is own terms just be consistent with the way you are offering.

You can also offer a live rat half the size of what you usually are offering followed by a F/T (half the size of what you usually offering) soon as the first rat is down, sometimes the feeding response will be strong enough that they will get fooled and take the F/T when offered back to back (again simulate the movement of a live rat as explained above). If you are lucky it will take to preys down if not you'll have to use tough love which can only be done if the animal has a good body weight.

[Hypancistrus]

I'm no expert by any means but I've heard of people leaving a f/t rat with the live to try and get some of the lives scent on it, that may be a viable method, but I'm no expert. Just a suggestion.

I have live mice and spiny mice, but I don't keep rats.