Finally

i finally found a pet store that sells live pinky rats. i got my lil pastel on june 25. he has not eaten yet. i have offered him 2 pinkys already and he refused.. that is why im going tomorrow to get live. my question is if its ok to feed him and then maybe two or three days later feed him again. just so that he has a full belly. then i will start a regular feeding schedule of once a week

was he already on f/t? he may have needed some more time getting used to his enclosure, they usually need at least a week. whats your setup like?

i would go ahead and wait the 5-7 days to feed again, if he was eating regularly before you got him, a week and a half is not long to be off of food.

Feed every 5 days for hatchlings.

yea true. i figured it was that hes not used to FT. and he seems pretty acclimated to his cage. every night he is up and about moving everything around. but when i first had him he crawled into his hide box and didnt come out for about 3 days. he is about 2-3 months old. i have a 10 gallon tank with a UTH that reads 85-90 inside his hide box but when i put the thermometer probe under the bedding and everything it read 95-98. i also have a smaller hide box on the the cool side. and next to that hide box is his water bowl. i dont know the temp on the cool side since i never measured it. but ambient temp reads in the 80's. its gotten kind of hot in my room. haha. soon i will move him into a room all for himself.

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Originally Posted by Lancerlot109@aol.com

yea true. i figured it was that hes not used to FT. and he seems pretty acclimated to his cage. every night he is up and about moving everything around. but when i first had him he crawled into his hide box and didnt come out for about 3 days. he is about 2-3 months old. i have a 10 gallon tank with a UTH that reads 85-90 inside his hide box but when i put the thermometer probe under the bedding and everything it read 95-98. i also have a smaller hide box on the the cool side. and next to that hide box is his water bowl. i dont know the temp on the cool side since i never measured it. but ambient temp reads in the 80's. its gotten kind of hot in my room. haha. soon i will move him into a room all for himself.

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i am working on getting a thermostat also :D

its actually pretty normal for them to stay hidden away for most of the time. Mine usually don't come out while i'm awake unless i do something to harass their enclosures. 95-98 is also on the warm side, you have to remember that they could still potentially get to the bottom of the substrate. What kind of bedding are you using? I'm a little surprised that there can be a 10 degree difference between the bottom of the substrate and the top. Its also better to have 2 identical hides so they won't have to choose between security or temperature.

Depending on when the last time you tried to feed, you may also want to wait. If you keep offering food after a refusal, it will prolong how long it takes for them to finally decide to eat.

hope this helps!

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Originally Posted by lk_holla

its actually pretty normal for them to stay hidden away for most of the time. Mine usually don't come out while i'm awake unless i do something to harass their enclosures. 95-98 is also on the warm side, you have to remember that they could still potentially get to the bottom of the substrate. What kind of bedding are you using? I'm a little surprised that there can be a 10 degree difference between the bottom of the substrate and the top. Its also better to have 2 identical hides so they won't have to choose between security or temperature.

Depending on when the last time you tried to feed, you may also want to wait. If you keep offering food after a refusal, it will prolong how long it takes for them to finally decide to eat.

hope this helps!

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THANKS. he actually just ate! im so happy