Raising a Feeder?

So I'm not actually RAISING a feeder rat, but I do have to care for one until Kayly decides she wants to eat. I bought a rat for her yesterday and she didn't eat it. Reason being she's in shed. She has eaten during every shed before this so I didn't think she'd turn it down this time. Anyway, my question is, how do I care for this creature until she decides she's hungry? I can't give him back to the pet store. I want to work her into frozen/thawed but I don't have a way to do that yet. What can I feed him? How often does he need to eat? How do I set up the temporary cage? How do I keep him from tipping his water dish all over the bed of the cage within 5 minutes of it going in? Tips for keeping my allergies down? :)

Oh. I also forgot to mention that I'm worried that if I keep him for more than a couple days, he'll get too big for her. Is that an issue?

It'll help to know how big the feeder is

Just go buy a 30 dollar rat/mouse cage from Petco. We do this all the time. You can guy actual rat food or just give him crushed up crackers and like Cheerios. Make sure it has water and bedding. As long as it has fur and it's eyes are open, it'll be fine. It will grow but not a major amount in a week.

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The rat is a small rat. What can I use as bedding? Do I have to buy some? Right now, I just have a small towel on the bottom of the cage that I'm constantly switching out. LOL. (He keeps dumping his water on it.)

What do you keep the snake on? Aspen would work, or paper towels. Whatever you have. If you think having a live feeder around is something you'll have to do often, you might want to get a cage with a water bottle. Much less messy. You can probably find a cheap rodent cage on craigslist or at a garage sale.

She has a sphagnum moss based substrate. I'm currently in the middle of having to move so a more serious rat cage will have to wait a few weeks. I'm hoping to switch her to f/t soon though so it shouldn't be a problem for long.

Go on YouTube and type in "rat Care"

Rats are reallh super easy especially when you don't plan to keep them long. Whatever bedding you have your snake on is good, water and whatever food you have. Rats like human are omnivorous. I use to feed my feeder rat dog food and supplement of vegetable and egg white. Something whatever leftover food I have.

Now on long term care if you wanna dive deep is more advance and cater to the rat physical and mental well being, they are such smart intelligent animal they really shouldn't be keep long term alone is a small cage.

Might want ant to read up on long term care now, it is easy to fall in love with their cuteness

I started with just a rat pup that didn't get fed....I bottle fed that sucker cause I wasn't "wasting the money"..... he got a name.... then he got a friend.... then I ended up with a 3ft by 3 ft four level cage with fleece and toys and out of cage play time...and 5 rats.


This is the beginning. You have been warned :P