It finally happened - I have a live rat pup

Luckily it is weaned, eyes open, ears up, and my snake has 0 interest in eating so after spending more than I wanted to, I now have a rat enclosure (5 gallon aquarium with lid) to keep the pup for a week until the next attempted feeding. The pet store person has rats as pets so I got it bedding, it's hide is a tp roll(they were out of hides, can I give snake hide?), a water dispenser and some rat food pellets. It also has a chewy thingy. Any advice for keeping a feeder rat pup for a week is appreciated!

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Rats don't require hides, but would probably use a snake hide -call it a rat hide though. ;) A cardboard roll is fine & disposable...don't be shocked if he eats
some of it though.

I'm more worried about becoming attached! I sent my roommate on the rat pickup and he got the frozen but decided the snake deserved a live one too but Argon the snake is in the middle a shed and has 0 interest in food.

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With small furry animals for food, I found out of sight out of mind. I would put it somewhere I wouldn't see it unless I wanted to.

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Originally Posted by Calla

I'm more worried about becoming attached! I sent my roommate on the rat pickup and he got the frozen but decided the snake deserved a live one too but Argon the snake is in the middle a shed and has 0 interest in food.

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If the snake is eating F/T why on Earth would you want to feed it live???? Why the heck would the snake "deserve" a live rat? That makes ZERO sense.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Calla

I'm more worried about becoming attached! I sent my roommate on the rat pickup and he got the frozen but decided the snake deserved a live one too but Argon the snake is in the middle a shed and has 0 interest in food.

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That's the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Young rats are cute & social, & they do make good pets, although wearing even just a little of their scent
(unintentionally) can confuse your snake into biting you.

I hope you have a serious talk with your room-mate though: feeding a live rat to a snake that's used to taking f/t can mess up the snake's future acceptance of f/t. :(

And not only that, a snake that's used to taking f/t rodents will not be expecting the prey to fight back, so you run the risk of your snake getting injured. You might
want to see if the pet store will accept the rat back...before you get attached, lol.

I agree with everything everyone is saying and I am either sending it back to the store or finding a rescue group.

No need to confuse the snake with a prey item it isn't use to and no need for me to get attached.

Thanks for the feedback on care while I had it!




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