refusal; now what with the rat?

I still feed live and my bp has made his first refusal ever tonight.

My question is what should I do with the rat? I've never had a small critter before and I'm hoping i can just keep him around until i can try to feed him again. I've got a little tank i can keep him in and some substrate and stuff but i don't really want to spend too much more money on something i intend to feed soon.:confused:

my bp was very interested in the rat the entire time, stalking it around and acting like he was going to strike, but ran (i mean this loosely) away every time the rat came close. Could it have been the rat that prevented him from going in for the kill?


Thanks for any help, I really appreciate.

There could be many reasons why it did not attack the rat, but as far as keeping the critter alive. It doesnt take much, Just water, food and some kind of substrate. They can eat dog food for the time being, also oatmeal, carrots. There are so many things they could eat around the house (as in temporary food).

i feed f\t unless they will not take f\t. But i did end up with two weaned rats that i have kept as pets. They are awesome pets and are very very smart. I can call them and they will come over to me. I refuse to feed them off to my snakes. One is blue headed and a blue spot and one is all black with a white chest. :gj:

Set him up in the tank. Put some substrate in there and a source of water, maybe something you have in the cupboards like granola for food.

I had two refusals the other week and I had to set the rats up in a temp tub. It was a 12 oz I think. I set it up like I mentioned above, but went to wal mart the next day to get some things for them. I spent $5 on them. I would recomend getting a temp set up for rats in case you get refused in the future. Now that I have all the things I need to hold a rat for a week, I feel alot better.

The water bottle was 3. The food was 2. And I bought them chewing sticks for .75 cents.

crap. I just noticed this was 5 hours old. I hope this helps a little and you don't get flamed like I did when I made this type of thread.

So we tried feeding the rat again, and to my boyfriends disbelief it seems like my bp and the rat are bffs. they just sat there face to face doing absolutely nothing. when we took the rat out finally, the rat started talking to us! i've never heard a rat make so much conversation and actually seem likeable. I might just have to keep this one..

but he's sneezing a lot so i dunno what that means. i hope he's not sick. he seems otherwise okay, minus the fact he's completely unattractive to a hungry python.

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Originally Posted by lk_holla

So we tried feeding the rat again, and to my boyfriends disbelief it seems like my bp and the rat are bffs. they just sat there face to face doing absolutely nothing. when we took the rat out finally, the rat started talking to us! i've never heard a rat make so much conversation and actually seem likeable. I might just have to keep this one..

but he's sneezing a lot so i dunno what that means. i hope he's not sick. he seems otherwise okay, minus the fact he's completely unattractive to a hungry python.

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You offered again too soon. Don't offer the rat again for another week. Offering food daily after refusal will just lead to more refusals.

I WAS about to warn you about getting to attached to the rat over the next week. If you decide to keep him/her as a pet - be sure to get it a same sexed buddy - rats do better in pairs.

my two i kept
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34...on04/003-6.jpg

kill it and freeze it, best way to save money...only thing its gonna cost is a plastic zip bag

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

You offered again too soon. Don't offer the rat again for another week. Offering food daily after refusal will just lead to more refusals.

I WAS about to warn you about getting to attached to the rat over the next week. If you decide to keep him/her as a pet - be sure to get it a same sexed buddy - rats do better in pairs.

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I think it is a mortal sin for a snake owner to get attached to rats :weirdface

I used a spare 10 gallon tank. Put some bedding in there with some lab block and a hamster water bottle. I got tired of trying to predict how many I needed and worrying if one wasnt gonna eat what I was gonna do with the rat. They eat like hogs too lol so make sure you have a supply of food.
I currently have an all gray rat named Stewart who was a feeder and is kind of becoming a little pet LOL

They make good appetizers:D Best served al a carte.:gj:

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Originally Posted by bones93

I currently have an all gray rat named Stewart who was a feeder and is kind of becoming a little pet LOL

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haha if you've named him i sure hope he'll be a pet!

I think my boyfriend has decided to adopt him. While i'm semi-grossed-out by rats, he's been rooting for this one and i told him if he doesn't want it fed next week, he better keep it and take care of it. So as of now he will be another addition to my zoo-like life.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lk_holla

haha if you've named him i sure hope he'll be a pet!

I think my boyfriend has decided to adopt him. While i'm semi-grossed-out by rats, he's been rooting for this one and i told him if he doesn't want it fed next week, he better keep it and take care of it. So as of now he will be another addition to my zoo-like life.

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I have this problem alot... recently picked up about 30 rats to get some good colonies going and would you believe there were 2 perfect siamese rats in the mix. Needless to say, they are my keepers and will only be bred for pets in the future.

I feed mostly frozen but there are some that only take live. If a live is refused I just put it back in the tub it came from. Before I had breeding set-ups for my rodents I just had a 10 gal tank set aside with water bottle and food for temporary housing for the refused rodent. I now have a 12 tub norway rat rack, 4 large ASF colonies and 2 mouse colonies. If you get more snakes and want to stick with live, or they just refuse F/T, just make up a couple rodent tubs with mesh screen tops, a hole soldered in the side for water bottle and have food on hand. Then you will always have a back up plan and a place to keep the ones you fall in love with and just cant feed off :D