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

Ew. I am never going to keep them long term. Also. I'm in a bigger crisis. Just when I thought everything was going perfectly fine, I got home this morning and he'd spilled the water again, has diarrhea, and is basically swimming in his own feces. My bedroom smells like dead fish and I have to clue how to deal with this.

I'd bring him back to the pet store and forget about raising rats or keeping them at all. I did the same thing with a tiny baby rat that didn't even have his eyes open, tried feeding him milk formula with a syringe and put him in my incubator, what a pain in the but. Finally put him down with CO2 and froze him, then a week later one of my snakes ate him LOL. If I were you I'd set up a CO2 chamber and if they don't eat within a day I'd put them down and freeze for later, especially if you want to eventually move to frozen thawed. I have 14 snakes and about half that many rodent cages, rodents are way more work than a ton of snakes. And the smell is bad (especially male mice!!) if you don't keep on top of cleaning them at minimum every week with a full sterilization. Your best bet is to find a local rodent breeder that is nearby (or the pet store) and be able to return them if you need to, or do the CO2 thing if you can. Sounds like you got a sick rat, they should never have the runs. I have dozens of rats, mice, and African soft furs, never had a problem with the runs. You most likely contaminated your rat setup with that nasty bacteria, if you get more rodents you will have to do a full sterilization.

Well this was only an emergency situation. As I said, my snake has eaten during every other shed so I didn't expect it. What I've fed it is some tiny bits of sugar cookie (like, less than a square centimeter), some ciabatta bread, and some carrot. I don't think I can return him because he's a living creature. Even if I can, it'll have to wait until after I would have to feed anyway as I am working during all of the pet stores business hours until next week.

After taking a closer look, I have decided that he didn't actually have diarrhea. Based on the fact that he's currently pooping solid and that what I saw was probably the water bowl spilled mixed with the droppings. I have set up the cage with substrate and tucked the water bowl in it to prevent tipping so easily. Hopefully Kayly finishes her shed cycle soon.

Feeding only cookies, bread, and carrots isn't going to work. You want the feeder to have a nutritious diet so your snake will have a nutritious meal. Do you have a dog? Dry dog food is fine. One lady I knew said she fed her feeder rodents only Total cereal and they did well. . .I'm not fully convinced you could keep them long-term on that but it would be fairly nutritious for the short term anyway. Or any non-sugar cereal. Whatever veggies you have around (carrots are kind of high in sugar so go easy). A little bit of meat but not too much. Corn, bird seed, nuts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kokorobosoi

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

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lol i was just thinking about him getting attached to him lol too, i guess it does happen.

1. No. I don't have dogs nor do I plan to. 2. I live alone and am a college student so food is limited. I can't really afford meat or veggies. The carrots are the only veggie I have and whatever meat I do have it's frozen right now and not cooked. 3. I'm really hoping he only has to be here for another day or two as Kayly was clearing up yesterday so I believe the shed is near.

Eggs, pasta, rice, any leftover veggies, chicken bones.... You can feed it table scraps as long as they aren't too processed. E.g....no ramen noodles.

Whatever you are eating will work short term.

Yeah...this whole thing happened at bad timing. I'm being forced to move and I only have about two weeks. I spend 40+ hours a week at work right now and am pretty much living off chips, sugar cereal, fast food, and ramen until I know how much the move is going to cost (because I haven't found a place yet). A grocery trip isn't possible until at least Friday. I think he's trying to eat the substrate though... He keeps picking up pieces and chewing on them. *sigh* I can try to see if anyone can get me some better food soon but I don't think anyone is available today and I'm not available tomorrow.