So I guess I have a pet rat now.

Tried to tempt Snickers into eating with a rat fuzzy. Figured that would be small enough to not intimidate her, but she still wanted nothing to do with it. Left it in her tub over night; figured at that size it couldn't possibly do any damage, and she might want to eat if things were dark and quiet. It was still there in the morning, curled up on on the warm spot. Went to work. Came home and it was still there, had opened it's eyes, and was toddling awkwardly around the tub. Snickers is still being a grump under her hide, so she gets another tube feeding on Monday, but now I have a baby rat, guessing around about 2 weeks old, and showing no distress. Welp.

Got some powdered puppy formula at the store and it's been gobbling down about 7 ml every 4 or 5 hours no problem. If it lives out another week I think it gets to be the lucky one.

LOL. I have zero tolerance for rats. It would have found a new home in my freezer.

Rats are pretty awesome. The other day I had the absolute sweetest little brown rat. It was so nice, loved the thing. About to be moving, though, so I'd feeding off my breeders, and the ones that were being groomed to be new breeders went first, followed by the male.

If you are trying to keep the rat fuzzy alive, you should note that it is likely young enough to need stimulated to urinate and defecate. This should be done before every feeding.

AW! Are you attached already?

If this happened to me, I'd raise the rat until my bp starts eating again, and then probably would still feed it off...

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Originally Posted by Kcl

If you are trying to keep the rat fuzzy alive, you should note that it is likely young enough to need stimulated to urinate and defecate. This should be done before every feeding.

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Yup, have been doing so. Mom used to breed Persian cats and I've had to raise a few babies by hand. Rat is smaller, but same general principle.

Honestly my husband and I really do love rats, and we were talking about getting a few and keeping pets that would also help offset feeding but... that was supposed to be a later on down the line like maybe in a year or two kind of thing. Guess that got bumped up, lol.

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

AW! Are you attached already?

If this happened to me, I'd raise the rat until my bp starts eating again, and then probably would still feed it off...

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I think by the time she's feeling ready to eat the pup might be too big. I'll have to go get a new fuzzy.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

Yup, have been doing so. Mom used to breed Persian cats and I've had to raise a few babies by hand. Rat is smaller, but same general principle.

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Yup - pretty much the same deal with all baby mammals on that so you should be good to go! Some are just more likely to manage to pee on you than others...

I hope I never have to deal with feeding live baby rodents to anything again. They squeak and I feel so guilty.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kcl

Yup - pretty much the same deal with all baby mammals on that so you should be good to go! Some are just more likely to manage to pee on you than others...

I hope I never have to deal with feeding live baby rodents to anything again. They squeak and I feel so guilty.

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I hear ya. Last pup I got from the supplier was a pretty little hooded rex. Felt like kind of a waste using it as a feeder. I try to get my kids over onto f/t as soon as possible so I don't have to deal with live.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

I hear ya. Last pup I got from the supplier was a pretty little hooded rex. Felt like kind of a waste using it as a feeder. I try to get my kids over onto f/t as soon as possible so I don't have to deal with live.

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After dealing with live for one snake, getting something that is already on f/t moved waaay up on my list of requirements for anything I buy in the future. I can do it, but I hate it and don't want to again. I also ended up with a mouse for a month until I got it rehomed during that experience. It at least could eat on its own but I had to give it more of a formula mash type mix for a while. Rodents are just not for me as pets. Too much pooping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

I hear ya. Last pup I got from the supplier was a pretty little hooded rex. Felt like kind of a waste using it as a feeder. I try to get my kids over onto f/t as soon as possible so I don't have to deal with live.

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I had that feel back when Cake still had to eat live, and the store gave me this cute curly-haired light grey dumbo! It was super cute, but the snake has to eat... It looked something like this

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...f99cd8fb24.jpg

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Originally Posted by redshepherd

I had that feel back when Cake still had to eat live, and the store gave me this cute curly-haired light grey dumbo! It was super cute, but the snake has to eat... It looked something like this

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...f99cd8fb24.jpg

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OMG, if I brought something like that home and my daughters saw it I would end up with a pet rat. They help me feed and everything but there is no way my youngest would let that be snake food.

Yeah, that's a rex! The one the store gave me was a brown hooded pattern, so one of these little guys. I'm considering grabbing another rex from them if they have any when this little guy is old enough to introduce to a partner (I know you aren't supposed to keep singular rats as they're highly social and need a buddy, but I'm worried an older one would bully the fuzzy and I don't want to get a second fuzzy and have to nurse two rats, so will wait until it's a bit bigger to find it a freind).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

Yeah, that's a rex! The one the store gave me was a brown hooded pattern, so one of these little guys. I'm considering grabbing another rex from them if they have any when this little guy is old enough to introduce to a partner (I know you aren't supposed to keep singular rats as they're highly social and need a buddy, but I'm worried an older one would bully the fuzzy and I don't want to get a second fuzzy and have to nurse two rats, so will wait until it's a bit bigger to find it a freind).

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Little stuffed toys of similar size to the animal are good for orphaned mammal babies that usually wouldn't be singletons but can't be put in with others for whatever reason. You could get a little $1 cat toy or something (not the kind with catnip obviously) and plop it in with him.

You would think with the massive, useless toy collection my kids have that would already be laying around my house, but I ended up just rolling up one of my toddlers socks when a search didn't turn up anything lol. Cat toy is a good idea though, I may stop by the pet shop again after work.

For psychological reasons fluffy would work well. Something that feels like the warm embrace if the now absent mother and siblings.

The best tank mates are siblings. See if you can pick up a similar sized rat to it in a couple weeks when it should be roughly weened

Well she just peed on me without my doing anything so I guess that's good?

Anyway, baby pics!

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...nigo1_1280.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...nigo2_1280.jpg

Honestly not sure if little ratty is gonna live. She’s loosing weight in spite of feeding, and energy with it. Being as she was already half the size a rat of her age should be, I think it’s just something internally wrong. Gonna keep her warm and fed til she goes.

Little rat passed on last night so we buried her in the garden.
I think that this has definitely affirmed that we’ll be getting pet rats ON PURPOSE sometime in the future though….

Sorry to hear about your little friend. You did the best you could by her, which was more than many would have done.

Oh no sorry to hear about your little friend. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be? Atleast you let her enjoy her last days in comfort.

Rats do make great pets so if and when you do decide to get a pet rat we'd love to see pics!

My poor three year old still doesn't quite understand she's gone and keeps asking to pet the rat. I think he really liked her. He was so gentle, he'd ask to pet her and then very veeeeery carefully stroke her fur with one finger.

I'd like to find an actually decent rat breeder in the area to get a pet animal from, but I can't seem to find any :/

I'm sorry to hear she didn't make it. I know you did well by her.

You can probably try asking one of the rat forums to help you find a good breeder for a rat friend.