New guy here with yet another feeding question.

[HarleyBalls]

Hello, thanks in advance for any advice! So I have a 600g male and a 260g female that are set up in a rack. They have been in it for two weeks, husbandry is spot on and the only thing i think that may be lacking is a second hide for each(the rack is an old five tub boa master 35Qt tubs). Both were live eaters and have eaten live for me, So after a week on feeding night i offered F/T for the first time, my male was "blue" and refused so i left it in with him overnight and he did not eat it. Well he had a clean shed and has been left alone all week and last night was feeding night. Again the girl wasted no time. He refused to strike so i left it in with him, after about 40 min. i checked on him and he still had not eaten. So i decided to offer it to my girl because she was still in food mode. She has been eating pups and this was a weaned rat, she struck within seconds and had no problems eating it, I watched she took 3-5 minutes. So my questions are #1 since she ate a weaned rat would it be ok to keep her on this size meal? #2 should i wait a week and offer the male another F/t or go get him a live rat to try tonight, or just try live next week on feeding night? Thanks again!

[Neal]

You can wait a week and offer f/t, but understand he may take, or may not. He may never take f/t. They have tricks you can do to try and get him to take it, but all you can do is try.

You can use hemostats and hold the rat between the shoulder blades to copy live behavior.

[HarleyBalls]

Thanks Neal! Yeah that is exactly how i tried, that kinda was my thought that he may just never go for F/T, but hes a good weight so we will try again in a week. Do you have any thoughts on feeding my girl weaned rats?

[Neal]

Thanks Neal! Yeah that is exactly how i tried, that kinda was my thought that he may just never go for F/T, but hes a good weight so we will try again in a week. Do you have any thoughts on feeding my girl weaned rats?

If it's about the same size as the thickest part of her then you'll be fine.