Opinion on Mouse to Rat conversion

[pbenner]

Hi guys,

I have an idea of what I want to do to go about this, but right now I've got one stubborn girl that still wants mice, and only mice. She has zero interest in an appropriate sized Female Rat.

When I got her, her first two meals were very small, live mice, as she was both dehydrated and underweight. She had loose skin and the like, probably from not being fed before Tinley. She wouldn't do frozen to start, got her eating Live mice, then she moved to F/T after the 2nd live mouse. First one was a bit of dancing to get her to take, the 2nd and third she just went after with as much gusto as she does the live.

I've offered her Rats in the same manner, including leaving one in her cage over night. No interest.

She's right at 100g now. She's nearly doubled her weight since I got her, but I want to get her onto rats.

Should I bring her home an appropriate sized live rat (Fuzzy or Fuzzy+) and get her into Live rats, and then re-convert her to Frozen once she has a taste for them, or just wait her out on Frozen?

Paul

[oodaT]

Try scenting first your rat with mouse bedding(grab some from a pet store that has mice). If you want to keep her on F/T, just rub your F/T rat around in mouse bedding to get that scent on the rat and offer it to her and see how she does, will probably need to be "danced" since it will have the unusual rat smell to entice her to take it. Can also do this with a live rat, just ask for bedding from a mouses cage.

I've done it several times this way and usually take a rat with no scenting the following feeding or the 2nd time after.

[WhompingWillow]

Try scenting first your rat with mouse bedding(grab some from a pet store that has mice). If you want to keep her on F/T, just rub your F/T rat around in mouse bedding to get that scent on the rat and offer it to her and see how she does, will probably need to be "danced" since it will have the unusual rat smell to entice her to take it. Can also do this with a live rat, just ask for bedding from a mouses cage.

I've done it several times this way and usually take a rat with no scenting the following feeding or the 2nd time after.

I second trying to scent a F/T rat. We had one stubborn BP and thawing both a mouse and a rat in the same bag did the trick. I think we scented for two meals before trying without and he had no problems accepting the rat.