new rat owner...by mistake

[spalding11]

so, i bought a little rat to feed my snake. She ended up not eating it, and i ended up falling in love with the rat. so now i have another pet. I don't know MUCH about rats(but have experience with TONS of other animals), but i think she's too young to be away from her mother/milk. is there some way of knowing, or supplementing? i estimated that she's about 3 weeks old.

any extra info that would help would be awesome!

by the way, i named her cookie

[rebeccabecca]

You first have to figure out how developed she is. Offer her softer foods( and normal too) if you think she's a tad too young( softened pellets). Make sure she can reach the water bottle.We had a really young one that we kept( I KO'ed it three times for our picky ball so we felt sorry for it) but she took abit longer to mature then the ones kept with the mom longer. Add 2 more and you have a breeding colony.

[frankykeno]

If her eyes are open and her ears are fully upright and her fur is developed she's likely old enough to be away from her mother. That usually happens between 15 to 20 days of life. It might be a bit young to be weaned but if she's developed enough then she will manage. Make sure she has food she can eat and a water bottle to drink from. You really do need to consider getting her a cagemate though - another female about her age. Rats rarely do well when kept alone. They are just far too social to thrive as a lone rat in a cage even if you give them tons of human attention, they still need another rat to socialize with, share grooming, snuggle with, etc. Please consider a friend for her.

[cobweb2000]

Congrats! You'll love having a rat for a pet. A good forum to get info from is www.goosemoose.com. It is a pet only forum, so please don't mention feeders if you go there. Frankykeno is correct, rats are very social animals and absoulutely need a companion.

If she has her eyes open and all her fur, she'll probably be able to eat solid food but I like to give babies something easy to eat like lab blocks softened with soy milk, baby food, oatmeal or even some vanilla Ensure. Usually by 4-5 weeks they can eat the same food as an adult rat.

Good luck with her!