Quote Originally Posted by unhip_crayon View Post
Some time this week, I plan on feed my 1.5 year old ball a live rat for the first time. I've read a lot into this so I am prepared and do not plan on leaving the ball unattended.

With that being said, If my ball does not eat the rat, where do I go from there? How long until I attempt to feed him again and do I use the same rat? How often do I need to feed the rat and what can I feed it? Does it need any external heat (ie lamp)?

Thanks
If your BP is feeding on f/t I would seriously just stick with that. It is a lot safer for your BP in the long run and is much more cost effective then buying a live rat every time you feed (you can buy f/t in bulk and freeze a half year supply of feeders). I wish my girl would eat f/t but she is picky and will only take live. Consider yourself lucky.

To answer your question, as far as attempting another feeding, I usually wait another week before trying to offer something that has been refused and I would also offer the same rat that was refused. I don't know how everyone else does it but I usually don't have to deal with this problem (I think I've only had to do it once or twice in the 6 years that I've owned my BP) so I'll leave that up to someone else to answer for sure.

You need to feed the rat daily and if you don't have any special rat lab block laying around, you can always use some dog kibble. The heat question all depends on where you live really; if it's excessively cold, I would give it a little extra heat but generally, no extra heat is necessary.

What are you keeping the rat in for now?