Send HALP! Stuck with feeder rat!

[SCWood]

Its not that they like gold fish, but they have a heat signature. Not a strong one but it's there. They focus on the heat signature and strike. My boyfriend taught me that trick, and it worked with the first gold fish, the second and third fish were in a fish bowl together, and the one we have left ate the other one (wtf?!). Lol. My boyfriend named it and confessed to me that he has a hard time using anything he names for food. For himself or his pets. That's when we started feeding f/t cause I knew some day we would have a collection of mice that he named. Lol.

Will they eat the fish?

That's how I got my two pet rats. They can be very cute.

For advice on rats, I would say go to the rat forums.

http://www.ratforum.com/

You'll find everything you could possibly want to know there about keeping rats.

Don't try to suck me in

Game over. You have a pet rat.

Rats are extremely awesome pets .. I prefer them over a gerbil any day! You mind as well just get another one now, they are pretty social animals. Congrats LOL

Never! Lol I'd die

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[MontyAndMelissa]

Will they eat the fish?

Don't try to suck me in

Never! Lol I'd die

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They will eat the fish, but it's not much of a meal. More of like.. A snack. Like me eating one piece of popcorn. Lol.

[DVirginiana]

Just throwing this out there, but you should never feed goldfish to snakes. They contain a chemical called Thiaminase that affects how snakes can break down vitamin B. It's usually not a problem if you don't do it all the time, but some snakes can be more sensitive than others and have serious neurological symptoms or even death after only a time or two.

This is a really common problem with garter snakes, as they are more commonly fed fish, but the Thiaminase problem can potentially affect any snake species.

[SCWood]

They will eat the fish, but it's not much of a meal. More of like.. A snack. Like me eating one piece of popcorn. Lol.

I see ^^

Just throwing this out there, but you should never feed goldfish to snakes. They contain a chemical called Thiaminase that affects how snakes can break down vitamin B. It's usually not a problem if you don't do it all the time, but some snakes can be more sensitive than others and have serious neurological symptoms or even death after only a time or two.

This is a really common problem with garter snakes, as they are more commonly fed fish, but the Thiaminase problem can potentially affect any snake species.

Interesting o.o not planning on it anyway lol

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[MontyAndMelissa]

I see ^^

Interesting o.o not planning on it anyway lol

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Yeah, she pretty much struck it and spit it out. She didn't swallow it.

[SCWood]

LOL I was feeding a boa at work a few days ago and it struck the hopper 4 times and coiled before FINALLY eating it

[Daigga]

I must be weird, I named most of the rats I had at first even though I didn't have them for much longer than an hour or two. I ended up with Boodles the fourth, Bibbles the second, and a Bobert before I ended up with too many snakes to easily name the casual feeders. I still name my breeding rats, but if they don't work out I've come to accept what happens next.

To be honest it's usually a good idea to keep an emergency rodent setup on stand by just in case your snake refuses a meal. A water bottle and box of food from walmart might cost you around 6 dollars (don't try a bowl. If she isn't flicking aspen in it she'll be smearing it in poo before you notice what's going on, and rat poo is a pain to clean).

[M.P.C]

lmao i had this exact same problem, we now have a little rat pup named chester

[Penultimate]

Haha, I have the same issue... except somehow I ended up with six feeder rats that the pythons wouldn't eat and they're too big now. Dad wanted to buy them in bulk. I absolutely love rats, but guess what? I found out that I'm allergic to them! I am allergic to all fluffy things! Rats, cats, dogs, horses, rabbits... everything. Probably hamsters, mice and gerbils, too. *sigh* I really like two of them, too... a soft grey one and a nice looking spotted one... I want to keep them. I've always wanted rats, and I can't have them, apparently. Oh well. I have snakes.

[anicatgirl]

They will eat the fish, but it's not much of a meal. More of like.. A snack. Like me eating one piece of popcorn. Lol.

Not gonna lie, the fact that they strike and therefore kill the fish seems cruel to me, and it seems to be for no reason.

Also, this:

Just throwing this out there, but you should never feed goldfish to snakes. They contain a chemical called Thiaminase that affects how snakes can break down vitamin B. It's usually not a problem if you don't do it all the time, but some snakes can be more sensitive than others and have serious neurological symptoms or even death after only a time or two.

This is a really common problem with garter snakes, as they are more commonly fed fish, but the Thiaminase problem can potentially affect any snake species.

They are toxic. It's a no no.

@OP You can just get a setup for when this happens, I have 1. But TBH naming or handling the food is a bad idea if you want it to end up as food.