Well... Now I own a pet rat....

[NuttyMuffins]

About 30 minutes ago I was feeding a rat fuzzy a water and sugar solution, and here's how it came to be. So, I got my first ball python just about 3 weeks ago now at exactly a month old. I started out with trying to feed her F/T mice, and she wasn't taking. Contacted the breeder, told me he has been feeding her live rat fuzzies. Okay, lets try that. Gave that a go and shes been eating like a champ. So, all good. Everything's going well. Ate rat fuzzies twice with me. Shes tolerating getting held more each day. About a week ago I noticed some pink belly action going on and got prepared for her first shed. Of course it happens when my boyfriend is in town and I'm not going to be spending a lot of time at home, but not a huge problem. My brother had been checking on her and taking care of her lights every evening and morning.

Last time she was fed was on the 20th, so a couple days ago I knew feeding day was coming up. But due to living in Alaska the only place you can buy live feeding rats is a 40 minute drive away; one way. And with the way things worked out, I wasn't able to feed her at all; but the pet store was on the way to the airport. So today when I was dropping off my boyfriend at the airport I picked up a rat fuzzy to feed to my snake when I got home. And well, said boyfriend proceeded to name tiny rat, talked to it, and gave me updates on little Abigail the entire way to the airport practically begging me to not feed it to the snake. (Can we also mention that my boyfriend is a snake owner who feeds his snake mice, and oh yeah, he doesn't even like rats) I kept telling him that Little Abigail is nothing more than snake chow, I even defended the argument "But she has so many places to explore in her tiny life!" with "Exactly! Like the inside of a snake" Anyway, Boyfriend eventually accepted the fact that I would not be keeping Little Abigail and that she was not long for this world. Yeah..... Well apparently I was wrong. Considering I have her sitting in a plastic tub with paper towels and a heat lamp on top and just hand fed her that dang sugar solution. In any case, when I eventually got home (keeping in mind that I hadn't seen my snake in 2 days) I looked under My snake's hide I saw her eyes are completely blue. Because she cant really see I didn't want to plop a live rat right in front of her while she's feeling completely vulnerable. At this point it was also too late to take Little Abigail back to the pet store. So guess who got stuck with taking care of a rat that cant even open its eyes yet. The answer to that one would definitely be, me. I'm going to be really screwed if Little Abigail is too big by the time my snake is finished shedding. I suppose then I really WILL have a pet rat. Words cannot describe the ginormous eye roll I want to do right now. Stupid snake food. It fell asleep in my hand. You've gotta be kidding me...

[Fraido]

You can still try and offer the rat, no biggie. (:

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[Willowy]

Haha, probably happens to everyone who feeds live, at least once anyway .

You'll need some formula. Sugar water isn't going to cut it for long-term feeding. One thing I read said to use human formula for rats. . .at least it's easy to find no matter where you live .

[Hannahshissyfix]

Yeah I'd still offer it. Plenty still eat while in blue and it would be better than the baby rat probably starving and being cold/lonely. I do keep pet rats too but that young would be hard to keep alive.

[NuttyMuffins]

Update, so snake never ate. And now I for sure have a pet rat because now its too big for her. Thanks for all the responses everybody! I wanted to reply right away, but college and work kinda consumed my life. But thanks for the tips guys! If anybody is interested, the rat is doing great! She stopped needing milk about a week and a half ago and is on a solid diet. I also bought her a buddy, and they seem very happy together.

[BPGator]

I hope the buddy is the same gender. Hard to tell when they're little.


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[blue roses]

I have 3 pet rats, because my girl stopped eating at one time last winter, and i got worried cause i only had her about 3 months and she was still young, so i offered live, she had switched to ft, but i wanted to get her eating live when i got her. Well 3 weeks in a row i tried live pups and no go, but my daughter kept rescueing them and hand feeding them. Once she got them it was no go, well she just started eating again on her own, and i'm now the granny to 3 rats. i have to admit they are pretty cute, and really sweet.

[distaff]

Congrats. They are fun pets.
(And, they will make you appreciate how low maintenance snakes are .)

I have two. Given to me by the neighbour who needed come livestock care at his house for a few days. I was raising some pet store mice (must have been a mean strain), and REALLY disliked them. Bitey! The neighbour keeps rats at home for the class room snakes, and offered me a couple of pups from a recent litter. They are both males, the proud occupants of a two-story Critter Nation (that is big as an armoire, and takes up half my study).

One is almost shoulder tame. Very curious and sweet little guys.

Ratgirl44 is a good Youtube channel for general care.
I also like Shadowtherat for watching tricks.

[NuttyMuffins]

Thanks for the support everybody! Glad to see that I'm not alone in the discovery that rats are friends AND food! I've actually grown to love the little rodents and the one's personality, Abigail, actually reminds me of a pet ferret I once owned. I think I'm happy with my army of 1 snake and 2 rat pets at the moment.

[DarthSlitherus]

Congrats on the new pets!

Similar situation happened to me. Snake wouldn't eat his rat, wife and kid bonded with it, viola, pet rat. Rat needed a buddy, viola, now have two rats.

We turned an old bookcase into a giant rat playhouse with cutouts and ramps for the rats to get to the different stories/shelves, with french doors made of molding and cage wire for the front.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to feed rats to my BP ever again haha We've all grown very attached to our Spot and Snickers and bring them out to play every night for about an hour. We cut up some old packing boxes and taped them together so that they make a long fold-able wall. We just pull that out at night and make a large corral in the living room so we can play on the floor with the rats and not have to worry about them getting loose, then when done we just fold it up and slide it under a bed

Seeing how intelligent and affectionate they are makes it hard to accept that they're used for feeding, but it is what it is. My BP gets adult mice for his meals, but he's still a juvenile, so I guess we may have to switch to rats in the future