First rat! (long) (yeah, it's been a while!)

lilyskip · 11-23-03, 07:31 PM

Hey guys! It's been a while since my last post, but this news was too exciting not to share, and hopefully parts of this will be helpful to people switching to rats for the first time...

Huxley the bp ate his first rat with me today! It was somewhat of an uphill battle (though not nearly as hard as I thought it would be)...I'd offered him f/t before, but he just didn't seem interested. I couldn't buy appropriate-sized frozen rat weanlings for him online since the shipping costs were prohibitive for something that I didn't even know if he would eat, and the smallest rats stocked by the reptile store near me were still pretty darn big, compared to Hux's size.

So for the past month, I'd upped his feeding frequency with adult mice to once every four days (which I'm sure I should have been doing before...) to help him gain some girth. I tried a frozen rat last night, but it was either too big or he just didn't recognize it as food, and he didn't go for it.

So today, I went to the reptile store for more mice and another rat, but decided on the spur of the moment to have them prekill one of the smaller of their live feeder rats. I brought it home, along with two frozen mice, in case the rat failed. I offered the rat, and Huxley didn't seem interested, even though it was bleeding a little bit from being hit at the store.

Then I remembered all the advice that I'd heard about switching to rats, and I got one of the frozen mice, and rubbed it all over the rat. I cut off some of its fur, and put clumps of it on the rat's head, where I knew Huxley would flick his tongue. Then I offered again. He flicked at it, and after a minute became interested and got into strike position. A few minutes went by, and he wasn't striking, even though I was wiggling it. Then I tapped it against the side of his body a few times, and put it in front of his face. After doing this twice, he struck at quickly and coiled.

I left the room so as not to stress him out for his first rat, so I don't know how hard it was for him to swallow it, but he did swallow, and now he's got this big fat lump in his body! I'm hoping my second rat won't be as hard as the first. Sorry this was so long-winded, but I'm really, really excited that I've finally made the switch to rats.

mykee · 11-23-03, 07:45 PM

Congrats.

snakehunter · 11-23-03, 08:06 PM

thats how i switched mine too, that and mouse feces blech, but hey, their switched

daver676 · 11-23-03, 09:04 PM

Great to here from you again lilyskip!

And I swear we run on the same clock. I just got some frozen rats and will be seeing if Sophia will eat them once she is done her shed. Congrats on the feeding! When I tap Soph on the sides with prey, that really seems to trigger something. After a few taps she usually takes her food. One question. Did you thaw the mouse before you used it to scent the rat?

lilyskip · 11-23-03, 10:12 PM

thanks guys!

hey dave! i didn't thaw out the mouse...i'm not sure if the rubbing was even effective since the mouse wasn't thawed, but the hair-cutting definitely still worked. Whenever I tap Huxley with the prey, it seems like he almost strikes out of annoyance, but then the feeding instinct kicks in immediately. Good luck with Sophia!

mark129er · 11-23-03, 10:59 PM

When i tap my boa with food she gets pi$$ed and moves away. I switched her very easily to rats. I waited an extra day, prekilled a rat pup weanling (whatever you want to call it) and she ate it immediately.

PS congrats on the switch, all down hill from here.

sapphire_moon · 11-23-03, 11:45 PM

Glad to hear from you again! Glad hux is onto rats!

MouseKilla · 11-24-03, 10:37 AM

My female seems to grow by the day since switching her over. It seems the more she eats the hungrier she gets too. She'll put away two smalls or one medium and five days later she's trying to break out of the cage to go kill something. Maybe when she is bigger I'll "accidently" forget to lock the cage one night and if I get lucky I'll have one less cat in the morning. We'll just tell the kid that the cat ran away... if she doesn't buy it we'll explain about the circle of life and the food chain and stuff... it'll be fine...lol!

jathoma · 11-24-03, 11:16 AM

Congrats Lily! I knew Hux could do it!

Sit back and watch now as he grows by leaps and bounds!

lilyskip · 11-25-03, 12:00 AM

Hehe, I'm so excited to see him get bigger. Hopefully he'll be big enough for the frozen ones in a feeding or two! It really helped that a bunch of you guys here switched to rats around the same time Hux was getting ready to...reading those posts/chatting with you guys helped a lot!

LOL mousekilla! (catkilla?!) I guess I can't blame you, though, I'm not a big cat person, myself.

MouseKilla · 11-25-03, 03:41 PM

I'll admit to killing many, many rodents but no one has ever proven my culpability in the death of a cat... yet. lol!

Bartman · 11-25-03, 08:56 PM

that was a really helpful post..when i need to switch him im gonna forsure try that. When i first got him i tried small rats right away and he didnt take them, when i got a mouse he took it so i guess hes a litle scared of rats too. In abouta month ill needa switch to rats and im gonna try that forsure. Thanks for that post, really!

lilyskip · 11-26-03, 01:36 AM

bartman--
awesome!

i'm so glad you found it helpful. huxley was the same way when I first got him...i offered rat pups, but he seemed to be really scared of them. the mouse fur really seemed to pique his interest, though. good luck with yours!

AshleyL · 11-26-03, 11:05 PM

my girl was terrified of everything i offered her, rats or mice, at first. once she got over that it was smooth sailing!