waddlecaudle
New member
I am sorry for the overly excited thread title, but after 8 months of trial and error I finally got my Axanthic to tag his first F/T! For those of you that are wondering how to get your picky eater to eat (and trust me mine is picky) here is what I recommend that worked for me:
1. Let the rat sit out to thaw (I thawed mine for 9 hours on his cage)
2. Scent it with some turkey juice
3. Place in a metal round dog dish
4. Place a heat lamp onto the dog dish (mine fit perfectly on the rim you may need to try something else)
5. Heat the rat to an external temp of ~100F
6. Use tongs, turn the lights out, and wiggle the rat a little
He tagged it in less than 2 minutes, has only investigated 3 other F/T before and all had egg on them and took upwards of an hour to gain any interest.
I have tried everything from warming in a thing of warm water to soaking it completely in egg and letting it sit on top of his cage to scent the room all day. Nothing worked but this. I am not saying it will work for yours, but it is worth a shot. Mine was a picky fellow, he usually would have a hard time eating pre-killed if it wasn't shown to him almost immediately afterwards. This, he loved. Give it a shot, hope it goes well
1. Let the rat sit out to thaw (I thawed mine for 9 hours on his cage)
2. Scent it with some turkey juice
3. Place in a metal round dog dish
4. Place a heat lamp onto the dog dish (mine fit perfectly on the rim you may need to try something else)
5. Heat the rat to an external temp of ~100F
6. Use tongs, turn the lights out, and wiggle the rat a little
He tagged it in less than 2 minutes, has only investigated 3 other F/T before and all had egg on them and took upwards of an hour to gain any interest.
I have tried everything from warming in a thing of warm water to soaking it completely in egg and letting it sit on top of his cage to scent the room all day. Nothing worked but this. I am not saying it will work for yours, but it is worth a shot. Mine was a picky fellow, he usually would have a hard time eating pre-killed if it wasn't shown to him almost immediately afterwards. This, he loved. Give it a shot, hope it goes well