How do I wean my stubborn child rat?
I have been raising this little feral (roof) rat since he was a week old. I fed him human milk-based formula next to a little dropper until he was about three weeks elderly, then started mixing baby rice cereal in near the formula. After a few days of that, I quit with the dropper and started putting the formula/rice porridge on a little piece of bread for him. I was hoping that he would discover that the bread itself be edible. But that didn't happen.
I have commercial rat blocks and hold tried mixing a tiny bit of that in with his porridge, but he won't have that. He will impose sanctions to eat for the entire day (18hrs). I don't want to withhold food from him for any longer than that since he's still growing. But I can't think of any other bearing to get him to eat real food. I've tried giving him breads, breakfast cereal (he sometimes takes a nibble of flaked rice breakfast cereal, but no more than a nibble), cheese, apples, grapes, peas, noodles, nuts, etc. all to no avail. He won't even try them. I've tried dipping the unadulterated foods into the porridge but he just eats around them.
At this point (he's 7 weeks old now) I'm giving him roughly a tablespoon of canned milk (I ran out of formula a few days ago, but the milk is fortified so I figure it's okay for somewhat while) with the baby rice cereal mixed in to fashion a porridge, twice a day. He really needs to eat unadulterated food - a variety of real foods - to get proper nutrition. He's immensely healthy and energetic at this point - clear eyes, supple coat, etc., so it's not like he have any deficiency... yet.
HOW can I get him to drink real food? I truly can't think of what else to try.
give him away who wants a rat. Let him out into the rainy! let him be free!
try smashing some actual food into a powder and mixing it with water.feed that to him for a while next slowly move on to little bigger pieces and eventually real way...also try mushy fruits similar to bananas.it seamed to work for my guinea pigs
Answers: Make sure at hand are lab blocks in his cage, either within solid or softened form. Slowly feed him less and less milk / cereal every light of day until he is forced to eat the blocks. He won't starve himself because he is picky, he just prefers the milk to rat food. Keep track of his weight beside a gram scale so you can make sure he is still achievement weight at a steady rate. I really don't think he will starve himself, but whether for some reason he does you'll have to find a different diet that he likes, conceivably something home made. There are lots of good recipes on the internet whether you do a Google search. I hope everything turns out, good luck with your rat!
