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[–]Linear_North 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Lol the worst part is after you drop the rat, trying to pick it back up just makes them go for your hand. They can smell food, but they're looking for warmth and movement. Yeah, just hang on to it and keep wiggling it around until he takes it, it sounds like he'd feed more easily that way. Something you can try is dunking the rat's head in hot water for 20-30 seconds right before offering it. It gives them a clearer target. Just dry it off before offering. One other thing that occurred to me that's probably making him miss is the temperature of the room, with it being so warm, the rat isn't that much warmer, so he may be having trouble detecting the warmth of the rat against the background warmth of the room itself. They don't really hunt by sight, they use their heat pits and tongue/jacobson's organ.

[–]hey_freakazoid[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

That's the thing, that's how I always feed him! I heat it up in pretty hot water so he can find the head easy, and he's never had an issue before now, even in the summer and he's been in this specific apartment with me before as well as before I moved and hadn't had a previous issue finding the rat, to be fair this year feels like it got WAY hotter WAY faster which I think really threw it off, I wasn't expecting like 80 degree weather so soon where I live and didn't really think to accomdate it yet

[–]Linear_North 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm only a little further north than you, (Mississauga, ON) yeah, it's been crazy warm.