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Hahaha wrinkes is so cute.
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Aug 19, 2010 23:48
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| # ? May 15, 2024 09:40 |
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I thought I'd come hang in the Rat Megathread instead of derailing discussion in the small animal one! Dog days are over, where is your breeder? I've e-mailed every rat breeder I can find in Scotland and never got any replies, except for those who weren't breeding any more. I don't think I'd mind getting a train journey to somewhere in England to pick up ratties if it came to that - If I do get rats I really want well socialised friendly animals and I feel that may be asking a lot of a pet shop rat.
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Aug 20, 2010 13:46
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Hiya Chakattack! My rats are from a breeder in Stillington, Stockton. Apparently the north of England is a good place for breeders/rescuers and the North East Rat Society (NERS) can help put you contact with them - http://www.neratsociety.co.uk/looking.html Breeder list - http://www.neratsociety.co.uk/breeders.html Pet shop rats aren't likely to be well socialised at all and may be carrying an illness that the pet shop owners just don't have time to identify or treat, so definitely go with a breeder or rescue if you can. Also, my three girls arrived about 20 minutes ago aaaa they are adorable, I'm leaving them alone so they can chill out and explore their cage but it's killing me being in a different room from them! Pictures later when they've calmed down from the excitement, I can still hear them pinging around the cage like mad things. I got to meet their mum too and she was beautiful. 
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Aug 20, 2010 14:35
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Thanks for your help! North of England probably wouldn't be so bad so I'll look into that - I actually just found what looks like to be an active breeder here http://mayhemrattery.tripod.com/ - and sent in an application for some kittens as it looks like there will be a litter soon! So I'm excited! Also I can't wait to see photos of your rats, they look absolutely gorgeous! Yay ratties!
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Aug 20, 2010 17:13
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Looks like it's a trip to the vets for all 3 boys this week for a teeth trimming. I've never had any pets that needed this doing, is it just a straight forward nail file in the mouth? Or will they have to be sedated for it? I can imagine they wont hold still for something like this.
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Aug 22, 2010 15:11
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Working on socialising my three girls a little at a time, today they had adventure time on my bed and explored it all, along with me and my housemate. Koides is okay with being picked up and likes shoulder rides, Guna is a bit more shy but can be picked up with a bit of effort, but Peanut is by far the most nervous. She explored but was quick to retreat under my leg () if I moved my hands too fast. I've tried tempting them over to me with yoghurt which I've been told by multiple people that will win a rat's heart, but only Koides seems to care about it. She's licked it off the spoon and then later my fingers, but Guna and Peanut aren't interested when it's offered to them. I've never heard of rats refusing treats!
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Aug 22, 2010 16:05
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About 5 months ago a friend of mine had a ratsplosion amongst his own couple pets (pet shop didn't know how to tell the sexes apart  ) and I had been pretty interested in rats for a while so I went out and bought all the essentials to start my journey into the depths of adorableness  . I took two females off his hands after they were a few weeks old. I didn't really know how to socialize them properly and I mistakenly opted for giving them space instead of force-socializing when they seemed frightened in my possession. However, during the past couple of months I've made a lot of progress with them; they're excited to see me when I walk in the room, they like to play tag and get rowdy with me while in their cage, and they seem pretty comfortable playing around on my bed and even going on short rides on my shoulders. The only things they seem super skittish about are when I try to pick them up and when I hold them. About once daily I'll take them out of the cage and try to hold them while watching a movie or something and they freak out and do everything they can to get on my shoulders and hide behind my head. I think that what I'm finding is that I have to spend a good 10 minutes loosening them up within the safety of their cage before I can take them away from it...maybe I should take their cage to wherever I'm chilling so they can go in and out as they please? TL;DR: My rats seem to like me alright but are generally cautious/shy how do I teach them to be good with being held/touched/loved .
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Aug 22, 2010 19:55
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Is http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/rodents/cages/rat_cage/13281 a good sized cage for two rats? Now that I'm getting closer to finding myself some ratties I'm starting to look at this kind of thing seriously and I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure there's no such thing as a rat cage that's too big, but I read somewhere online that if you have nervous rats having a large cage might make them more difficult to tame. I'm not so much worried about that as to how easy it'd be to clean a big cage though. Is that cage pretty average size, or pretty big? That's the cage I'm probably going to wind up getting if it's alright.
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Aug 23, 2010 21:25
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Chakattack! posted:Is http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/rodents/cages/rat_cage/13281 a good sized cage for two rats? Now that I'm getting closer to finding myself some ratties I'm starting to look at this kind of thing seriously and I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure there's no such thing as a rat cage that's too big, but I read somewhere online that if you have nervous rats having a large cage might make them more difficult to tame. I'm not so much worried about that as to how easy it'd be to clean a big cage though. Is that cage pretty average size, or pretty big? Just saying, if you're willing to spend £130 on that, you might wanna look at the Explorer from this site. It's where I got mine. Much easier to clean, loads more space ect, for like £20 more. http://www.petworlddirect.co.uk/acatalog/Rodent-and-Rabbit-Cages.html
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Aug 23, 2010 21:56
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RE: Ivermectin In the OP it's sort of non-specific about whether you should dose the rats every day for 2-3 weeks or once a week for every 2-3 weeks. I'm about to start my boys on the treatment (I have no idea where these loving things come from so often!) and I'd like to know what's recommended. I mean, maybe it's clear to everyone else but I'm confused...
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Aug 24, 2010 00:31
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Skutter posted:RE: Ivermectin Once a week, not once a day. The life cycle of the mite is ~10 days so you're basically dosing to kill all the new hatchlings since the last kill off. I typically do 3 doses, one week apart, but if there are super bad mites it may take 4-5 treatments.
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Aug 24, 2010 02:35
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Rodent Mortician posted:Once a week, not once a day. The life cycle of the mite is ~10 days so you're basically dosing to kill all the new hatchlings since the last kill off. I typically do 3 doses, one week apart, but if there are super bad mites it may take 4-5 treatments. This. You need to kill the existing mites, then you have to kill the next cycle with the next treatment a week later, and so on until they're gone. Ivermectin is not a bug bomb; you have to work with the life cycle of the critters.
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Aug 24, 2010 03:54
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My coworker wants rats, she misses having them. The problem is, she's not sure where to get them, all her rats had been from labs and she wants babies. We're in NYC. Anyone know of a breeder/rescue in the area that isn't horrible and known for producing horribly diseased animals? Anyone? *crickets* Also, I will update the FAQ soon! I've been super busy lately. 
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Aug 25, 2010 00:40
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Thanks. I figured it was 1/week but I wanted to make sure.
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Aug 25, 2010 02:14
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Pickle Chops posted:Just saying, if you're willing to spend £130 on that, you might wanna look at the Explorer from this site. It's where I got mine. Much easier to clean, loads more space ect, for like £20 more. That looks amazing, but I'm picking up my cage second hand so it's way cheaper than the price listed on that website. If I was spending that amount of money I'd probably go for something more like that! The only bad thing I've heard about the cage I posted is the access is maybe a bit poor, but I was thinking I could try DIY'ing another door on, as I'll have it for plenty of time before I get the rats.
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Aug 25, 2010 13:16
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This page lacks pictures. Look at that pudgy belly
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Aug 26, 2010 00:09
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An update on my quest for rats in Scotland - I didn't hear back from the first place I contacted, but another breeder I contacted is having a litter in Nov/Dec and I'm going to get two girls from her! Very excited. This is the breeder: http://www.northern-lights-rats.co.uk/ The website is great and she's been really friendly and helpful in e-mails, and I feel really happy about sticking to my guns and trying to find a breeder, despite the difficulty of finding them here. The litter I'm getting rats from will be a marked litter with british blue, black and agouti colours. Honestly I don't really mind what I end up getting as long as they're friendly and healthy. The one worry I have at the moment is about mammary tumours. I had boys before so it wasn't an issue and at the time, being a kid, I didn't really know much about animal health and problems like that. If you've had girl rats, how common a problem has this been? Is it more likely that I'll get healthy girls and never experience it, or is it so common that I probably will? I've e-mailed my breeder to ask about the instances of mammary tumours in her rats, but I'd be really grateful to hear some people's experiences in the matter. I'm really keen on the idea of girls because they sound really energetic and fun, and having had boys before I'm curious about how different they'll be (plus the less peeing the better), but this is a real worry for me.
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Aug 26, 2010 01:22
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Hey so it turns out taking pictures of young energetic rats is hard! Here's Guna in my sleeve;  I think I made a mistake in encouraging them to go down my sleeves because as soon as I reach out for them that's immediately where they zoom to.  Also the honour of 'First Rat to Pee on Me' goes to GUNA! Congratulations Guna! Also yaay Chakattack, glad to hear your news! I can't comment on the tumours thing because these are my first but I can definitely attest to the energy of girls @_@
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Aug 26, 2010 02:33
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So, my co-worker is moving to a place that doesn't allow animals, and she is trying to re-home a pair of female ratties. I decided it was a good idea to adopt them. I've had rats all my life, but two years ago when my apartment burned down (along with my pair of female rats), I didn't adopt new ones. I am going to pick them up tomorrow, so pics then! In the mean time, I wanted to request some cute rat names. Someone suggested "snibble" and "rizzo". Supposedly, the cage is "decent", but I have yet to see it. Also, I remembered when I was a child, I used to give my rats baths with baby shampoo. Was/is this safe? Is there a shampoo that is?
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Aug 26, 2010 06:01
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Not sure if baby shampoo is ok or not, but its easy to find rabbit/small animal shampoo at pet places edit: oh yeah mine have had exactly one bath, when I wanted their tails clean cause we were going visiting dog days are over posted:Hey so it turns out taking pictures of young energetic rats is hard! I'm impressed you got one non-blurry picture, I don't think I managed to get any when my two oldest were babies. Your girls are cute, I've never seen anything like that color in Australia
Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Aug 26, 2010 |
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Aug 26, 2010 07:35
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Baby shampoo is fine; but I would avoid bathing rats unless they got into something gross. Shampoo strips their coats of oils and dries them out and can make them itchy/flaky. Baths should never bee a regular thing for them.
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Aug 26, 2010 07:37
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I only wash one of my rats. Gabriel is mostly white, so he gets pink from licking himself and I think it's gross, so he gets a bath about once a month. He hates it so much.
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Aug 26, 2010 15:12
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Baby shampoo is fine. If you live near a hippie store, try to find a more organic child-safe version than "Johnson & Johnson's No Tears" that takes it easy on the additive chemicals. Hell, even Dawn will work if you're in a pinch, just make sure you rinse your rats really well and try not to get soap in their eyes/mouth/nose/ears, especially the ears.CompactFanny posted:He hates it so much. When I had to bathe my rat(s), I ended up going to work the next day and having my boss ask if I wrestled with a sandpaper grinder. Cuts, scratches, deep gouges all up my arms from their sharp claws, no matter how much I trimmed them beforehand...Oh, and the most hilarious thing in the world is the sight of a sopping, drippy, pathetic-looking rat frantically trying to scale the bathtub walls 
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Aug 26, 2010 16:35
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I rarely ever wash my rats, but I've come to see that most rats hate baths and will try to scale your arm and cover you with many scratches, like prior posters related. They also get scared and do fear pooping. I'm a big softie so I try to make it so that they don't get scared, I really don't like just throwing them in the tub. I feel too bad. The best way I've found is to cover the sink with a washcloth/small towel, and dip them under the faucet with warm water. Make sure you have LONG SLEEVES on, they will get wet but your arms will be protected! The washcloth helps them feel more stable, when they are standing on the slippery surface of the sink it can scare them more. After they're wet, lather them up (minus their heads) with baby shampoo and then quickly rinse it off. After the initial submersion under the faucet they generally calm down. The best way is to bathe them as quickly as you can, you don't need to be incredibly thorough since you really don't want to strip away all the natural oils in their skin anyway. After the bath I usually cuddle them in a thick towel and rub them down until they're mostly dry, then I put back in the (clean) cage for them to go hide and groom themselves.
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Aug 27, 2010 00:50
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Time for an old rat on a fancy blanket! Peaches is two years old and three months and has outlived both her cagemates. She had a mammary tumor removed but she is still pretty active, even though she is a bit of a chub. She was never that graceful but I've noticed she is more clumsy now though. When should older rats no longer be in taller cages? She is like some sort of diva and boggles way more in her bigger cage, but if it is a safety issue I might be moving her to her smaller, one story cage soon.
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Aug 27, 2010 08:10
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4cbC1BoCPc Just a video of my three girls (although you only get to see two since one was hiding in a sleeve) Sorry the quality isn't great, guess my camera is kinda crappy! They've already taken to litter training pretty well, I bring their litter tray out of the cage and put it nearby when they're out playing and they head off to use it when the need arises, so I'm kind of amazed that I've only been peed on once so far. No poop either!
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Aug 28, 2010 22:10
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So, I went out and bought another female to keep mine company and she's adorable (I'll get you guys pics later). My aunt told me about a pet shop, but it turned out to only sell fish and reptiles as pets, so I bought some snake food. So the one mouse is the daughter of snake food and the other was actual snake food. They seem to be getting along, but I don't know when it'll be safe to let them stay together in one cage. I have their cages next to each other for now. They've only known each other for a few hours, but when I saw them they were getting along real well - when do you think it will be safe to put them together or do you think they are ready already? tl;dr - My rats are getting along, when is good to put them together in one cage?
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Aug 29, 2010 00:16
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I'd still give them a couple days of playing together outside the cage (neutral territory), and if that goes well, pop the little one in with the older one for a short time under close supervision. They'll probably be well used to each other by then and you should have no probs.
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Aug 29, 2010 01:08
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I am in need of some advice/ideas from you fine rat people. Next month Dylan will be turning the big 2.5, which I think is great cause for celebration. He is still chugging along rather well, but his age and respiratory problems have started to catch up with him. The problem is that he is so spoiled rotten already, I am plum out of ideas on how to do up the Big Day. What fantastically over the top ideas do you guys have? Are there any good out-of-the-box and rat-safe foods that would brighten his day? edit: Here he is in April 2008 as a little squirt.  And June/July 2010 attempting to steal a cheetoh. 
Asstro Van fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Aug 29, 2010 |
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Aug 29, 2010 03:20
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The girlfriend and I got Phoebe about a month ago and she's been a lot of fun. First she thought she'd read up on a brochure that came with her cage.  Then she thought she'd review my girlfriend's student loan paperwork, checking for any errors!  Then she wanted to go for a flight on my remote controlled airplane! Not until she gets some goggles and a proper scarf! 
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Aug 29, 2010 09:14
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Well, it seems they're getting along. Thanks for the tips! Here's a picture of them being cuddly: 
Shadow0 fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Sep 1, 2010 |
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Sep 1, 2010 00:33
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Febtober posted:First she thought she'd read up on a brochure that came with her cage. One of my first rats, Pokie, used to try and drag chicken bones into her cage horizontally. Would ram and push and keep trying to get the thing through, bouncing off every time and sitting there dazed and confused, wondering why the hell she cant get it into nest for eating. She was an adorable retard. Snowball used to steal all the loose paper and even tore out most of my rooms wallpaper. Still havent put any new wallpaper up  
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Sep 1, 2010 19:18
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Sooooo, I rehomed a rat for a friend. They told me they got a rat, so I told them to get another. A couple weeks ago they went to the pet store and got another rat. However, they didn't realize that they had gotten a female rather than a male, which is pretty dumb of them, but everyone makes mistakes. *shrug* BUT They had introduced their (male) rat with the new one. While they were doing this I was talking to them over IM making sure they were doing everything right, etc. Then they send me a pic of the new rat's nether-regions wondering if it was a boy. It wasn't. I tell them to take the rat back to the store and get a male, but she doesn't want to take it back because the conditions in the store weren't very good. So they need to rehome this female rat because they don't have the space to put big enough cages for both sexes. So I hem and haw, I have the room for the rat, but I swore I wouldn't get anymore rats after my last one died (their short life-spans make me sad). So of course I took her.  Meet Fruitcake. She's totally pregnant, btw. I took her knowing full well that she could be pregnant, and that even her brief meeting with the male rat could get her pregnant, but I honestly thought she would not be. In the amount of time I have had her (about 3ish weeks), I've been able to get her to walk out on my hand and carry her around, but any contact has to be on her terms. If I make a move to grab her she'll run. Luckily she's very curious, instead of fearful.  Does anyone have experience with adopting out oops-babies to strangers? I can keep a few of the babies, but I'm not sure what I should do with the rest. :/ Here's a picture of my other rat, Iceburg. He's by himself because I wasn't planning to get any other rats after he died. He's about 3 1/2 years old. I think he'll be 4 sometime around christmas. He seems in good health, just a little bit of hind leg degeneration. 
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Sep 1, 2010 22:33
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I was petting Clarkson tonight when I noticed something red on my finger and looked down to see this:  I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow. He doesn't seem to be in pain or show any change in behavior so I don't think it warrants an evet visit, but it's really freaking me out.
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Sep 2, 2010 03:57
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Queen Burbleburble posted:I was petting Clarkson tonight when I noticed something red on my finger and looked down to see this: There's a little blurb in the OP about "blood" in eyes and mouth. I'm not an expert by any means, but you might not have to go to the vet at all. specifically: Carebear posted:Oh sweet Jesus! My rat is bleeding out of it’s eyes/mouth!
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Sep 2, 2010 04:16
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It's definitely not porphyrin. It looks like the black part of the eye has turned red and is swelling as well. I've had rats for seven years and have never come across this before. I'll update once the vet checks him out.
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Sep 2, 2010 04:22
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Yeah, porphyrin doesn't turn the eye itself red. Could be be the start of a retrobulbar abscess. (Pics in the Figures section of this page, though I'll warn that they're pretty  pics of infected rat eyes: http://ratguide.com/health/integumentary_skin/abscess.php )Definitely vet ASAP.
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Sep 2, 2010 13:34
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The eye was significantly less swollen this morning but still red. The vet thinks Clarkson probably smashed his head into something really hard and caused blood to start pooling under his eye. That kind of makes sense because Clarkson has been fighting a lot with the new rats. So hooray for no abscess or tumor.
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Sep 2, 2010 16:55
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I had that same thing happen to one of my rats last year. His eye looked just like that, we took him to the vet and they said the same thing. Although I wouldn't say to someone to not get it checked out, because like Super said, it could potentially be an infection, or a scratched cornea or something. But most of the time its harmless.
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Sep 2, 2010 20:29
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| # ? May 15, 2024 09:40 |
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I had a ruby eyed rat's eyes turn bright red one time. We took her to one of the best rat vets I know, and she had no clue. I even emailed back and forth with Debbie D ("the rat lady") and she had no idea. It happened when she was less than a year old, and her eyes never changed back. She lived until she was two years old, died of acute pneumonia.
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Sep 3, 2010 01:06
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