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Oh god, I just remembered that one of my (now non-living) male rats would stash food in his wheel. And then run in it. I feed my rats right before I go to bed.  KSSHHHHHHHHHH ..... KSSSHHHHHHHHH .....
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Feb 25, 2011 07:01
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Superconsndar posted:Basically all rat breeders claim to be breeding "first and foremost for temperament and health" when in reality this means "well I got my stock from another established breeder who says the same thing so that means they're healthy so I'm just gonna go hog wild and breed for markings/color please ignore the constant wheezing and grapefruit sized mammary tumors these are good lines okay my rats are HEALTHY Thanks alot for all the interesting information, I feel massively stupid now for not connecting the clear dots that mice and rats are probably by far the most controlled bred species in the world. I can't believe people are willingly breeding flawed gene pools for the sake of colouring. I would think lab rats would make great pets, as with my experience they seem to be very accepting to being handled.
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Feb 25, 2011 07:49
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VanityHero posted:
It's just so accepted among rat people that anything over the age of 2 years is just borrowed time and that "that's just the way it is" and they get a lotttt of backup from their buddies that "yep you're right there's nothing you can do it is so sad that they don't live longer and you're breeding the healthiest rats you can anyway right now can I pleeeeeease have a Black Eyed Siamese from your next litter??????" Most of them mean well and it isn't malicious, they just don't really see the bigger picture.
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Feb 25, 2011 14:21
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For that matter, where the hell ARE all the operable rat breeders these days? In my state there are absolutely zero functioning breeders or rescues, and I already have rats so I was just looking around on a whim, but the other night I decided to see if there were any nearby in Texas or to the north. Not a thing anywhere that hasn't been defunct for years, at least according to a website.
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Feb 25, 2011 18:04
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This is a rattery that I know of that is functioning and breeding responsibly in Texas. http://www.heartoftexasrats.com/ There's also Sunrise Rats, but I don't know much about them. http://sunriserats.com/home/
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Feb 25, 2011 19:38
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Jin Wicked posted:
gently caress I want a cage like this.
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Feb 25, 2011 20:42
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Ziploc posted:gently caress I want a cage like this. Yes, please tell us more about this cage! Where did you get it, how much, etc. Looks so easy to clean!
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Feb 25, 2011 21:32
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kreyla posted:Yes, please tell us more about this cage! Where did you get it, how much, etc. Looks so easy to clean! It's a Critter Nation: http://www.midwesthomes4pets.com/category/default.aspx?submenu=2&catid=140 Most people who have them love them, I've never been able to talk myself into buying one personally. I guess if my rats spent a lot of time caged I might, but the feeders are in tanks and the pets are in technically too small cages with the door left open most of the time, so eh. I don't have much space to dedicate to cages in an apartment so I just rely on lots of free ranging. They're worth it if you've got the space.
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Feb 25, 2011 21:48
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kreyla posted:Yes, please tell us more about this cage! Where did you get it, how much, etc. Looks so easy to clean! Yes it is the Critter Nation, with Bass pans: http://bassequipment.com/Cages/Ferret+Pans/default.aspx As I mentioned before, those two males are kind of  . They absolutely destroy anything made of soft plastic, including the original cage pans.Most people paint the metal Bass pans with something like RustOleum, but I was afraid the morons would eat it off and get sick. I buy the fleece on sale and like to sew once in a while, but I can only make simple things. In my defense. And I do love the cage. They get loads of attention but none of my house is safe for free range.
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Feb 25, 2011 21:57
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Superconsndar posted:Most of them mean well and it isn't malicious, they just don't really see the bigger picture. I was reading somewhere about a company that supplies GM rats for laboratory study, and one strain they offer has the genes responsible for certain specific cancers turned on (for cancer research, naturally). I had to wonder if they could similarly provide rats with all the genes turned off. I know cancer doesn't exactly work that way, but they've isolated a few genes that are known to cause certain cancers, so maybe they can make a rat who is less genetically predisposed to get those types of cancer? The rats from this company are pretty expensive, but I wondered if it would be worth it in the long run to have some breeding stock with precisely determined genetics.
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Feb 25, 2011 23:53
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SuperTwo posted:This is a rattery that I know of that is functioning and breeding responsibly in Texas. http://www.heartoftexasrats.com/ I did encounter Heart of Texas Rats, but Austin is definitely out of the question as being waaay too far out there. My sister actually just accepted a job in Dallas, so a Dallas location would have been perfect. Sunrise Rats looks shady as hell and there have been no litters posted since 2009.
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Feb 26, 2011 00:16
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RazorBunny posted:I was reading somewhere about a company that supplies GM rats for laboratory study, and one strain they offer has the genes responsible for certain specific cancers turned on (for cancer research, naturally). I had to wonder if they could similarly provide rats with all the genes turned off. I know cancer doesn't exactly work that way, but they've isolated a few genes that are known to cause certain cancers, so maybe they can make a rat who is less genetically predisposed to get those types of cancer? I know that if I ever had the space/finances to really buckle down and dedicate serious time to breeding healthy rats again, I'd pretty much only do it if I could get my hands on some lab rats. I know that there are strains that are myco and cancer free, I just don't know much beyond that. I'd love to get some and attempt to slowly introduce their genetics into the pet population, but I know nothing about how easy it is for the general public to get them or really any specifics about them. I did the "cross in randomly bred rats to established lines and do everything by trial and error" thing the first time around, and it worked and I ended up with some good rats, but man if you just started with rats you knew had no issues in the first place it sure would cut out a lot of unnecessary litters, steps, culling, and guesswork. I think at this point lab rats are our best bet for improving the health of pet rats, but getting breeders to care (given their ~lack of color~ omg) I don't have a lot of hope. Also, something tells me that they'd just take those rats, go "OKAY THESE ARE HEALTHY RIGHT LETS GET SOME COLOR ON EM" and within a few generations just end up with exactly what they had before. The few breeders who were interested in my healthier rats did exactly that: crossed them with their existing stock in continuous outcrosses in such a way that all the work was undone pretty quickly.  Rats need a fresh crop of breeders who are smarter than the current ones to go "haha ya'll suck shove it" and who are all willing to work together if they have any hope of improving anything.
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Feb 26, 2011 00:21
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Some of the same companies that provide GM rats do genetic analysis of outside lines. Again, cost might be prohibitive, but it's entirely possible that you could have ~*^Fancy Kolor^*~ rats analyzed and only breed the ones with a clean genetic workup to your plain PEW lab rats. If I ever win the lottery, I will fund you to do this. I have no interest in breeding (either myself or an animal), but if I was rich I would totally be the patron of a super-scientific program aimed at making rats that consistently live to 5 or 6 with no tumors 
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Feb 26, 2011 01:35
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We had been giving the rats Regal Rat for the past few months. When we ran out this week, for whatever reason, Sara decided they didn't like Regal Rat that much so she ordered them Harlan Teklab. There's still a bit of Regal Rat in their bowl, I've just been putting a few blocks into the cage in the morning. They immediately go get it out, but after the first two days where they would immediately eat it now they just try to stash it. The problem is, they won't stop loving fighting over it. Wrinkles tries to put the blocks on the second floor in the corner, Trudy tries to take it down by the wheel. Then Trudy goes and grabs one from Wrinkles's stash while at the same time Wrinkles is grabbing one from Trudy's stash. Then they get tired of that I just see that one is trying to eat a few bites off of the block and they start scuffling over who gets to take it back to their stash. Should we give up on Teklab? Should I just put like a huge amount in the cage to see if they get the idea that there's no need to build a stupid stash? Will they just stop caring about it eventually since it's their staple food that they don't even particularly like? They never particularly hated Regal Rat, they would just frequently eat half of a piece and add it to their other stupid stash pile. I just think they didn't have much cause to eat it because each night I give them all their fresh rat dinner that has, generally: lima beans, carrots, blueberries, peas, granola, Total flakes, dried cranberries.
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Feb 27, 2011 17:04
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RazorBunny posted:Some of the same companies that provide GM rats do genetic analysis of outside lines. Again, cost might be prohibitive, but it's entirely possible that you could have ~*^Fancy Kolor^*~ rats analyzed and only breed the ones with a clean genetic workup to your plain PEW lab rats. Are lab rats really going to make pet rats healthier? The lab strains are inbred, I suppose I would have thought that as soon as you outbreed to some longer lived rats, you'd start to lose the benefit of the reduced cancer incidence or whatever the strain had. Can anyone here explain how it works? It's interesting. Also, inbreeding, eww. http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/strains.shtml
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Feb 27, 2011 20:46
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killerwhat posted:Are lab rats really going to make pet rats healthier? The lab strains are inbred, I suppose I would have thought that as soon as you outbreed to some longer lived rats, you'd start to lose the benefit of the reduced cancer incidence or whatever the strain had. Can anyone here explain how it works? It's interesting. Inbreeding is very essential for laboratory work. You want to minimize the amount of genetic differences that can be affecting your research, so you have to work with highly inbred lines. It also helps make research from different laboratories more comparable. You know that your Black6 mouse is very similar genetically to another lab's Black6 mouse. This has huge implications all the way from molecular biology up to behavioral. That said, there is a lot of variation between various inbred strains, and unfortunately a lot of labs don't account for the genetic differences. As for the health thing, it all comes down to selecting healthy offspring and using them as the stock for the next generation. Of course, aging is a long process so you have to keep detailed records of all your animals and let them live a long time, then compare all your various lines to see which ones had the lowest occurrence of cancer, disease, etc. Then you'd cull the poorly performing lines and keep the stronger lines and repeat the whole process. The benefit of breeding from lab rats is that all the aging work has been done already by labs and corporations. So you are basically starting with a base of genetics that isn't a horrible cancer machine. As mentioned earlier, you have to very carefully cross in color varieties while maintaining healthy genetics. If you select for health first and color second, you'll eventually have healthy lines with different colors* *The assumption being that the genetics involved in, say, a brown coat aren't mutually exclusive with health. Perhaps that brown coat is the result of some protein which is an oncogene and then you are hosed.
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Feb 27, 2011 21:50
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killerwhat posted:Are lab rats really going to make pet rats healthier? The lab strains are inbred, I suppose I would have thought that as soon as you outbreed to some longer lived rats, you'd start to lose the benefit of the reduced cancer incidence or whatever the strain had. Can anyone here explain how it works? It's interesting. FWIW, I know that bringing lab rats into lines to make things better is a popular notion, but I've got a metric fuckton of these bastards in the rescue (some lab employee down south had like 15 of them up for euthanasia that she loved and couldn't bear to see die). They're all developing cancer like mad and wheezing up a storm. The derpy hoarder rats I took in the year beforehand have turned out to overall be healthier and longer lived (although so terribly socialized and dickish they never went anywhere). "Lab rat" covers a broad spectrum. The people I've known that have gotten the ZOMG MYCO-FREE lab rats have lived in terror that some wild rodent would transmit myco to their special rats and it would take them down fast. Wild rats are common enough here that I've had several individuals contact me when their females mysteriously birthed entire litters of agouti rats in all-female homes -- it'd be just as easy for them to drag myco around.
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Feb 28, 2011 02:22
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From what I have heard the rats from the 2500+ San Jose rat hoard have been surprisingly healthy and easy to socialize. I know there were a lot with injuries that had to be euthanized, and females with tumours, but I recall little in the way of respiratory infections. If you have seen any of their pictures, their rampant breeding produced a really wide variety of colours and markings too. There are some here: http://www.facebook.com/NorthStarRescue#!/album.php?id=176180085758428&aid=35756
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Feb 28, 2011 02:41
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Pity that's in California and I'm in Winnipeg. Aryselin's getting on; his back legs aren't working too good these days, and as soon as the weather warms up I'm going to pick up a new pair to put in with Varael. He's doing better than his probably-littermate Idresti did, at least. Poor little guy.
neongrey fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Feb 28, 2011 |
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Feb 28, 2011 02:53
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Does anyone else use this Eco bedding stuff from Petsmart? I got some because it was cheaper and was supposed to expand more than Carefresh and my fatty hates it with a burning passion. I come home everyday to find the food bowl full of it. As soon as I empty it he climbs down to the bottom and starts filling it up again like I'm supposed to get rid of it for him. It's not cutting his feet or anything, but I guess the thin edge could be sharp to walk on? It's been almost a month now rat, you don't even get out of the hammock, why do you care?
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Feb 28, 2011 18:25
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I'm really concerned right now about Splinter. The other day when I woke up and did my morning check on him he had a blood on his tail! Not just the "blood" that comes from his eyes, it looked like a lot of blood on his tail. He seemed okay and didn't look like he was in pain and I looked around the cage trying to find a blood trail or explanation. Where he usually poops there was a bloody stain there too. I checked him from bumps all over his body and there was no other blood except on his tail. Could he have possibly digested something and is now pooping it out? There are no cuts anywhere and after I washed off his tail there nothing else. I've been monitoring him and sleeping in the same room as him and then the other night I saw another fairly big blood stain near his pooping area again but no blood on himself. I'm definitely going to book him a check up soon but do you think this is an emergency like I need to get him in the vet ASAP or do you think I can hold off a week while I save up some cash? Has anyone experienced something like this? I did find a little bit of plastic in his cage (the heart container things from a beanie baby) that he had chewed on and now I'm freaking out that he's digested plastic and its cutting up his insides!! He seems perfectly healthy right now I don't get it!
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Feb 28, 2011 21:25
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Explosions! posted:Does anyone else use this Eco bedding stuff from Petsmart? I got some because it was cheaper and was supposed to expand more than Carefresh and my fatty hates it with a burning passion. I come home everyday to find the food bowl full of it. As soon as I empty it he climbs down to the bottom and starts filling it up again like I'm supposed to get rid of it for him. It's not cutting his feet or anything, but I guess the thin edge could be sharp to walk on? It's been almost a month now rat, you don't even get out of the hammock, why do you care? I feel like I must be having a similar issue. I noticed today that my rats have taken to peeing on the middle plastic shelf of the cage rather than on the bedding, which is creating a nasty-smelling mess--not to mention not just ON the shelf, but backed into the corner, so pee is dripping down all the bars and onto the desk it's sitting on  They also tend to throw a lot of bedding into the food bowl when it's empty, but they also throw it (the food bowl) all over the cage when it's empty too. Do they hate the bedding? Will changing it fix this problem? Should I just buy litter/a litter tray and put it on the second shelf and hope they use that instead? What can I do to get them to pee in the bedding like they're supposed to? 
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Mar 1, 2011 01:25
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redjenova posted:I feel like I must be having a similar issue. I noticed today that my rats have taken to peeing on the middle plastic shelf of the cage rather than on the bedding, which is creating a nasty-smelling mess--not to mention not just ON the shelf, but backed into the corner, so pee is dripping down all the bars and onto the desk it's sitting on I always assumed that when my rats put a layer of bedding on their food bowl they were "burying" it for later, in their little rat minds. They also play with empty dishes, but all the other animals do that too, I've never found it odd. I know rats can learn to poop in boxes, but I dunno about pee. There are ledged shelves you can get so pee won't go out of the cage, or you can get something to put under/around the base of the cage so it's not getting on the desk, because ew. I had a roommate whose ferrets did that poo poo, it was disgusting. Might be the bedding, what does it hurt to try something different and see if things change?
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Mar 1, 2011 02:00
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Glasgow posted:I always assumed that when my rats put a layer of bedding on their food bowl they were "burying" it for later, in their little rat minds. They also play with empty dishes, but all the other animals do that too, I've never found it odd. Mine do it too. I thought the same thing.
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Mar 1, 2011 05:11
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Glasgow posted:I always assumed that when my rats put a layer of bedding on their food bowl they were "burying" it for later, in their little rat minds. Almost every female rat I have had did this, the males give no gently caress.
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Mar 1, 2011 06:07
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My (3 male) rats put stuff in the food bowl too. Ripped up cardboard from their boxes, fabric from their rugs or bits of bedding. Only when its empty. I thought maybe they were trying to get me to clean it? (And put fresh food in)
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Mar 1, 2011 12:16
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Yeah, my boys do it too... pretty much whenever they get bored enough of licking their balls on the big wheel.
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Mar 1, 2011 15:12
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I've had very few rats who didn't cover up food, ESPECIALLY soft food. Yes guys, the yogurt I just gave you totally needs your clean fleece blankets dragged into it.
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Mar 1, 2011 15:38
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Mine didn't do it with the carefresh. Maybe a piece in the empty bowl, but this is ridiculous. Almost all the bedding will be in the bowl and on the shelf around it. It's just the one boy. I probably won't change it because as much as it frustrates me when I'm trying to see how much food they have, watching him carrying mouthfuls of bedding bigger than his head up and down is pretty funny.
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Mar 1, 2011 17:53
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Happily, I just brought home Galileo and Copernicus, two gorgeous fancy rats. Galileo is white and brown and Copernicus is white and tan, and currently they're looking around their new home. I want to take some pictures for you all, but for the moment I think I'll let them explore their new digs in peace. Maybe pictures tomorrow. These two make me very happy.
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Mar 2, 2011 02:57
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Sometimes I give my rats cat food in gravy as a treat, and it's cute watching them try to grab the gravy and lick their paws. Well they decided that method was too inefficient, so they started using their cardboard substrate. They'd take squares of cardboard, drop it in the gravy, leave it to absorb it, then take the card out and lick the gravy off it. Then we had a sudden cardboard shortage so I had them on shredded paper for a while, and they couldn't use cardboard on the gravy anymore. So they came up with a NEW trick, which was to drop a small ball into the bowl and slowly turn it, licking the gravy off it as it turned. Obviously they didn't PLAN that, but the fact that they just sort of noticed it was a good method of getting gravy without dirtying their dainty little paws makes me kinda  sometimes
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Mar 2, 2011 19:57
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DorianGravy posted:Happily, I just brought home Galileo and Copernicus, two gorgeous fancy rats. Galileo is white and brown and Copernicus is white and tan, and currently they're looking around their new home. I want to take some pictures for you all, but for the moment I think I'll let them explore their new digs in peace. Maybe pictures tomorrow. These two make me very happy. Those are awesome names and I'm a little irritated I didn't think of them first 
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Mar 2, 2011 20:13
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polyfractal posted:Those are awesome names and I'm a little irritated I didn't think of them first Thanks!  Also, a question: I've put my hand in their cage a number of times now so they can smell me, and Copernicus sometimes nibbles at my finger a little. I've heard this is pretty normal, but one time he bit a little harder. It didn't break the skin, but it wasn't as gentle as the other nibbles. Is this normal? Is he seeing if I'm food? I also read that some rats will be a little territorial about their cages, and will sometimes bite if you put your finger in, but are perfectly nice outside of their cage. So maybe that's it? Copernicus is definitely the dominant one, as I've seen him get Galileo on his back and then Galileo squeaks a little. Is this stuff normal?
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Mar 3, 2011 01:00
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dog days are over posted:Then we had a sudden cardboard shortage so I had them on shredded paper for a while, and they couldn't use cardboard on the gravy anymore. So they came up with a NEW trick, which was to drop a small ball into the bowl and slowly turn it, licking the gravy off it as it turned. Obviously they didn't PLAN that, but the fact that they just sort of noticed it was a good method of getting gravy without dirtying their dainty little paws makes me kinda That's pretty crazy behavior.
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Mar 3, 2011 06:45
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dog days are over posted:Then we had a sudden cardboard shortage so I had them on shredded paper for a while, and they couldn't use cardboard on the gravy anymore. So they came up with a NEW trick, which was to drop a small ball into the bowl and slowly turn it, licking the gravy off it as it turned. Obviously they didn't PLAN that, but the fact that they just sort of noticed it was a good method of getting gravy without dirtying their dainty little paws makes me kinda My first group of rats learned to harvest hair off my dog. They'd get a piece of dog food out of their mix, and one would be the lure. The dog would come up to the cage, the rat would move along the side to make the dog parallel to the cage, and while the bait rat kept throwing food out the other rats would yank hair off the dog's back for nests. My dog was outsmarted by rats.
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Mar 3, 2011 14:36
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Rats are so amazing. @__@ My girl rats are jerks though the keep attacking my new oldman dog and making him run away :-( The boy rats don'tbother him atleast. :-)
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Mar 3, 2011 14:43
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Gonna post some rat pics because I never do Bright Eyes And Brumby bein cool:                    As you can see, they totally didn't turn out to be BEWs.  I've never worked with such extreme high whites before and wrongly assumed that their super-tiny-black-but-covered-with-white-hair-pigmentation markings would molt out to be barely visible and I WAS SO WRONG, instead they molted out to be huge and retarded. So now I have super ugly unstandard somewhere-between-a-patched-and-a-masked uggos. By the time I figured this out it was too late and I'd already socialized/gotten attached to them, so they're my bros. Still gonna use them to work closer towards BEWs though. They're at the point now where I can trust them to free range when I'm home, though for the most part they don't really leave my computer desk. They're getting really good about always going back to their cage to poop, too. 
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Mar 5, 2011 03:30
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So, rat questions. I can't see a vet tonight and I'm pretty worried about my little buddy. What would cause sudden aggression and nasty smelling diarrhea in a rat? He bit me pretty bad tonight when I reached in, and he's always been the sweetest little guy until now. He hasn't bit the other two dudes, who seem perfectly fine. I quarantined him in a small cage for now, before he had his diarrhea. It's not a funny color or anything, just nasty as hell. I don't know how old these guys are, but it's probably no more than a year and a half. Had them since Thanksgiving '09. They've ate nothing but Harlan Teklad since I got them, with some kind of veggie/fruit treats every night and sometimes chocolate chips or something else sugary. I haven't given them any new foods or toys this week. I did get a ball python in January, though. They haven't interacted in any way and I always wash my hands after handling the snake (which is maaaybe twice a week). Can snakes give rats diseases? He's drank a lot of water and eaten a little bit of lab block since I put him in the smaller cage but he's jerking sometimes like he's in pain and sort of dragging his belly. Any ideas? (If anyone cares, he's the nosebooper. His name is Herman and he loves peas. And being tossed around in the air. )
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Mar 5, 2011 03:52
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nazitra posted:Can be hard to tell without handling and seeing him myself, but from the sound of it he`s in some kind of pain. Rats will bite when hurt and he might think the pain will be coming from you, or that you may hurt him if you handle him. I adopted a pair of rats 2 years back. One was a loving horrible monster and I just couldn't ever handle him. Before he died I managed to pick him up and he was completely limp. After he passed I gave him a good hug, thats when I felt some huge mass inside his stomach. He probably had intestinal cancer, thats what caused his massive aggression. If he`s drinking lots of water he might have the same problem, or he might just be constipated. See if you can grab him and squish his belly. Anything solid there isn't normal.
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Mar 5, 2011 15:23
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| # ? May 17, 2024 00:25 |
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dog days are over posted:Sometimes I give my rats cat food in gravy as a treat, and it's cute watching them try to grab the gravy and lick their paws. Well they decided that method was too inefficient, so they started using their cardboard substrate. They'd take squares of cardboard, drop it in the gravy, leave it to absorb it, then take the card out and lick the gravy off it. Rodent Mortician posted:My first group of rats learned to harvest hair off my dog. They'd get a piece of dog food out of their mix, and one would be the lure. The dog would come up to the cage, the rat would move along the side to make the dog parallel to the cage, and while the bait rat kept throwing food out the other rats would yank hair off the dog's back for nests. My  (yes I know they are mice)
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Mar 5, 2011 15:38
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