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There's a new favorite treat in the house. I bought a jar of freeze dried red shrimp in the reptile aisle and the rats are going apeshit for them, even moreso than the grasshoppers. I probably can't feed too many of those, though, since they're very high in protein.
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Oct 3, 2012 17:25
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Superconsndar posted:edit: I will find more moses plus rat pics Take some more new ones too! And some pics of your pet rats and feeder rats too. By the way, could you talk sometime about how you established your healthier rats when you used to breed before? I've thought about breeding rats in a couple of years just so I can be a horrible byb in the eyes of the ratladies RazorBunny, you reminded me that I really need to get a big plastic tub for feeding some hoppers to the rats.  e: Oh man the rats got spoiled tonight. I boiled up some veg for them quickly, and then they also got some chicken bones and a prawn cracker from our chinese food. My dogs are so jealous with their bland, boring kibble. Fraction fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Oct 3, 2012 |
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Oct 3, 2012 19:21
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Yeah, we also don't have an excess of rats in shelters and whatnot, for which I'm thankful. We do have a few different coat types now(silk, rex, velour), and are developing new markings, but you're right, nowhere near what you guys have.
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Oct 4, 2012 13:36
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I keep buying bell peppers as snacks to give to my rats, but they're delicious and I end up eating them instead.  Also, looks like I might have a possible mite infestation happening. This really sucks because that means treating every single animal in the house + the house itself.
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Oct 4, 2012 15:10
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Pew! Pew! posted:I keep buying bell peppers as snacks to give to my rats, but they're delicious and I end up eating them instead. You mean mites on your rats? They're species specific, so if so you really only have to treat the rats. Scrub everything, freeze their bedding, and buy $3 of ivermectin horse wormer.
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Oct 4, 2012 15:13
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That is good to know, will do. I'm thinking the rat that my friend dumped here had them and it spread but I'm not sure (since my rats were fine before then). Also, has anyone heard of a condition called "ringtail"? I saw it in a book about training rats that I picked up, but I've never heard it before. Apparently it's some sort of sore on the base of the tail caused by dry conditions? e: Not that my rats might have it but just wondering if there is more info on it since I've never heard of it before. Hardwood Floor fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Oct 4, 2012 |
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Oct 4, 2012 15:26
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Pew! Pew! posted:That is good to know, will do. I'm thinking the rat that my friend dumped here had them and it spread but I'm not sure (since my rats were fine before then). I don't know about that, but when one of my mice got mites the others (even her cagemate) didn't appear to have it. I never even bothered dosing the others with ivermectin, and it went away in the mouse so v  v
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Oct 4, 2012 16:10
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I've just noticed it in the new rat and a few of my girls. I don't want to take chances, especially considering it's probably easier to just treat them all than take every single one in to be checked for mites and then treat the individuals that definitely have it (because it's $40 per rat for an examination and....yeah). I'll see what happens if I just treat the new guy, though. Maybe I'm spazzing over nothing.
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Oct 4, 2012 17:26
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Ivermectin horse wormer paste, scrape a drop the size of a grain of rice behind their teeth once a week for 3 weeks. That's what most ratterys/people with a large number of rats do because lol@ taking them all to the vet.
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Oct 4, 2012 17:30
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Superconsndar posted:Ivermectin horse wormer paste, scrape a drop the size of a grain of rice behind their teeth once a week for 3 weeks. That's what most ratterys/people with a large number of rats do because lol@ taking them all to the vet. Alternatively, you can do what I did and put said drop on a Cheerio/yogurt drop/rat crack du jour and watch and make sure they at least eat most of it. The downside is that they'll probably get it all over themselves, but then they'll groom it off their fur, and the end result is the same. Didn't I write up a whole FAQ about this for Skutter for this thread? e: Hurr, yes, it's in the first post of this thread. Look for "HOW TO CURE YOUR INFESTATION".
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Oct 4, 2012 17:40
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 I should be getting this tomorrow for the ratards  Hoping they like it (and don't get too scared). It'll be handy for safely getting Lola over the rats' existence too.
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Oct 4, 2012 18:54
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That is a cool little cage. You should totally paint and decorate it because yeah.
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Oct 4, 2012 21:46
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Today was an important day for me as a rat keeper. I started on seed mixes because I didn't know better. I could never get them to eat any sort of lab block (I have picky eaters, apparently), so I went back to the seed mix for a while because they were getting kind of skinny, which is obviously bad. On the seed mix they were getting a bit chubby and also half of it was going to waste. Today I finally got off my rear end and made up a suebee mix to be their staple food, and oh my holy crap why did I not do this before? I had kind of shrugged it off as being a pain in the rear end, and also it put me in mind of my crazy dog-breeding aunt (and considering she's an utter sociopath who's paranoid and makes up horrible stories about people behind their back and stopped acknowledging my existence after I told her off for lecturing/harassing me over Facebook, I don't like doing anything that can be compared to her behaviour) and the sort of anti-vaccine, raw-feeding-only soapbox she likes to stand on (despite the fact that several of her dogs on this diet have suffered kidney problems from being fed too much protein and I'm sorry I'll stop talking about dog issues in the rat thread). But I really wish I'd done this earlier. Not only was it a huge hit with my girls, but I crunched some numbers and assuming they actually eat it all, this is probably cheaper. Huzzah! I'm stupidly thrilled about this.
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Oct 5, 2012 07:12
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 Take a run, add rats.      Toss rats back in cage after they've pooped everywhere because  new place is scaryyyyy Add dog to show size of this run.  I need to find some water-proof, non-toxic paint  My rats clearly need their play area to be pretty and pink (or something). Need to get some tiles to slip under it too for when it goes outside. Don't want the precious bubs standing where my dogs crap and pee!
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Oct 5, 2012 18:49
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Fraction posted:I need to find some water-proof, non-toxic paint This isn't totally my area, but if you can find a white base, would maybe food coloring work to make it whatever color you needed?
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Oct 5, 2012 20:28
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So one of my girls is starting to pass away. I've taken her to a vet after a sudden stroke she had and he couldn't find any illness or signs of tumors, just that she was getting old in age. That was two weeks ago, currently she is having the hardest time moving around, like she doesn't know where to put her legs or that they are too long. I've spent all my free time home with her curled up in my lap, being petted and spoon fed soft foods/pureed fruits/yogurt/making sure shes hydrated since she is having trouble even holding food dry food to munch on. Despite trying to make sure she is eating enough and trying to keep things balanced, she has half her weight. Shes been bruxing and boggling nonstop whenever I am cuddling her (she has never been a lap rat, let alone enjoyed handling), and that is almost making this even more emotionally hard. She has been really struggling today (loud erratic breathing that actually woke me up this morning but has since stopped, moving is much slower, eyes are barely open and not interested in food), so I think her time is soon and it is really tearing me up inside. I guess I was just trying to talk myself into the idea that she would recover.. Her sister is doing just fine, I brought her in for a check up too and shes as healthy as can be according to my vet, so I might have another year or so with her. My biggest worry is whether or not I've been a good owner for her and if I made her life enjoyable, they are such little bundles of energy and emotions that it is incredibly heart breaking to see them go. I'm kicking myself for not getting a camera and taking pictures of her earlier, I wouldn't want to do so now, this is not how I'd like to remember her. I'm sorry for just kind of rambling and spewing this all out, I just needed to say something somewhere. 
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Oct 5, 2012 20:43
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Enzer posted:My biggest worry is whether or not I've been a good owner for her and if I made her life enjoyable, they are such little bundles of energy and emotions that it is incredibly heart breaking to see them go. Most of my rats become clingy like you describe when they are extremely sick or growing old. Rats have evolved to hide illnesses, take comfort that she wants and trusts you at her most vulnerable. If it becomes too overwhelming for you or she is suffering, do not be afraid of euthanasia. 
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Oct 5, 2012 23:52
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Kerfuffle posted:This isn't totally my area, but if you can find a white base, would maybe food coloring work to make it whatever color you needed? I think that'd just run if it got wet though? I live in England so it needs to be able to tolerate rain! Enzer I'm very sorry to hear about your girl. Even if you don't think you've been a great owner, take comfort in the fact that your rat has had a much better life than probably 80% of pet rats.
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Oct 6, 2012 08:05
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Enzer: I agree with Fraction. Most people I know would never consider taking a small animal to the vet or nursing them like you have been. I had a lot of the same worries after I lost my first rat and, much like mine, I'm sure yours are unfounded. It sounds like you love her very much and that's more than a lot of animals ever have. I hope you'll be able to take comfort in that 
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Oct 6, 2012 09:47
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Thanks for the kind words guys  . After staying up with Ying last night and observing her, I have decided to call the local veterinarians today to see if any of them do anesthesia euthanization for a rat using something like isoflurane or halothane. Trying to nurse her and keep her going at this point is just prolonging the suffering and I don't want to end up being stuck at work when she finally goes and leave that with her sister.I'll have to buy some healthy treats for her sister and give her extra attention until I figure out if I want to buy a pair of younger rats to introduce to her so she is not alone. Need to save up for a bit for an emergency rat fund either way. --- Edit: Appointment set at 12:30. --- That was the single hardest thing I've had to do. Going to curl up with her sister and give her some extra love now. Enzer fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 14:59
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Not my rat, but a rat from the same breeder my ~*~FANCY~*~ girls. He's sooooooo fluffy. Also, here's one of my girls Minky being prim and proper:  My flash didn't go off for this one, so the detail sucks but this pose is hilarious:  I've only had them for a week now and they've already been potty trained! They poop AND PEE in their litter box corner. I'm using blue buffalo walnut litter from petsmart in my cat and rat's litter boxes. They didn't even try to eat it!!! When they come out to sit on my desk with me and work, I bring a little tupperware with litter in it and they have no problem leaving their cuddle bags and going into it to do their business. I had no idea they were this smart! m0rrin fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 20:12
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M0rrin stop rubbing it in  my rats must just be super dumb, they still don't entirely get litter trays. Now that they have the cat tray as well there's usually only ~5 poops not in the tray each morning, instead of like 20 Is there an actual reason why my girls get so dumb when they're in heat? I get the humping and adorable vibrating fan-ears but mine get really, really jumpy, and if I try to pick anyone up they'll bolt (or vibrate and then bolt). It's pretty irritating, especially when they've come so far when they aren't in heat!
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Oct 6, 2012 23:41
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Fraction posted:Take some more new ones too! And some pics of your pet rats and feeder rats too. Ughhhhhh I am so hesitant to post any of my rat stuff ITT because if I were all about rats (and I used to be, so I totally get it!) and read my rat stuff, it would upset the hell out of me. It seems insensitive to post too much about culling and feeders in a pet rat thread. I really do miss getting super attached to rats like I used to, but losing my whole (pet) colony to SDA (in horrible, drawn out deaths) that I'd worked on since I was a preteen was just too much and my brain just kind of shuts off when presented with rats now. I still really like them, and badly WANT to bond with them, but no matter how hard I try it doesn't really happen (and if it starts to, that one inevitably dies for some reason and my brain goes right back to "NOPE") and as a result, I'm able to cull anything the second it isn't perfect and I don't want to throw that in the faces of people with pet rats whose brains are not yet broken from excessive rat death lmao. Right now, I have *one* rat. Which I got today. Without sperging out too hard, I've been wanting to play around with health again and have spent the better part of this year trying to find A SINGLE RAT that did not develop chronic respiratory problems like right away. It hasn't happened. The various pet stores here have two suppliers that they get rats from, aside from the last remaining mom and pop within 50 miles who breeds their own and their stock is worse than the chain store stuff. Of the two major suppliers who supply the chain stores here, one's rats usually come out of the womb horking goo out of their lungs, and the other has such wide varieties of problems that it seems like they're genetically incapable of surviving past like a year. I've been churning through them like crazy trying to land on JUST ONE RAT that could make it to 6 months without developing some kind of serious problem and at the very least, they have all ended up with horrible myco flareups long before that point. Just recently, I just said gently caress it and culled everything I had (I've been breeding mice too for feeders and the dogs are more into them anyway) and was going to wait until the next time I went far enough out of town to find rats that came, hopefully, from different suppliers and try some of those. BUT, today I went to Pet Supermarket, which I THOUGHT didn't sell mice or rats and I JUST SO HAPPENED to see, taped to the cricket bin, a little sign with pricing for mice and rats. Turns out they do have them, they just keep them in the back. The didn't have much, just a few PEWs and a couple of black selfs, in rack cages eating nothing but cheap kibble. Also, so infested with lice you could see nits on the black selfs from like 5 feet away.  HOWEVER, they get them from a totally different supplier than the rest of the stores here + a few local breeders and they all looked really healthy in spite of their lice + kinda blah conditions, so I grabbed the fattest shiniest brightest one. Initially, I said I was going to immediately cull anything that developed any kind of lung problem before the age of 6 months period, but honestly, given what's available to me locally, I guess that's setting the bar too high. So, what I guess I'm going to do is allow everything ONE issue/flare up AS LONG AS it is purely nasal/sinus and doesn't involve the lungs (using the super advanced scientific diagnostic process of "listening to their loving chests" to determine where the sound is coming from.) If I can find ONE RAT that doesn't cough or wheeze to the point of requiring antibiotics before the age of 6 months, I'm gonna breed from it and see if I can do some cool poo poo with healthy rats again. That's a really lovely place to start, but there is nothing here to start from that's any better, unfortunately. I don't even know if I'll be able to find that much.    Please excuse the filthy travel cage, I was so not planning on getting a rat today. I just ivomecc'd him so he can start being de-loused and he's spending the night in there until I can drag an actual cage back out of the shed tomorrow. He's about 6 weeks old, has a lil irish spot on him chest, and is VERY friendly. He's being a shoulder rat right now and eating potato chips from my hand, and while he does fear poop, he is very floppy when I pick him up.  Pretty good considering he was born in the store and has never been outside of a rack bin or handled at all. We'll see what he does, I guess.quote:By the way, could you talk sometime about how you established your healthier rats when you used to breed before? I've thought about breeding rats in a couple of years just so I can be a horrible byb in the eyes of the ratladies Honestly, it was all so simple and basic there's almost nothing to explain. Initially I only bred from known lines, and extensively researched the healthiest ones I could and bred from those. From there I culled everything that developed a SINGLE issue- I didn't breed males until they were a year old, and I bred females at about 8 months because they run the risk of complications the older they get, in order to give as much time as possible for issues to pop up before something was bred. (Ideally I'd have liked to wait longer for males at least, but I ran in to the problem of them not being interested in females if they were never given the opportunity to do their thing before they were old  ) I outcrossed more than most people do to combine structural traits that complimented each otheer (for example, I noticed a correlation between rat ladies breeding for shorter, broader heads/noses and breathing issues, and sure enough, when I lengthened and uglied up their heads it did seem to cut down a lot on nasal issues- I also noticed that small, petite females with "poor type" seemed to develop mammary tumors less often than large females) and then periodically inbreed to basically go back and check my work and see what was lurking. After a while I realized that the ratlady genepool was shallow enough that I needed to bring in outside stock to tweak various issues and started playing with pet store rats. A huge thing I learned was that type is NOT purely aesthetic in rats and seemingly minute structural things seem to affect their long term health. Unfortunately, this led to me making "ugly" rats, but they did a lot better and had fewer issues. Their lifespan was getting better and I'd had a few just make it to their 4th birthday by the time I quit. Most were beginning to die in their third year- when I started, 2 was about average. It's basically just a matter of not being afraid to cull mercilessly, breeding very late to give as many issues time to pop up as possible, breeding from a variety of sources and inbreeding sparingly (definitely necessary to inbreed to an extent, just lots more outcrossing than ratladies do) and ACTUALLY KEEPING UP WITH everything you produce. I got results so loving fast when I threw aesthetics out the window, did tons and tons of litters (rather than the 1 or 2 a year ratladies do) and cull cull culled.
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Oct 7, 2012 03:24
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Here's a quick question concerning building a big ole house for my rats. I'm making it out of wood and I would like to seal it so rat pee doesn't soak into it. Rats being rats mine like to chew just about anything and I was wondering if wood sealer would be bad for the rats and if I will just have to deal with it.
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Oct 7, 2012 04:45
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I built a second layer into Hector's cage today, he showed his appreciation by popcorning. I almost died from cute. He's been bouncing around his cage all day, slip sliding through tunnels and hammocks, occasionally finding the treats I left everywhere. This is the story of the happiest rat in the world.
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Oct 7, 2012 04:51
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Enzer, I'm sorry about your girl putting them down is the hardest thing, I've done it just twice and its horrible. But you really did do the best thing you could have at that point. *hug* I got my guys a ferret kingdom jr. Literally only one place in Australia sells them. All my boys are finally in together. Minty and Spartacus had a scuffle for title of boss rat, but Spartacus put the smackdown on the young whippersnapper. This morning they were all snuggled together in the dodgy hanging cube I made Olive Bar posted:I built a second layer into Hector's cage today, he showed his appreciation by popcorning. I almost died from cute. He's been bouncing around his cage all day, slip sliding through tunnels and hammocks, occasionally finding the treats I left everywhere. This is the story of the happiest rat in the world. That is adorable, and Hector is so cute, I love the pictures you posted earlier.
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Oct 7, 2012 05:05
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Thank you! There will be more soon, He decided to be ballsy and bolted out of his cage yesterday. He made it very clear that I was not going to catch him so I grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots. Eventually he got bored and walked back into his cage.
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Oct 7, 2012 05:13
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Superconsndar posted:huge post Thanks for the in-depth reply! It's pretty interesting that you found a link between rats that aren't ~typey~ and them living longer. It sounds just like the dog show world  I guess the fancy probably won't ever get to the point that you got to though - from lurking on some rat forums, they seem absolutely against culling, which is weird to me coming from being on mouse forums.I hope your new guy is healthy for you! I don't envy you breeding feeder mice now though, after having mine and then comparing them to the rats. God drat they smell so loving much urghhhh. If they're in feeder tanks i guess the smell wouldn't be as bad for you though. Olive Bar I want pictures and I want them now  e: Speaking of pics have some of Valentine and Alice!       Everyone's getting more and more social (except when they're in heat, gently caress that) and even V will regularly take treats from me now, and she often joins the others in dashing onto and all over me for like half an hour before I go to bed. Fraction fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Oct 7, 2012 |
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Oct 7, 2012 10:55
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After reading that huge post by Super, I feel lucky that I've only had one rat develop chronic respiratory issues, and it was one of 2 rats I randomly found on CL and wanted to rehome before a reptile owner got to them (normally I wouldn't spaz but they were offering them for free plus 2 huge aquariums for $10, so I wouldn't have been surprised if a rep owner snatched that deal up). She's just separate from the others. Pretty sure she's just a standard feeder and she's got eyesight issues too. Well, other than those rats I got from petsmart once and took them all back within a few weeks because they ALL had awful lung problems. Petsmart is really good at screwin stuff up (imo).
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Oct 7, 2012 14:37
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You gotta keep in mind that I've had literally thousands of rats, counting feeders and everything. I have had PLENTY of pet store rats (and breeder rats too!) that were healthy as horses, I think it's just been a bad streak lately. There used to be a lot more diversity around here until the huge stores came in and all the mom and pops shut down- the big box stores get most of their stuff from a handfull of suppliers, and it really limits things.
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Oct 7, 2012 14:55
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Yeah I didn't really think about that. I've only got 8 and before that I owned 4. So less than 20 rats, ever. Also, I jut fed my rats some mealworms as a treat. I think I can say for certain this is their favorite treat and they keep sniffing around for more. I put them in a little handful of bedding so they have to forage a bit (and since I'm cleaning all the cages today all uneaten ones get thrown out) and the rats are just in love with this treat. I'm glad I heard about it on this thread. Happy rats are the best.
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Oct 7, 2012 17:52
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Anybody have any sources or patterns for making fleece liners for your Critter Nations? I've got a double unit and it's just been bare plastic since I bought it, but I think having liners would make clean-up really easy. I've got the fleece already so I figured it'd just be more convenient to make them myself!
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Oct 8, 2012 01:25
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Die Elf posted:Here's a quick question concerning building a big ole house for my rats. I'm making it out of wood and I would like to seal it so rat pee doesn't soak into it. Rats being rats mine like to chew just about anything and I was wondering if wood sealer would be bad for the rats and if I will just have to deal with it. This is hardly scientific but my 2 rats lived in a converted rabbit hutch, so wood and wire. I covered the wood floors with 2 layers of clear contact and a layer of tape and they never chewed it at all? May have just been a fluke, or maybe rats hate chewing tape. You could do a test run with a wood block wrapped in tape or something. I didn't bother covering the walls and that doesn't seem to have been a problem, even though they lived in it for ~3 years. I guess maybe rats don't actually pee on the walls that much. The whole thing surprisingly doesn't smell at all. Ymmv, naturally.
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Oct 8, 2012 02:12
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redjenova posted:Anybody have any sources or patterns for making fleece liners for your Critter Nations? I've got a double unit and it's just been bare plastic since I bought it, but I think having liners would make clean-up really easy. I've got the fleece already so I figured it'd just be more convenient to make them myself! The CN liners they sell are pillowcase style, which I hate. I make my own, and it's literally just two 2'x3' rectangles sewn together, with five clips to attach to the corners and back middle. I've experimented a fair bit with them, but honestly this works the best for me, and my rats are pretty big chewers.
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Oct 8, 2012 02:17
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Yeah I just sew liners for my girls' cage, we were going to toss out some old bedsheets so I used some of them. Perfect size and free! I think Chell is starting to come down with a respiratory problem. They were all a little sneezy when I got them, but yesterday Chell started making this squeaky kind of cough. She did it ~10 times or so close together and then not again all day, but I've just heard her do it twice this morning so I guess it's vet time, huh? I'll ring em up tomorrow.
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Oct 8, 2012 08:07
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I use a twin-size fleece blanket to line my CN cage, and I just center it on the bottom tray and tuck it under the sides. I leave the top shelf uncovered because that's where the food bowls go, and they make a huge mess of any liner up there.
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Oct 8, 2012 18:41
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Alice started making the dumb noises Chell's been making (very infrequently) so I called up the vets and we have an appointment for tomorrow. In the meantime, rats! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftmGgJuKmc
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Oct 8, 2012 21:08
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Hector's Great Escape       After I noticed he was sleeping under there I went in and poked him, this is when he finally made his way back to his cage.
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Oct 9, 2012 00:00
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Hector is so silly! Good news from the vet, both Chell and Alice sound fine in the lungs, so I guess they just like making dumb noises! I'm to keep an eye out for any discharge/more frequent noises/etc but in the meantime they seem fine. They got weighed too, Alice is 225g and Chell is 235g. The vet was happy hearing about their current diet, and would have been happy to give me antibiotics but said they probs didn't need them. He definitely seems to know more about rats than he did mice!
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Oct 9, 2012 18:54
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Normally any food I put into the cage gets nibbled at a bit at first, then leisurely consumed throughout the day. This morning I put in some fresh greens and some chunks of butternut squash, and that's the treatment they got. I also put in an ear of sweet corn. Anybody ever watched a video of a piranha attack? Next time I'll get a video. It won't be for a while, though, since corn is a fatty snack.
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Oct 9, 2012 22:15
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