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Yeah, if you get adults they *might* be more watch (and handle when they want it) pets than anything else. If you get babies, just find the cheapest, smallest cage you can with small bars, as a temp cage, so you can have your hand basically next to them whenever it's in the cage. You don't want to chase young mice around trying to get hold of them, believe me! One good thing to do, whether you get babies or adults, is to get hold of a plastic tub with VERY high sides (they can jump, oh god can they jump) and have your hand resting in it for a couple hours while you watch tv or something. That cage sounds suitable for like four mice, so that's cool. Just make sure the bar spacing is 1cm at absolute max; anything more and all but the largest of adults will likely be able to squeeze out. I never bothered covering my wire shelves and never had a problem, bumblefoot iirc is caused by dirty floors, not wire floors.
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Oct 26, 2012 14:20
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| # ? May 31, 2024 14:22 |
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Professor is beautiful :C I love that coloring. Is that really basically only in the UK right now? Gorgeous.
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Oct 26, 2012 16:55
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I was looking for spelt pasta in the organic foods aisle the other day (the boys really like spelt pasta) and found a company called Old Wessex Ltd that makes a grain blend with oats, rye, triticale, barley, and golden flax. It's in the style of rolled oatmeal, and the rats seem pretty keen on the stuff. Figured I'd mention it here since I know everyone tries to keep an eye out for variety foods to give their rats. My guys won't eat quinoa or whole flaxseed, the jerks 
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Oct 26, 2012 22:37
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I got a new follower from Moscow on Instagram and this is one of her rats, it's a lucha rat! 
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Oct 26, 2012 22:37
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Oh my gosh that's awesome!
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Oct 27, 2012 01:23
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redjenova posted:Professor is beautiful :C I love that coloring. Is that really basically only in the UK right now? Gorgeous. It's been imported into the US, but you're unlikely to find it outside of ratteries.
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Oct 27, 2012 04:15
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Hi rat goons! I just adopted a rat from someone on craigslist and I would like some advice about caring for her and introducing her to my old rat. When I picked her up she was living in a lovely birdcage with no nesting material and seemed generally unloved  She is a female albino, apparently 6-8 months old but she's really small and skinny. She is lively enough and doesn't mind being handled but she feels super delicate (especially compared to my big, fat boy rat). She has been drinking and eating a little bit (but she's not too sure about the fresh fruit and veges I've offered, she seems to prefer sunflower seeds and rat mix) and she seems to be pooping and peeing normally. She has a bunch of sores on her tail (photo below) but isn't sneezing or wheezing and doesn't have any sores on her face. When I brought her home I gave her a bath with some organic, unscented soap and sprayed her with some mite spray. I have put some worming drops in her water and put her in a clean, disinfected cage with clean bedding and fresh water and food. She is in a room at the other end of the house to where my other rat lives and I have been super-careful to wash my hands before and after handling either rat. I have also cleaned my other rat's cage and sprayed him with some mite spray just to be safe. So my questions are - would the sores on her tail be caused by mites or something else? How long should I expect them to take to clear up and how frequently should I bathe her / spray her with mite spray? How long after the sores heal should I keep her 'quarantined' and what is the general process for introducing two rats to each other? My boy rat is 7 months old, desexed and very sociable / docile. I don't know if this new rat is desexed but I don't think she is. Any other hints or tips would be appreciated  I've attached some photos of her to show weight / size / health and the sores on her tail (you can only see one at the base but there are more along the length of the tail, I can try to get a better photo if needed):  
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Oct 27, 2012 05:28
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Meet my mice  Surprisingly I was able to pick them up today!I got the two females who had weaned their babies already. The babies were totally adorable but they would've easily been able to slip out of my cage. The girls I've got have only managed to get out once because I didn't close the door properly.  Thanks to Fraction's tip about leaving them on a high surface, she was still on the table when I found her... Stuck her back in and bread-tied that sucker closed. They're chilling pretty happily in their new home, don't seem bothered by the dog barking or other noises outside. They've already explored their fleecy hammock and had some noms.         The black and white one is the more friendly of the two, but the black one is the one that got out, so maybe she's more adventurous. I don't know if they're just in poor condition but their coats look rex-ish to me. Any name suggestions? ETA I fixed the pictures to link to the big version. 6-Ethyl Bearcat fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Oct 29, 2012 |
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Oct 28, 2012 08:53
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I'm not sure if they're rex or just have gross coats. They're probably rex, but you'll be able to tell after a couple of weeks of good diet, etc. If they're really gross you could wipe them firmly with an unscented baby wipe; some people bathe mice but mice are way smaller than rats and I could see them drowning or freezing to death after, because mice  Looks like you have a pied chocolate (or pied mock chocolate, maybe, I dunno) and, depending on where the white is on the black (I can't see white on her in the pics, but they are very small pictures!) she's probably a pied black or a black fox or something. They're very cute! Dumbledore (who maaaay or may not be renamed to Dexter) is slowly warming to the idea that if I pick him up, I'm not (spoilers) actually going to eat him.  Yesterday he was out, buried in a rat blanket with my hand on him, for twenty minutes and didn't poop once! He's also a pretty dedicated hammock snoozer. Both boys have taken food directly from mine and my mum's hands now, and Dumbles likes licking yogurt a little. Despite how much the fatties eat, they're not as into their food/trying new things as my girls. Having them here has shown pretty well how confident and friendly my girls have gotten, they all come running out to see me if I'm near the cage. Good girls. Fraction fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Oct 28, 2012 |
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Oct 28, 2012 10:39
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Hmm I thought I put the ones that linked to the bigger version. I'll fix that in a sec! The black one has some white on her belly and her face. None on the rest of her that I can see. They're not suuuper gross so I imagine they'll clean themselves up. Right now they're busy moving all their food into the igloo.
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Oct 28, 2012 11:14
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The important business of mice. Try giving them a handful of hay in the middle of their cage one day; I did that for Wheatley earlier and he spent like an hour arranging it Correctly. Out of curiosity, can rats (or mice I guess) have butternut squash seeds, or skin? I roasted up a squash today.
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Oct 28, 2012 19:57
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I couldn't find anything online saying it was bad, so I give mine squash parts all the time and they really love the stuff.
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Oct 28, 2012 20:37
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Fraction posted:
I gave them a cherry tomato this morning and this thing was Not Right and had to be explored completely. I had a mild panic attack last night when I couldn't find them anywhere, then I realised they were snoozing in their hammock together. So cute.
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Oct 29, 2012 04:13
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Thanks RB, everyone (boy rats, girl rats, and boy mouse) absolutely loved the skin/seeds. I always feel bad chucking all that so it's awesome that they can chow down, and they all went pretty nuts for it!6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:I had a mild panic attack last night when I couldn't find them anywhere, then I realised they were snoozing in their hammock together. My friend did this exact thing last Friday. I'd given her a bunch of fleece and fabric hammocks/cubes/pouches that I made that my girls used but Wheatley never bothers with, and she got really worried when she couldn't find her new mice in their house or anything. Then two noses peeked out of a pouch
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Oct 29, 2012 09:35
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Two little girls that gave me a heart attack.
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Oct 29, 2012 09:49
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No more itchy rats!  I have a question though. I'm bringing another one of my rats to the vet soon but I wanted you guys' opinions on what it might be. One of my female rats has been very aggressive so I ended up isolating her to see what was up. Turns out that every time I touch her lower back and hip area, she acts like it's really sensitive and painful. She climbs okay and there aren't any visible tumors or any I can feel under the skin. Is it some sort of internal thing maybe? She's urinating and defecating okay so I have no idea.
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Oct 29, 2012 14:16
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Joker has taken to sleeping like this. So far the cats haven't noticed his tail hanging out through the bars, but I feel like it's only a matter of time.
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Oct 30, 2012 01:29
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 Ratties by GreyishOrange, on Flickr Just adopted this pair of rats off a lady who couldn't look after them any more, they are already well socialized and handled. We're currently spoiling them to gain their trust fully.
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Oct 30, 2012 02:45
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Spoiling is always an appropriate thing to do with rats. Unrelated, I think Molly likes the taste of her new antibiotics, but we're still trying to streamline the process of getting it from the syringe to her mouth smoothly.
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Oct 30, 2012 06:26
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Urgh I think I might drop using a litter box and just go back to Aubiose on the cage floor. They poop in the litter box maybe 3/4 of the time and then fling it all out, substrate and poop, so I end up with a bunch in the floor anyway. It's also a lot quicker to just vacuum the floor than it is to vacuum floor and then move every single thing that's on the floor out of the way so I can vacuum there.  Maybe I should look into constructing a litter guard around the bottom of the cage. I know people have done that for liberta explorer cages.
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Oct 30, 2012 09:20
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Fraction posted:Urgh I think I might drop using a litter box and just go back to Aubiose on the cage floor. They poop in the litter box maybe 3/4 of the time and then fling it all out, substrate and poop, so I end up with a bunch in the floor anyway. This is why I've never bothered to litter train. Apparently some people do great with it, but it's always created more mess for me than just using paper bedding/shavings in the bottom of the cage. Doesn't look as nice as fleece, but whatevs.
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Oct 30, 2012 12:11
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Fraction posted:Urgh I think I might drop using a litter box and just go back to Aubiose on the cage floor. They poop in the litter box maybe 3/4 of the time and then fling it all out, substrate and poop, so I end up with a bunch in the floor anyway. Would a fabric one like they put on bird cages work? It should be extremely easy to make... Just stitching either end of a rectangle of fabric as long as the perimeter of the cage, then elastic on top and bottom.
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Oct 30, 2012 12:59
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6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:Would a fabric one like they put on bird cages work? It should be extremely easy to make... Just stitching either end of a rectangle of fabric as long as the perimeter of the cage, then elastic on top and bottom. It would work amazingly well if you love vacuuming up fabric bits and bedding bits.
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Oct 30, 2012 13:11
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Superconsndar posted:This is why I've never bothered to litter train. Apparently some people do great with it, but it's always created more mess for me than just using paper bedding/shavings in the bottom of the cage. Doesn't look as nice as fleece, but whatevs. I miiiight try cardboard squares after my hemcore runs out, I dunno. Hemcore/Aubiose is really light and flyaway, but it absorbs smell REALLY well, smells nicely itself, and I can get a bale of hemcore for £11 so urgh. Any opinions on cardboard here? My cage has a flap at bottom which lets out all the hemcore. 6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:Would a fabric one like they put on bird cages work? It should be extremely easy to make... Just stitching either end of a rectangle of fabric as long as the perimeter of the cage, then elastic on top and bottom. That sounds suspiciously like it'd get chewed to pieces, yeah.
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Oct 30, 2012 13:29
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6-Ethyl Bearcat posted:Would a fabric one like they put on bird cages work? It should be extremely easy to make... Just stitching either end of a rectangle of fabric as long as the perimeter of the cage, then elastic on top and bottom. You know your rats best- mine would probably leave something like this alone because they are good boys and don't tear up stuff. I bet a female would make short work of it. I have seen people use plastic carpet runner cut to fit and attached to the cage sides with zip ties or c rings. Keeps the junk in and wipes clean easily, and is pretty inexpensive. They sell urine guards for exactly this purpose but IMO the carpet runner is cheaper even if you have to occasionally replace it.
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Oct 30, 2012 14:29
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So many rats to vet. Tomorrow I'm taking 4 of my rats to the vet. THANKFULLY my vet is charging an overall exam fee ($50) as opposed to a fee for each one ($40 a pop). Rats are expensive. But anyway, taking in Biscuit for a checkup on his scratches (he seems fine now but I don't want him getting any infections), one of my girls for a possible tumor, another girl for some back problems, and a final girl in for an overall check because she's been extremely aggressive lately towards people and I think it's because she may have some extreme eye problems that makes me hand look even scarier than usual. Good thing I just got paid last week because otherwise I would be boned
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Oct 30, 2012 15:16
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I have FINALLY found a leafy green the rattards love - watercress. Got a little tub of it for them to try and they're all going nuts trying to dig it out/eat it. The market stall where I get a lot of veg is getting in kale in the next couple of weeks, too!   Is it sad that I'm going to miss the boyrats when they go to their new home? I'm taking them there on Thursday, so from Friday onwards I'm probably not going to see them, outside of pictures, for aaaages. Dumbledore has grown on me, despite being an rear end, and Professor is just the cutest, most gentle little bugger. I have a lot of respect for people who have multiple groups of rats that can't interact, though. It's been a pain in the rear end, since my girls have been pretty much nonstop trying to get to the boys, and have barely settled down at all when I've had them out. Fraction fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Oct 30, 2012 |
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Oct 30, 2012 20:55
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Double posting because ECF is having a Halloween sale. This means if you are in the UK you can get an Aventura cage (very similiar to the liberta explorer or critter nation, except only one door opens on each level) for just £100, when usually they cost £180 at the cheapest. The sale is only for TODAY so if you want a big cage get it nowwww. I have bought one because I am an impatient child. ps have a discount code: ABR733. That gives 10% off, and with free p&p that means I just scored an Aventura for £89
Fraction fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Oct 31, 2012 |
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Oct 31, 2012 12:42
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Cotton's going to be euthed tomorrow. She has always been sensitive and scared, but I'm not sure what was causing it. As of today, it's confirmed. She has a brain tumor. I'm...not really sure how to react, like I'm sad but I'm also not surprised. The vets I took her to for the usual checkups didn't know. Today I had to literally pull her off another rat and she screamed, turned around, and bit me hard enough to draw blood. I feel like I've been letting this go on for too long. The vet suggested euthanasia, since the tumor is inoperable. Right now she's isolated and I'm stuffing her full of treats and putting soft things in there for her to rip to shreds as that's her favorite activity. I'm really gonna miss this pissy rat.  
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Oct 31, 2012 18:04
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Wow thanks for that Fraction - couldn't resist either! Seems too big for two rats, I'll have to get some more  .Fake edit: sorry to hear about Cotton .
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Oct 31, 2012 18:11
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Pew Pew! - That sucks, but I do think you're doing the right thing. My boyfriend linked this to me: Rat diving underwater in search of peas While cute and interesting, would the water in their ears be detrimental to their health or can they shake the water out?
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Oct 31, 2012 19:49
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killerwhat posted:Wow thanks for that Fraction - couldn't resist either! Seems too big for two rats, I'll have to get some more No problem! I ordered mine this morning, and a friend also ordered one*. Ours are both due for delivery tomorrow (though I won't be in to put mine together tomorrow  ) I'm so going to get like fifty more rats now, too.Apparently ECF rings you an hour before delivery, just so you know! I'm sorry about Cotton, PP. You had no way of knowing she has a brain tumor, of all things.
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Oct 31, 2012 20:20
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Hard to believe a rat with this face bit me to the bone once. Raats.    I'm feeling a bit better about it just knowing her quality of life isn't what it used to be and she is, well, a rat that I had absolutely no background information on. So many treats in her cage right now. @Dagger: adorable video but yeah I think getting water in their ears can cause/lead to ear infections. It's about the same as when you're washing a dog, just best to avoid the ears iirc.
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Oct 31, 2012 22:51
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I just realized my rats have lice. Are there effective at-home remedies or over-the-counter treatments, or do we all have to go the vet? edit: I'm reading the original post but also looking for others have actually handled it.
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Nov 1, 2012 02:16
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dustbin posted:I just realized my rats have lice. Are there effective at-home remedies or over-the-counter treatments, or do we all have to go the vet? edit: I'm reading the original post but also looking for others have actually handled it. Ivermectin horse wormer paste, rice sized portion in their mouth once a week for 3 weeks.
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Nov 1, 2012 13:20
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Superconsndar posted:Ivermectin horse wormer paste, rice sized portion in their mouth once a week for 3 weeks. Just got some of this, a $4 apple flavored bit seriously covers all 7 of my rats. (7 cuz Cotton is gone and Caesar was given to a family with 10 year old+ kids as a pet which I was okay with cuz Biscuit and Caesar did not get along AT ALL). Cotton related: Went through with the euth. Vet was really nice about it and talked to me about how she could never own rats because of their health issues and lifespans. I don't blame her. Their policy on small animal and exotic euthanasia is the overdose on anesthesia thing, which was a lot kinder I think than needles (especially considering how reactive Cotton was). It was sad, but I felt a lot better since my vet really sympathized with me about the whole ordeal. Vets who actually listen to you are the best.
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Nov 1, 2012 17:46
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nvm
Fraction fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Nov 1, 2012 |
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Nov 1, 2012 20:24
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Superconsndar posted:Ivermectin horse wormer paste, rice sized portion in their mouth once a week for 3 weeks. Thanks. Even administering the ivermectin was a piece of cake. Great infestation experience so far.
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Nov 1, 2012 22:19
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A++ would infest again?
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Nov 1, 2012 23:00
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| # ? May 31, 2024 14:22 |
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Rats are the best Here's a picture of some.  Cubone gets along marvelously with the other girls. I'm really happy about it.
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Nov 2, 2012 01:04
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