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Fraction posted:
Tonight probably  . Maybe Friday. I don't get home from class til the evening Mon-Thurs, and my bf has busy evenings the next couple nights. I am not keen on the idea of putting it together by myself... We'll see! The other merles looked very merley (pic below), so I'm guessing these guys are just poor quality merles, or the gene's interacting with something else. My rat genetic knowledge is pretty low so I don't know. She also has a couple beige hooded so I might go for one of them instead of one of the merles.  
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Jan 23, 2013 16:29
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Invalid Octopus posted:Okay rat thread AHEM FRACTION I am very very likely getting some of these rats soon: That one! On the left! OMGOMG
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Jan 24, 2013 01:00
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Big Bug Hug posted:That one! On the left! OMGOMG Isn't he lovely? But I'm pretty decided on his blazed brother there, and then probably one of the beige hoodeds. We'll see
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Jan 24, 2013 02:26
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Ooh, my favorite, rat salad. Can I upgrade to the bottomless bowl, please?
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Jan 24, 2013 02:28
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Here's a pic of the new cage: Sorry for the mess. That wall looks so empty now (had to take some paintings down), definitely going to have to fix that. So big! Also the instructions recommended two able-bodied adults, and I did it all by myself 
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Jan 24, 2013 04:38
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Reasons I want to keep renting apartments:
Reasons I want to buy a house:
Your bimbling fluffy balls of love make me miss my girls a whole heap.
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Jan 24, 2013 06:40
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We started renting from private landlords after some negative experiences with apartments. I provide photos of the cage and our vet info before signing the lease, and they usually ask for a small deposit. Since my rats never free roam, I have gotten the okay even when the owners did not allow cats or dogs.
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Jan 24, 2013 07:09
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So, one of my girls (Jeepers) was just seen with a bunch of foamy, mucussy spit drooling out of her mouth  . Has anyone ever seen a rat do this? Is it vet time? She's not choking on it, and she doesn't seem to be acting sick. It's just... there.
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Jan 24, 2013 07:17
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Pessimism posted:So, one of my girls (Jeepers) was just seen with a bunch of foamy, mucussy spit drooling out of her mouth I've seen it exactly once -when one of my boys was choking. Rats choking isn't as scary as it sounds and they normally work it out. Is she laying out flat or doing anything weird with her head position/throat? Is she scrubbing at her mouth with her hands (like when they eat something gross or spicy)? Since we can't see her it's hard to say whether you need the vet or not, sorry 
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Jan 24, 2013 11:20
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Monday: Horrifying foot injury. Probable broken bones. Hugely swollen to twice its size, purple, bloody, painful. Thursday morning: Some scabs, but normal colour, normal size, hardly any swelling. Doesn't look injured at all unless you're looking for it. Toes maybe slightly crooked but this might be due to what swelling there is. I think I'm going to feel silly taking Ada back to the vet on Tuesday. Do rats have superpowers? It would explain a lot.
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Jan 24, 2013 20:27
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Update: Jeepers appears to be fine. She was probably choking on something just before we took her out of the cage. It wouldn't be the first time; she's a big fatty and doesn't chew her food enough.
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Jan 25, 2013 06:58
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glad Jeepers is ok!RoboRodent posted:Monday: Horrifying foot injury. Probable broken bones. Hugely swollen to twice its size, purple, bloody, painful. I swear to the gods I had to search for the wound in the morning because it had somehow closed and almost healed overnight. In short: not only are they drat tough when it comes to pain, but yes, they do have super powers. Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 08:25 on Jan 25, 2013 |
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Jan 25, 2013 08:23
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Woke up this morning to a bunch of picture messages from the breeder (I had asked for a pic of the beige hoodeds):        So I don't know which of these are available (except for the pics with only one rat in them), and I don't really know who rat number 2 will be! But I guess we'll be finding out tonight
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Jan 25, 2013 18:01
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Oh man I'm all ready for these boyrats!  
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Jan 25, 2013 21:45
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That looks sweet as hell, IO! I never even thought about using the bottom metal bar to support boxes - or does yours have an actual bottom shelf? Pretty neat!
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Jan 25, 2013 21:54
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I know my CN cage has a shelf there. I caved in and sewed my boys a couple of new hammocks, since it's been really cold in the house. They've definitely been using it, as well as chewing lots of holes in it  Also, it's snowing outside. I think I might go fetch them some and see how they feel about it
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Jan 25, 2013 21:59
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Rat babies photodump!!! Beige guy is Moomin, b&w is Oswald. I am SO glad I went with this breeder. Aside from the drive up there – which was miserable and took 2.5 hours – everything went great. She's been very helpful and quick to respond, and doesn't give off a crazy vibe at all – and was very nice about us being an hour late. The boys have already started litter training, and it's SO obvious they've been well socialized. They're easily the friendliest rat babies I've met. We nearly took home a third (Sailor Moon boy in the other pic), haha.        
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Jan 26, 2013 05:56
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Okay, so Oswald is basically so cute that I'm gonna die.
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Jan 26, 2013 06:16
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Why did you not get the sailor moon baby too  omg they are so effin cute, send them to me!
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Jan 26, 2013 09:06
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Oh my, they are so cute. It really is awesome when you get well socialised babies. I have two who were never socialised as babies and two who were handled a lot. While the former are friendly enough they have always been more skittish. The other two always want attention and are very confident. I am definitely going to try and get the most friendly interactive ratters next time too.
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Jan 26, 2013 09:56
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Big Bug Hug posted:Oh my, they are so cute. Yeah, of my four girls, two are great – they're very friendly in different ways (Ang loves to snuggle, Folly loves to run around). Liza is shy and doesn't super enjoy being held, but she'll come up inside the cage to say hi/look for food. Gypsy, though, is very fearful. She's goten better, but she'll still resist handling most of the time (though she nows seeks it out at night). It's not even just people she's scared of, for the first several months the kissy noise I would make to call over the other rats would freak her out. As I said, she's gotten better, but my goal for her is to get to Liza's level, not Angie or Folly. Moo's pretty shy, it's clear, but it's nothing some forced socialization can't fix.
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Jan 26, 2013 18:21
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I want to put my face in there so bad
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Jan 26, 2013 18:49
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Slidje posted:I want to put my face in there so bad Get in line, mister. 
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Jan 26, 2013 19:16
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F2BrcCQ6bmpjqTrv fucked around with this message at 18:03 on May 6, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2013 20:07
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Hausemaster posted:These are my first rats ever. Thinking of getting a fourth. Do it!
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Jan 26, 2013 20:41
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Hausemaster posted:Got myself three well handled rats from a friend two months ago (still haven't given them any names, am I a bad person?), they're the most cuddly things. One of them loves crawling onto me as soon as she sees the chance to do so. They're very pretty. Are they roans? Substrate is mostly just used for holding smells, afaik. Rats do just fine on towels/fleece/etc. The only reason you'd require any substrate in your setup would be if you wanted to litter train, but if you don't mind picking up poop between liner cleanings (or don't mind poop errywhere) it doesn't matter. In case you're wondering, everyone in this thread is a bunch of enablers. GET MORE RATS! I finally gave my girls their wheel back after taking it out to scrub and forgetting to put it back in... about a month ago.  Sorry, girls! I'm also joining the fleece liner crew for this week. I ran out of cardboard and only put my order in today. I have noticed that my girls more or less just poop in one corner now, so I might do another run at litter training. I dunno. It's much prettier than cardboard everywhere.
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Jan 26, 2013 21:25
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^^I dunno why you're so resistant to fleece/litter training! My girls aren't always 100% on it (most of the time they're fine, occasionally they'll start using certain corners if I don't use them for feeding frequently enough), but wiping away the stray poops isn't really a big problem. But seriously, putting food bowls in the other corners worked like a charm for me. More rat pix           
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Jan 26, 2013 23:52
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Aw I wanna scratch those bellies. My rats all came to me unsocialized and while they're definitely not afraid of me they don't seek my attention. Jack is getting more cuddly in his old age though.
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Jan 27, 2013 00:04
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Invalid Octopus posted:^^I dunno why you're so resistant to fleece/litter training! My girls aren't always 100% on it (most of the time they're fine, occasionally they'll start using certain corners if I don't use them for feeding frequently enough), but wiping away the stray poops isn't really a big problem. But seriously, putting food bowls in the other corners worked like a charm for me. Yessss I will take those baby boys please and thank you. I'm not resistant to it  I had lovely (lol) luck with it, is all. Mostly with the rats only hitting the litter trays (which took up like 40% of the floor space) half the time or so, and with someone chewing holes in my liners  I do love how much prettier it is though.
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Jan 27, 2013 00:25
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 This is the sight I see when I make their treat noise. (Or in the morning when I first come in the room.)  Chell  Moxxi  Pandora and Moxxi  Moxxi  Pandora It's pretty cool how much Panda has changed. When my friend first picked her up for me, back in early December, she was so much darker:  Roan rats
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Jan 27, 2013 13:27
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Hey guys, I'm in a bit of pickle. One of my rats if really sick and I can't get her to a vet. Currently where I live is going through a flood, and I only just got power back but for the past three days I've been stuck in my house with no power and no way of getting out. Tomorrow will be the first possible day of getting to a vet (luckily one is just up the road, but there was no vet present and the phone lines were down so I had no way of getting in contact with one of the vets). What happened is, the 25th of January, I noticed one of my rats was looking a little poorly. Her fur wasn't as nice as it normally was and she was looking a little thinner, but she was eating normally and was in good spirits so I gave her some really high calorie nut bars to nibble on with her sister and made sure they both had access to lots of food and water. I wasn't around at all on the 26th or most of the 27th, but when I got back in I was greeted by her almost unable to open her eyes and completely and utterly gaunt. Skin and bones, nothing to her what so ever - it's like all her muscle and fat just melted off her over 2 days. Her sister is completely fine, but has been the worst help in all this. I gave her as much water and yoghurt as I could get down her as possible. It all had to be hand fed since she couldn't get anything down herself and she is too weak to chew or even bite. Even when I put her down with celery coated in yoghurt she refused to do anything herself. All she really wanted was to be close to me which was really sweet, I think it was mainly out of cold though (it's summer here, but she feels really cool to the touch like she can't heat herself up). I expected her to die that night on my chest as I read and spoke to her, but she hung on but I couldn't sleep with her so I made her a sock sleeping bag for the night (which her sister kindly destroyed for me  ) and thought I would wake up to her dead this morning.Well she pulled through, but looked worse for wear. I tried giving her water and yoghurt, but she refused to take anything so I made her a hammock out of old woolies so she had somewhere warm to sit and draped her in some other woollen stuff to make sure she was warm enough. I admit I got really upset here, felt very helpless as I couldn't take her to the vet to be put down and just general guilt. But she kept hanging on. I really phoned it in here when I should have been trying to force water and food down her. Eventually I got her sister out for their nightly run around play, she didn't give me much thought so I left her alone. But when I came back with her sister, she was trying to climb the cage wall like she normally does when I get home in hopes of being taken out. She seemed more active, but still wouldn't take any liquid or yoghurt. I got the bright idea to take out their old unused syringes to try forcing water down her throat. I don't think she liked that but it made her start licking the water off the syringe and for the first time today she started taking water and yoghurt from me again. She seemed more active and perched herself on my shoulder. That didn't seem as long as it did in my head, but here is the situation now. Hailey (10~11 months old) is nothing but skin and bones. She is struggling to use her legs and she as far as I can tell refuses to use her tail unless it is to wrap it around herself. She isn't grooming herself and her sister isn't helping, and from the pee stains on her fur she is severely dehydrated (think caustic dark yellow) and wetting herself as she has no strength to move downstairs. As far as I can tell, she isn't pooping but her sister might be moving those downstairs to the toilet area before I see anything. She hasn't got any lumps and she doesn't struggle or make any sound of discomfort or pain when I did a full body lump search. Porphyrin is practically running down her eyes and nose. She is also breathing really, really deeply and her heart is beating a lot slower than I normally associate with a rat. When I counted it was about 80bpm, no idea what kind of speed a rat is meant to have but I'm used to significantly faster than that. Now after a very long winded explanation of everything that happened, what I want to know is there anything I can do to help her stay alive for the next 9~11 hours until I can get her to a "potential" vet in the morning. I plan on staying up for most of the night to give her water and yoghurt. Also if I can't get her to a vet in the morning, which is possible despite power being restored (flood is expected to peek the 29th at high tide), is there anything I can do then to keep her going until there is a vet available?
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Jan 28, 2013 13:37
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Hello everyone!!! I got a pair of rats for my girlfriend for her birthday in August, after her slowly convincing me over the last couple of years that they are not all in fact magical evil disease fountains by their very nature. I have to credit this very thread with helping to convince me - you guys put out a lot of good advice, so their adoption is at least in part thanks to you lot Might post more about their behaviour/training later, but I have a headache and a horrible cold, so without further ado, here's my pick of the last month or so of us trying to work a semi-decent camera for the first time and taking too many rat photos. Chimay is the black-eyed one, Kriek the red-eyed.               
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Jan 28, 2013 13:47
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e: ^^^ They're very cute! Do you have/can you get baby food, scrambled eggs or mashed bananas? Off the top of my head, sickly rats will generally still take these yummy, high energy foods. Use a slightly damp rag to wipe some of the pee off her/clean her a little. Offer her as much food as she'll eat, keep her with you as much as possible, and try to keep her warm. If she'll settle down on you, stick her in a hoodie pocket or something so she's cozy. I'm sorry to hear about your rat. I hope the vet is open tomorrow. This is a helpful article you might want to read. Fraction fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 13:48
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I'll keep her with me as much as possible. I went in to give her water, she only drank about .5ml compared to the 4ml she drank just before and wouldn't take any yoghurt from me. She kept heading back to the food bowl though, scratching around and moving back to her hammock. So I got out all the foods I normally feed her, combined it in one bowl, and she has amassed a small collection of dry wheatbixs, sun flower seeds and flax seeds. Not exactly high in fluid but more high energy than she was eating before. I tried offering mash banana, tiny pieces of celery and cucumber (their favourite) but not much luck. But she has taken to a jam lid with water in it rather than the bottle as she doesn't have to push anything to get water. I'll just monitor and hopefully she'll start perking up. Thanks for the info though. It was really helpful
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Jan 28, 2013 14:11
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Sorry Windy don't really have advice other than what's been given. It doesn't sound like she's having trouble breathing so steam might not help, though it probably won't hurt. Definitely try mushy high calorie food. I'm sorry,I would feel terrible in your situation. You're doing the best you can. I hope the vet is available soon.
Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 14:29
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I found some interesting information online about force feeding water and I wanted to ask here before doing it. It was suggested to put a teaspoon of sugar into a cup of water and then put into a syringe. I also don't have access to unchrolinated and unflourided (are these even words?), so would boiling the water beforehand get all that out?
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Jan 28, 2013 15:53
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Lord Windy posted:I found some interesting information online about force feeding water and I wanted to ask here before doing it. It was suggested to put a teaspoon of sugar into a cup of water and then put into a syringe. I don't think so but boiling it can't hurt since you don't have the other options anyway
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Jan 29, 2013 01:46
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I just put my dinner plate down on my desk, went to the kitchen to grab something, and came back to find the pat of butter I'd just put on a dinner roll missing. Stacee had snatched it and taken it back to his cage and he was covered in butter and so happy.
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Jan 29, 2013 03:01
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Superconsndar posted:I just put my dinner plate down on my desk, went to the kitchen to grab something, and came back to find the pat of butter I'd just put on a dinner roll missing. Haha. Rats. Super, post some pictures of your rats. Also, what would you call Oswald's markings? Blazed collared? 
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Jan 29, 2013 03:05
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Well, the universe just knows about me and rats apparently. I was at a pet shop that I frequent and they had a little nekkid rat that was dumped on them, they asked me if I wanted him for free and I did. It took four people to convince my boyfriend to let me have a new rat, then he held him and sighed at his cuteness. His name is Rufus and he is amazing and sweet as heck. He is the smaller hairless rat in the pictures, and my boyfriend loves him. : Benjamin being bad at camera.  Russel  Rat party  Russel grooming his new friend Rufus  Baby Gus not being a baby anymore   Fun fact: At the pet store Rufus' full name was Rufus Foreskin McBallsack.  Jack being an old man  Rufus is good at taking pictures 
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Jan 29, 2013 06:13
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