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In my experience, rats don't behave the same way in neutral environments that they do when in a cage, especially their cage. I've introduced/been part of intros for a bunch of rats (adult males, babies to adult males, babies to adult females) and everyone is always absolutely fine and happy until they go in the cage. The only issues I've had we're between two very assertive/aggressive adult males, and the weird thing between my Panda and my other girls which was fine when I introduced her again.
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Feb 14, 2013 09:05
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Yeah, I've met lots of people (experienced people) who just toss new ones in the cage and seldom have a problem. Hell, I've done it, and only ever had one problem rat who didn't tolerate new rats. He got snipped and had no further problems. As long as you know what's acceptable and when they really are being overly aggressive, its cool. How my rats act outside the cage has no bearing on how they'll act when put in together. Said problem rat was nice outside but a little poo poo once back on his territory.
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Feb 14, 2013 09:31
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So, I'm sure this question has been asked on here before, but Cats and rats. Is it possible? Obviously I would never let the rats out in the same room as the cats, but I don't really have any place high up that I could put a rat cage to keep cats away from it. I could keep the cage in the bedroom with the door closed while I am at work, but the rest of the day the cats would be able to get their faces up in the cage and investigate. I just wouldn't want to adopt some rats and have the little dudes be terrified 24/7. Is it possible for rats to eventually get comfortable having cats around?
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Feb 14, 2013 15:13
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SlipkPIe posted:So, I'm sure this question has been asked on here before, but I'd be more worried about the cats, unless they're hardcore mousers who kill poo poo all the time. Most of my cat/rat intros have involved rats nipping cat noses, resulting in the cats developing a healthy fear of the rat cage and rats in general.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:17
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Although some cats may learn from a nipped nose, one of my friend's rats had to have one of its back legs amputated because it was so badly mangled by a cat. IIRC, it's tail had slipped out, the cat had grabbed and pulled and bitten. It happened while my friend was just in the next room, and the cat had been fine around the rat cage before.Big Bug Hug posted:How my rats act outside the cage has no bearing on how they'll act when put in together. Said problem rat was nice outside but a little poo poo once back on his territory. Yup. When we introduced the adult males, everyone chilled and groomed and snoozed in the bath. As soon as they were put in a cage (a brand new aventura, which had never had ANY rats in) there was immediate, very aggressive fighting between the two most assertive rats.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:20
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Fraction posted:In my experience, rats don't behave the same way in neutral environments that they do when in a cage, especially their cage. I've introduced/been part of intros for a bunch of rats (adult males, babies to adult males, babies to adult females) and everyone is always absolutely fine and happy until they go in the cage. The only issues I've had we're between two very assertive/aggressive adult males, and the weird thing between my Panda and my other girls which was fine when I introduced her again. I generally recommend starting in a neutral area because if there is going to be a serious huge throwdown, it's easier to get them apart if you can actually reach them. When I've put the jerks together, they inevitably picked the further corner of the cage in the most inaccessible nook to have WWIII in. At least when they duke it out in the tub I can get at them.
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Feb 14, 2013 15:28
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Superconsndar posted:I'd be more worried about the cats, unless they're hardcore mousers who kill poo poo all the time. Most of my cat/rat intros have involved rats nipping cat noses, resulting in the cats developing a healthy fear of the rat cage and rats in general. This was also my hilarious experience.
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Feb 14, 2013 17:36
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Alright, so has anyone got any tips for catching a really loving fast rat? I've managed to get Stumpy out of the cage twice, and she's been here over a week now. I feel pretty bad about it, but holy gently caress she is fast. I don't know how a three legged rat moves so fast. I've never had problems catching skittish rats before, even terrified baby rats that fell on the floor and had to be grabbed before they became dogfood, but I just cannot grab this slippery little rat and it is infuriating. It doesn't help that I'm scared of squishing her because she's so small and only has three legs.
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Feb 14, 2013 19:21
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Fraction posted:Alright, so has anyone got any tips for catching a really loving fast rat? I've managed to get Stumpy out of the cage twice, and she's been here over a week now. I feel pretty bad about it, but holy gently caress she is fast. I don't know how a three legged rat moves so fast. I've never had problems catching skittish rats before, even terrified baby rats that fell on the floor and had to be grabbed before they became dogfood, but I just cannot grab this slippery little rat and it is infuriating. I had a rat from pet smart that wasn't properly socialized at all and was the same way. I think she may have also been partially blind but it was infuriating trying to catch her. I usually just left the cage on the floor with the door open abs she'd get back in eventually. This was in a secluded room, however. Good luck!
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Feb 14, 2013 20:59
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SlipkPIe posted:So, I'm sure this question has been asked on here before, but Yes its possible, but it depends on your cats and rats. I can tell you baby rats do adjust to having cats around, and if you have a kitten it will likely grow up with that healthy respect for rats, but if you have very tenacious hunter cats it might be a different story. My cats have both learned sniffing the cage will get them bitten, and completely ignore the cage now. They tolerate the rats when they're all out together (supervised), but the rats usually like to chase/tease the cats so the cats get annoyed and run off. When them rats are caged they don't care one bit about cats running around etc, because they were raised with them. If you're able to keep the cats out while you're not around and they're not generally the murderous types you should be OK. Only you know your cats 
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Feb 14, 2013 23:10
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Beowulf posted:I had a rat from pet smart that wasn't properly socialized at all and was the same way. I think she may have also been partially blind but it was infuriating trying to catch her. I usually just left the cage on the floor with the door open abs she'd get back in eventually. This was in a secluded room, however. Good luck! It's not so much a case of catching her to get her back in the cage (I haven't had her long enough to free roam her and her & Pippin's cage is on top of my aventura), it's a matter of catching her when she's in the drat thing. There's only two small doors (Mamble 80 cage) which makes this cage, cool as it is, pretty lovely for access. I'm not sure whether to gut the cage (and just leave like one hammock and tube or something) when I clean it out. I only have them until early summer, and my friend has tried hard to hand tame her before (inc forced socialisation) in a cage with better access, but idk i kind of think this rat is retarded sooooo. She has three legs from a birth defect, miscarried an otherwise normal looking litter, SO yeah.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:15
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We have two cats and while they are very curious they have so far been good about it. We still keep the door to the room with the rats closed when we're not home. I just really don't trust them to hop on the cage yet.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:29
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IMO you should never leave your cats (or a dog) with unsupervised access to prey animals, even if they show no interest in a cage when you're there. There's just no point taking that risk.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:33
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Fraction posted:IMO you should never leave your cats (or a dog) with unsupervised access to prey animals, even if they show no interest in a cage when you're there. There's just no point taking that risk. This is true. I should clarify, when we leave the house, the cats are confined to the other half, cut off from the rat cage. Not just because of the rats, they are bastards and knock poo poo over all the time. A great majority of the time though someone is nearby, since the cage is in the living room.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:46
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So, crappy cell pics, but whatever. This is where Moozy and Ozzy spend most of their time sleeping: top level, front and centre. 
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Feb 14, 2013 23:48
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I introduced my rats to my father and his girlfriend once at their house, and they were pretty fascinated by the whole thing, but during it their (fluffy, elderly, indoor, declawed-by-previous-owner) cat wandered into the living room to see what the fuss was about. This is when I discovered that Molly is entirely too  to survive, because her reaction to this new animal was nothing short of HELLO NEW FRIEND.Spice was terribly offended when Molly tried to groom her.
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Feb 14, 2013 23:50
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When I moved back in with my dad his cats were too terrified to even come in my room. Cats who slept with me for ten years would not enter my room under any circumstances. Just the sight of the rats sent them running, thank gently caress they don't have to survive in the wild!
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Feb 15, 2013 08:57
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If you have to keep your rats out of reach of cats, and you don't have one of those critter nation cages, I put mine on top of one of those plastic 3 shelf units from like home depot or Lowe's. It's tall enough to keep them mostly out of sight and mind of the cats, and there's really nowhere the cats can jump to paw at them.
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Feb 15, 2013 12:46
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So I have to separate Rufus and Benjamin because Rufus is starting fights and this morning he had horrible scratches on him. The problem is I can't get another rat so I need to separate Rufus with one of his cage mates. Will this make the other rats sad? I was planning on putting baby Gus with him but Gus loves Russel, will this hurt Russel? I know this sounds like a ridiculous question but I don't know anything about separating bonded rats.
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Feb 16, 2013 01:50
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Olive Bar posted:So I have to separate Rufus and Benjamin because Rufus is starting fights and this morning he had horrible scratches on him. The problem is I can't get another rat so I need to separate Rufus with one of his cage mates. Will this make the other rats sad? I was planning on putting baby Gus with him but Gus loves Russel, will this hurt Russel? I know this sounds like a ridiculous question but I don't know anything about separating bonded rats. I had my cage divided for the longest time because of one problem rat who only got on with his brother. Outside the cage everyone loved each other though so I let them play together every day, it worked out fine. Then I neutered the little troublemaker and put 'em all in together. Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Feb 16, 2013 |
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Feb 16, 2013 03:59
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He's just too rambunctious for Benjamin I think, he's totally fine with everyone else. But yeah, they will all have at least one cage mate. I feel so bad separating them. I would just get another rat for Rufus but my boyfriend said no more until May.
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Feb 16, 2013 06:15
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The newest rat, who was named Luna by her previous owner and we decided to keep the name, arrived today. The cage she's in is nearly twice the size of the one we have our two girls in right now, so we're going to move them all in there once we deem it suitable. She's agouti hooded and lovely -- currently stashing blueberries. I don't know why a single rat would feel the need to stash, but hey, rats. Pictures to come tomorrow!
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Feb 17, 2013 03:12
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Still waiting on pics here, Platypus  Are 'dwarf rats' a new thing? I've been seeing them pop up on adverts & Instagram lately and I have never heard of them before.
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Feb 18, 2013 09:33
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Sorry, they're being adorable, difficult-to-photograph snots lately. The best picture I got was with my phone, so apologies for the quality. The one on top is Faye, the one on the bottom is Luna (who is sleeping with her eyes open). That ugly thing in the background is a roasted brussels sprout.  So we introduced them on our bed the first night and at first, Luna (the new one) was freaked right out with all of the chasing and humping and such. After a while, she and Faye decided to become BFF and make a fort out of our blankets and that was that -- we moved them all into the big cage that night. There was maybe an hour of dominance tussling between Faye and Luna, but then it was like they'd always been together. Amelia is either super happy at the bottom of the pecking order or is too dumb to care. During the dominance stuff, she was busy stashing all of the food and playing "the floor is lava" and Spider-Ratting all over the cage, which is her preferred form of locomotion.
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Feb 19, 2013 05:38
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More adorable perfect little boys.   
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Feb 19, 2013 23:58
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^^I cannot loving wait to get these little bastards neutered. They are oh-so-cute, but they're also so much smellier than the girls and they've caused some damage in their fights^^Fraction posted:Still waiting on pics here, Platypus Nope, I've heard about them being around for years. They might be getting more popular though!
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Feb 20, 2013 00:10
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Invalid Octopus posted:
Yeah when I stopped breeding in 2006 I was on the list to get a few from a breeder I knew who was working with them. They're apparently longer lived, or were at the time. There are (or at least were) a lot of people who sell lovely undersized rats as "dwarves" though, so I'd grill the breeder pretty hard to make sure the rats you're getting are actually genetically dwarves before I'd try to grab any.
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Feb 20, 2013 01:38
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They're longer lived than standards? I just assumed it -was- runts being bred to runts to get tiny "dwarf" rats. Google wasn't entirely helpful, in my super quick search. Maybe they're only just being sold to joe public over here now. I dunno.
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Feb 20, 2013 09:56
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Double posting because welp. Important for UK rat owners. Information copied & paraphrased from the UK Fancy Rat forum. The Seoul strain of Hantavirus has been found in rats in an NFRS rattery, RCT Stud. (Hantavirus is carried by rodents and can be transmitted to humans via dried excreta and urine or saliva. The rodents are not affected by it and do not show any symptoms. It cannot be transferred from human to rodent, or from human to human.) The Seoul strain has been detected in wild rats in certain parts of the country. It causes bad cold or flu-like symptoms, and may also include kidney infections. Twenty rats at RCT Stud were tested for the virus. Seven were actively excreting the live virus, and the others showed positive antibodies - they either had been exposed to it, or had it in a dormant state. All of them were PTS. There are ways to be tested for it, but at the moment any tests done will NOT be anonymous. Since there is no telling just how widespread it is at this time (the rattery in question was active in the show world, and babies from there will likely carry or have antibodies for the virus, but afaik it's not certain how infectious it is). If you get tested, HPA can't force you to put infected rats to sleep - but there are other governing bodies that can, e.g. DEFRA. Apparently, HPA is in contact with DEFRA and is trying to test rodent farms and pet shop stock; DEFRA may be used if the farms and shops resist. IMO you should only get tested now (i.e. before there's anonymous testing), if you have a specific risk factor such as pregnancy. The HPA recommendation for cage cleaning is as follows: * Do not sweep or vacuum bedding * Wear disposable/rubber gloves when cleaning cages * Ideally wear a face mask * Spray the bedding with water before removing from cage and leave for 5 mins (This stop infectious particles becoming air-borne) * wash your hands after cleaning cages and handling the rodents This could be something that's limited to a few places, or it could be pretty much endemic. They won't know until more testing is done.
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Feb 20, 2013 18:08
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Hi PI! I've just gotten a rat tonight that really hasn't been out of her cage or handled in a year and I am hoping to make the rest of her life awesome. So I've read the thread intro but any advice would be welcome. All I know is that she is a bit obese and doesn't enjoy her wheel or being in the ball. Of course the person who owned her before had large dogs and a tiny room for Trixie so I don't think she's really had the full ball experience. I've got toys and chews but like I said any advice would be awesome. She's adorable and I want to be an awesome owner because she's just been forgotten for a year.
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Feb 21, 2013 01:20
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empty sea posted:Hi PI! I've just gotten a rat tonight that really hasn't been out of her cage or handled in a year and I am hoping to make the rest of her life awesome. Lots of rats don't like being in those balls I can't imagine my boys tolerating it. I reckon the best thing would be to let her out as much as possible on a couch or bed, with you. If she's shy it'll help her warm up to you, and she'll get exercise. With a good diet she might lose some weight. My rats are easy to please. If they have a Kleenex box or paper bag (they love paper bags for some reason) a hammock and some fleece to snuggle in, they're happy. One thing though, does she have a cage mage?
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Feb 21, 2013 05:04
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Ditch the ball, rats don't like them and they're intelligent and social enough for limited free ranging *after* they're socialized. Also get her a same sex buddy asap.
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Feb 21, 2013 05:16
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I have a ball, but it is only to put Folly in when we clean the cage, as she can't be trusted unsupervised anywhere.
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Feb 21, 2013 05:40
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Hello, Rat Megathread. I got a rat a few days ago from a friend who moved and couldn't take it with her. Basil is friendly enough and fairly sociable, he likes to chew stuff up a lot. There is one issue, though; he has a sorta-large scab right on the center of his back and he's apparently had this thing for months. It doesn't appear to bother him at all, indeed, I even poked at it and he showed no response. This evening I gave him a bath and the scab got washed off and I was able to get a good look at the wound and it looked fresh but it wasn't bleeding or anything. I touched it and felt a small hard bump under it, like a small piece of gravel or something. Basil still didn't show any sign of discomfort when I touched it. I got a picture of it and I was wondering if any of you had any ideas as to what it is and perhaps how I can help it heal. I would be mighty grateful 
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Feb 21, 2013 06:39
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I'll keep this simple: how will IO and I know when Liza's mammary tumor is significant enough an impediment to her quality of life that we take her in and have her put down? It's getting pretty big - we're about 2 months into her having it and it's about the size of a small egg - but it doesn't appear to have ulcerated or anything. The trouble is that she's always been something of a standoffish rat, so it is hard to gauge her level of discomfort, but she SEEMS agile enough to climb to the food bowls with no trouble and obviously this means she's still hungry. I just don't want to wait on it any longer than she's reasonably happy with her little rat life. If she made it another month-or-so to the introduction of our freshly-neutered boys that would be ideal I guess but I don't want to be greedy.
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Feb 21, 2013 06:50
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LegioPraetoria posted:I'll keep this simple: how will IO and I know when Liza's mammary tumor is significant enough an impediment to her quality of life that we take her in and have her put down? It's getting pretty big - we're about 2 months into her having it and it's about the size of a small egg - but it doesn't appear to have ulcerated or anything. The trouble is that she's always been something of a standoffish rat, so it is hard to gauge her level of discomfort, but she SEEMS agile enough to climb to the food bowls with no trouble and obviously this means she's still hungry. I just don't want to wait on it any longer than she's reasonably happy with her little rat life. If she made it another month-or-so to the introduction of our freshly-neutered boys that would be ideal I guess but I don't want to be greedy. I'd say big signs to watch out for would be not eating or playing (or as much as she could/would otherwise), sleeping a lot more, difficulty in mobility, and any signs of pain. Baby food + rats = derpalicious photos.      
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Feb 21, 2013 20:42
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Saw this on I Can Haz Cheezburger  
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Feb 22, 2013 02:56
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It's available on YouTube with a soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WWWG3libBk Edited to add: So apparently my girls know that chewing on the bars is bad... and they don't care. They were chewing on the bars like maniacs last night and I said, "Girls..." and they stopped and ran off to their house. Yeah. I see your game there, rats. Patchouli Patrol fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 06:02
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Hello, everybody. I am debating getting two rats in the near future and I have some questions: 1) I don't smoke cigarettes, but both my roommates and everybody that comes over smokes lots of cigarettes indoors with no ventilation. My bedroom (where their cage will be) is at the end of hallway and fairly far away from any of the other rooms but I'm still worried that the smell of cigarettes would bother my rats. I can't tell how strong it is in my room because I'm so used to the smell. I also don't think I will be able to let them free roam in any of the other rooms even if nobody is currently smoking because of the smell. If somebody has any experience with this it would be a huge help! 2) I was also wondering how much loud music would stress them out. I never play music loud in my room but loud music is often blasted in the other room and it's still fairly loud even with my door shut. Would this be a big stress on my rats? Ultimately, I get the feeling I have to wait until I move (which will be soon, I hope!). I can ask my roommates to start smoking with the door open and to lower their music if that makes a difference?
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Feb 22, 2013 08:49
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Ghost Party posted:Hello, everybody. I am debating getting two rats in the near future and I have some questions: If you can get them to smoke out the doors, the rats might be OK in your room. Rats do have sensitive respiratory systems, as you seem to realize. If you're moving soon, I suppose waiting would be better, but if not, you might be able to take some precautions to help. Adding some ventilation and not blasting music are reasonable requests for roommates after all! I've never had my rats bothered by music but then I dont blast it that loud. We always have loud things, kids yelling, TV etc and they dont care, especially in their cage where they feel safe. It might be something young rats will adapt to. I would avoid letting them run around in rooms which have been smoked in frequently. They would be fine with some time out on your bed, desk etc every day though. Mine don't free range but they're content with running around on the couch or bed every day.
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Feb 22, 2013 10:17
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