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I just got a new roommate for my rat, an albino. He started sneezing right away, which i read could be a sign of stressful conditions of moving into a new home (no pine shavings or anything, and i scrubbed the pen good). But it's been over a week now and he still gets sneezing fits. When should i start to worry it's something more? Should i let it go on for a bit longer?
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Feb 4, 2016 23:27
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| # ? May 18, 2024 00:24 |
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Some rats just sneeze. Unless it's accompanied by wheezing/snuffling sounds or porphyrin, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Feb 6, 2016 06:35
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My rats sneezed all the time and there was nothing wrong with them after check-ups. It's been a week and I hate how silent my room is now. 
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Feb 6, 2016 21:59
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She got cute    I love her pink-tipped tail and her fluffy face and everything. I get to take her home edit: bonus picture of said current rat about to eat a pancake for Pancake Day 
RainbowCake fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Feb 10, 2016 |
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Feb 9, 2016 23:54
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 Don't be fooled, they're dicks.
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Feb 13, 2016 21:09
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:
Who cares? Lookit those little faaces! Wanna smoosh their cheeks.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:43
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:
Those little hands and noses.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:56
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:
I believe you but that's not going to stop me from going "OooOOohhh!" and wanting to smoosh them.
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Feb 14, 2016 22:54
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Apparently my boys had a rough play-fight and one of them has some sores around his nape and sides now. They don't seem to be hostile towards each other, since they're snoozing on top of each other right now, but is there anything I need to do about those sores? He keeps them clean and so far it seems like they're going to heal fine on their own, but I'm still worried.
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Feb 14, 2016 23:12
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That will happen sometimes when they play rough. By itself, sores aren't worth worrying about. If they don't go away in a timely fashion, however, scabs and sores can be a sign of mites (or another type of parasitic infestation). In that case, it's worth taking them to the vet for treatment.
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Feb 15, 2016 00:53
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Kuule hain nussivan posted:
They're so cute though.
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Feb 15, 2016 09:59
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Ugh, one of my boys is a little sniffly (he sounds a lot like I am when i first wake-up) but I'm not sure if it's vet time or not. it has been really dry in our house lately and the heat's been on and other than the occasional sniffle, he's fine.
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Feb 16, 2016 18:08
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Yessssss just heard one of my boys bruxing while playing with me for the first time. They're finally out of "oh poo poo scary human" mode and actually enjoying my company.
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Feb 17, 2016 01:49
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dovetaile posted:Ugh, one of my boys is a little sniffly (he sounds a lot like I am when i first wake-up) but I'm not sure if it's vet time or not. it has been really dry in our house lately and the heat's been on and other than the occasional sniffle, he's fine. I used to give my rats a dark chocolate chip when they would sound sniffly and that seemed to clear it up. You could give that a try and then take them to the vet if they still sound bad.
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Feb 17, 2016 19:00
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I get to take home my new rat tomorrow! I'm a little worried about intros. My current rat Does Not Like Change.
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Feb 20, 2016 00:45
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dovetaile posted:Ugh, one of my boys is a little sniffly (he sounds a lot like I am when i first wake-up) but I'm not sure if it's vet time or not. it has been really dry in our house lately and the heat's been on and other than the occasional sniffle, he's fine. Update! We had a vet appointment this morning and he's fine-lungs are clear and all that. Just need to get a humidifier. (And I found out he weighs 1 1/2 pounds. )
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Feb 20, 2016 02:07
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Dovetaile pretty sure we are gonna need pics of 1.5 lb rat. My very first rattie was a biggun too. His name was Fudge. He was the best rat.
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Feb 20, 2016 04:02
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RainbowCake posted:I get to take home my new rat tomorrow!
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Feb 20, 2016 05:45
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RainbowCake posted:I get to take home my new rat tomorrow! We were always fans of 'everybody gets a bath and then introduced in the tub' option in my house. It's neutral territory, nobody smells like themselves anyway, and they're all distracted. Win!
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Feb 20, 2016 06:23
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The "we're all in a slightly stressful situation together" factor works, too. I used to take all my boys on a trip to pick up new babies. I put them all in the carrier together. By the time we'd get home they would all be snuggle buddies. (Might depend on rat personalities)
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Feb 20, 2016 06:53
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I've got a bitey rat on my hands!! I recently got two little buddies from a rescue. They were both about 6-7 months old, and a bit nippy initially. I've had nibbly rats before and they tend to stop after they figure out you're not food. Over the course of this week, one has become super chill and friendly and while she isn't in love with being picked up or petted just yet, she's really curious and has more or less stopped the nipping. The other one is a lot less social, and likes to hang out in the little hammocks and hanging things in the cage almost exclusively. If your hand lingers anywhere near these spots, she will bite! It's not as bad as it could be, but she's broken the skin a couple of times. I've never had a bitey rat before. I managed to take her out of the cage for a decent amount of time the other day and she was fine, albeit obviously nervous; she only bit me, pretty harmlessly, towards the end when I unthinkingly moved fast to pet her while she was under a blanket, being used to doing this with my other rats. I've only had them since Friday and she's obviously really nervous and shy. Is there anything I can do to get her more used to me or the new environment and less bitey? I'm getting a lot more nervous around the cage since sometimes I'm playing with another rat and not realize I've got too close to her until she's bit me again.
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Feb 24, 2016 05:33
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My breeder has had several batches of adorable babies and we are starting to want more rats. It’ll involve a bigger cage and doing introductions for the first time – which I’m kind of nervous about even though my current two are the sweetest girls ever – but babies.
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Feb 24, 2016 16:15
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At what point do I change from "young rat" food to "adult rat" food? Does it matter? I notice Mazuri doesn't even make a difference, they just sell rat food. But Oxbow is so much cheaper on Amazon and they seperate them. The pet store told me they feed their rats the Oxbow young rat food, so I got them that to start, but now that I got a bag of the adult rat food they like it way more. Putting both in their bowl, they will instantly devour all the adult rat food then leave the young rat food alone for over a day before munching on it.
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Feb 27, 2016 01:21
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I have never heard of such a thing as young rat food. I'd just switch to the one they like.
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Feb 27, 2016 02:42
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Oxbow separates it into young food at under 6 months and adult food at 6mo+. I believe the difference is protein and/or fat content. My girls eat adult regal rat too.
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Feb 27, 2016 15:58
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 Sorry for the terrible quality, phone camera doesn't like low light. This is the closest they've gotten all week Pico has been desperately wanting cuddles and friendship and Nano has been wanting nothing to do with her. I'm so proud of my dumb neurotic shithead for letting the small annoying wiggly thing get so close to her without squeaking and squabbling 
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Feb 27, 2016 21:17
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redcheval posted:I've got a bitey rat on my hands!! You can attempt to train them to not bite by squeaking loudly when they do so. Basically try to imitate the sounds the rats make when they get a little too rough with each other. It'll let them know they're hurting you.
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Feb 27, 2016 22:38
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buffybot posted:You can attempt to train them to not bite by squeaking loudly when they do so. Basically try to imitate the sounds the rats make when they get a little too rough with each other. It'll let them know they're hurting you. I've been doing this lately among other things and it's coming along really well! For the most part I've been leaving her alone because I don't want her to have unpleasant experiences or feel really terrified, and I've only pulled her out of the cage when she's already out and about inside the cage. Once she's out with the other two rats she seems a lot more comfortable, and is still nippy but in a much gentler, 'what is your leg/arm' type of a way. She's obviously still nervous, but coming around! The best part of getting this new pair is how happy Inky seems to be to have friends again. It's way too adorable.
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Feb 29, 2016 02:26
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I got new rats! We took a year off because it's sad, but I decided I needed some rats again. Found some on Craigslist and my daughter and I picked them up. She picked them out and named them. Meet Strawberry and Lucy:
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Mar 12, 2016 18:20
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HungryMedusa, those babies are adorable! Uugh, I took my boys to the vet Thursday where they both got a script for baytril and since then one of my boys (the one who had been sneezing and snuffling before) has been doing it even more often since he got on the meds. My doctor didn't say anything about how it was progressing so I assume that means it's still within the treatment window. He's still eating and drinking at least but the noises he's making are very worrisome.
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Mar 13, 2016 11:39
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 After almost 3 grueling weeks, these little assholes are finally friends  Having two rats is so much more fun than having one rat. The person who told us to only get one has no goddamn clue RainbowCake fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 18, 2016 23:28
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RainbowCake posted:
Cute ratties. :3 Also, nobody should ever EVER get less than 2 rats. Rats are incredibly susceptible to falling into depression and getting sick (often with very bad results) when they're alone.
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Mar 19, 2016 04:57
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My husband and I were kind of pressured into getting a rat by someone (to grossly oversimplify it). Long stupid pointless story short, this person gave us some incredibly terrible advice and actively pushed us to only get one rat. Some months and internet learnin' later Nano got Pico. She was a bundle of neuroses who by then had forgotten how to rat, so it took her a while to warm up to the baby, but she does seem to be happier now
RainbowCake fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 05:12
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RainbowCake posted:My husband and I were kind of pressured into getting a rat by someone (to grossly oversimplify it). Long stupid pointless story short, this person gave us some incredibly terrible advice and actively pushed us to only get one rat. After one of the boys in my previous pair got sick and sadly passed away I couldn't find another playmate for the boy that was left for two months. There are very few rat breeders in my country and none of the ones I found had any babies for sale yet. By the time I found a new pair of boys to be his playmate (had to take 5-hour train there) my boy was so anxious around them that every time they tried to play with him he would run across the whole room and tug on my pants so that I could "save" him from the playful babies. Fortunately they warmed up to each other after a while and I had a pleasure to enjoy seeing some cute rat piles. I've still got some old pictures of them together:  
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Mar 19, 2016 07:00
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Peculiar situation developing with one of my older ladies. She's ~26 months and about a week ago I noticed a fairly firm lump around the base of her tail (dorsal side) with some scabbing. It's got kind of an irregular shape to it. Anyway, took her to the vet, so now she's on baytril and metacam, few days now. Basically I'm looking for a reasonably surefire way to tell if it's an abcess, a tumor, or something....completely different. The placement suggests to me it's not a mammary tumor, whatever else it is. It was bleeding/weeping a bit last night so I cleaned it as best I could. She doesn't seem to bothered by it, scabbing notwithstanding. Anyone got any ideas? I had a case a few rats ago where a little lady got a mammary tumor basically right down in her groin area and there wound up being an abcess kind of inside the tumor, basically, so I think it might be something like that, but again, the placement is just nothing like I've ever seen before.
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Mar 21, 2016 23:38
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You say it's weeping? Does it smell horrible? If so, it's probably an abscess. The vet should be able to aspirate it and see if any pus comes out.
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Mar 22, 2016 00:56
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Both the rescue rats have bitten me pretty badly since my last post. Even letting them walk up and sniff you may result in a nasty bite for no reason. At my wit's end a bit. Do I just get gloves and manhandle them (gently!) until they stop? Is there anything else I can do? It seems totally unpredictable when it happens.
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Mar 24, 2016 02:32
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That really sucks. I've had a lot of rats over the years, but only limited experience with chronic biters because they're pretty rare. I'll share that experience, and what I remember of the research I did at the time to deal with the problem, but I can't make any promises of how useful it's going to be. A girlfriend of mine once adopted a biter from an acquaintance. The poor thing had been kept like a goldfish in a small glass cage with no companionship, regular playtime, or even much interaction with people. She'd never had rats before, but she was determined to turn his life around so I helped her how I could. The key here was patience. At first, he didn't even want to leave the cage we got him, and if we tried to reach in to interact with him he'd give a brief warning that he was going to bite - and then he'd follow through on that warning, pretty hard. We had to earn his trust literally inch by inch, as we would lure him out of his cage with treats and slowly get him used to the idea of our hands as the bearers of food. Sometimes the process of just getting him to take a single treat would take over an hour. Patience was key, really. Vinnie (that was his name) was a fear biter, which is usually the reason rats bite people. You say that your rats have bitten you for no reason, but you're probably mistaken - rats are smart enough that they don't bite out of instinct like some other small animals, when they bite it's absolutely a conscious choice. (Aggressive rats do exist, but they're even more rare than fear biters are.) Using gloves or a towel to help interact with your rats, to protect you while you get them used to the idea of positive interactions with people, can help a lot with the process - at the very least, they'll make *you* less nervous. When biting does occur, try to figure out any commonalities in the situation that provoked the biting and work from there to earn the rats' trust. Particularly if it's a fear response, you also need to show the rats that their biting does NOT work, and that they ARE going to be handled whether they like it or not. Rats use survival strategies that work, and if they learn that biting just plain doesn't work, they'll look for other methods of coping with difficult situations. Are your rats males or females? Bucks in their first year will sometimes (again, super rare) be more territorial than normal thanks to hormonal issues. This can make them reluctant to accept you as their alpha, and attempt to put you in your place through biting when you try to show dominance over them (picking them up, btw, is absolutely a show of dominance.) This sort of problem is usually dealt with the same way as I've outlined above, though if you want to get them fixed that can speed up the process. It probably doesn't need to be said, but you also shouldn't let other people handle your rats until the biting problem is dealt with, at least not without a very clear warning. I hope this is helpful on some level. Good luck!
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Mar 25, 2016 10:04
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Thanks for that post, Falstaff, it was incredibly helpful. They're both girls! One of them (Livia) is much worse than the other in terms of biting, and is generally a lot more fearful. Poppaea is much more friendly, always runs up to the cage bars and comes down for treats and is a lot better about being handled, although she's still afraid of being picked up. Livia will spend as much time as possible holed up in tunnels/hammocks/pods and if you even casually linger anywhere where she can reach you from her hidey-hole, she'll pop out and bite. On the rare occasions I've managed to get all of them out of the cage and free roaming a bit, she'll sometimes walk up to me, sniff around, and then bite my arm (or whatever's in reach) without any seeming warning, although these bites are a lot more scary than they are actually painful. I think the slow, patient route might be the best solution here... Unless she's really feeling up to it, she'll staunchly refuse to actually come out/to the bottom of the cage to get treats, even when the other two are getting their fill because they're coming to the cage door to get them. Poppaea's worst bite was when I was petting her (inside the cage) pretty much like normal, and it totally took me by surprise. Didn't break the skin but was somehow super painful. I'm not sure if she just got carried away or if I just got carried away or what exactly happened there, but I try now not to ever surprise them. Livia seems a lot more like she's biting so she can be left alone and because she's scared. These are my fourth pair of rats, and I've never had one bite me beyond accidental nips thinking I had food or whatever, so it's totally new ground for me. I think with Livia especially she just needs time and patience! Poppaea is a lot more curious and sweeter, and also bites less in general, so hopefully it's a matter of getting comfortable and learning that biting or nibbling just isn't cool.
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Mar 29, 2016 23:14
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| # ? May 18, 2024 00:24 |
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Vincent was a biter, but only when he was laying in his sleeping spot. I just learned to accept that he was more territorial than his brother and didn't bother him when he was in his "burrow". He was friendly any other time besides that.
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Apr 1, 2016 16:55
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