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Beat the Heat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJhGwDkWgH0
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Jun 25, 2018 21:01
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| # ? May 16, 2024 15:46 |
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Ahaha them just pulling the huge chunk of peas out all at once, so cute.
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Jun 25, 2018 23:52
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Erotic Wakes posted:Ahaha them just pulling the huge chunk of peas out all at once, so cute. I'm very fond of Ratthew sticking his head in at the end.
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Jun 25, 2018 23:56
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The best is when they have to stop eating because their paws are wet and must be cleaned.  We just made a dig box for our boys. They are having fun just digging right now, but we'd love to hide treats in it. What do you all think would be good? Can they eat roasted peanuts or sunflower seeds (obviously in small quantities)? I'm sure they wouldn't mind but I don't want them eating a bunch of dirt-covered food.
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Jun 26, 2018 02:44
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Skutter posted:The best is when they have to stop eating because their paws are wet and must be cleaned. Dog biscuits.
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Jun 26, 2018 05:22
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Very cute ratters. :3
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Jun 29, 2018 21:58
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I showed that video to people at work the other day and today they requested a live stream of more pea fishing and all gathered around an office computer to watch.
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Jun 29, 2018 23:16
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Top tip for cooling hot rats, a quart sized ziploc filled with water and frozen will last a whole day in the cage.
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Jul 2, 2018 20:30
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until they chew a hole in it  my girls ruined several plastic bottles and containers i used for ice
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Jul 2, 2018 21:41
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Yeah, I protected an ice pack with a triple layer of bag, cloth, bag, and they still nearly got through it. They did chew into the bag this time but it turned out OK. I'm thinking tupperware next time.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:03
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Yeah I froze a water bottle for my boys once and they chewed a hole through it making a big mess.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:06
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Metal would be good but I don't have anything handy.
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Jul 2, 2018 22:08
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete
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Jul 3, 2018 01:08
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Get a solid aluminum flask with cap and freeze it 3/4 full of water
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Jul 3, 2018 03:07
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OK I have finally had good results with lock&lock clone tupperware type things filled with water and frozen. They quickly stopped trying to bite into it because the plastic is too thick and they huddle around it when they need to cool down. Plus if they ever did get into it I know the contents aren't toxic.
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Jul 9, 2018 16:04
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Jaded Burnout posted:OK I have finally had good results with lock&lock clone tupperware type things filled with water and frozen. They quickly stopped trying to bite into it because the plastic is too thick and they huddle around it when they need to cool down. Plus if they ever did get into it I know the contents aren't toxic. That's a good idea. They will still find a way to make a hole in it eventually though, I'd bet on that.
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Jul 9, 2018 18:54
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Jack Trades posted:That's a good idea. Nah, they seem to have a specific tolerance level for gnawing things after which they stop trying. The cables on my desk are testament to that, they don't bother chewing the ones in protective sleeves anymore, even though they could get in if they really want to.
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Jul 9, 2018 19:13
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Like a month plus after asking, i've finally added my rat crew tag. Bonus content: Fat Betty boy cruising in his spaceball.
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Jul 9, 2018 21:46
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Paladine_PSoT posted:Like a month plus after asking, i've finally added my rat crew tag. Bonus content: Fat Betty boy cruising in his spaceball. Chunky :3
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Jul 9, 2018 21:47
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thicc i was worried finky was growing her tumor back but i think she's just starting to get neck fat like doshiko. and doshiko is over a pound now  please. i feed you both the same things. what is wrong with you
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Jul 9, 2018 22:51
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Rat tumors: How do you handle these? My mama rat has one that's probably the size of a golfball under her right armpit but she doesn't seem to be bothered by it and it appears to be completely benign.
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Jul 9, 2018 23:04
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we dropped like $700 on finky. the first place for an exam was like $150 and they were just... ugh. scheduled the surgery but wasn't feeling good about it. i went to the vet i took my guinea pigs to back in the day and got a better price and same-day surgery for her. we (barely) had the money for it so morally we felt like we had to remove it, especially bc she was so young at the time. we weren't gonna cut her life short just because it ate up most of our savings. afaik it was benign and about 1 inch in diameter. we're doing better financially now so we could handle another one but i honestly don't know if she would handle it okay, since she's over a year old now. i don't think i would put her through it again. she did amazing though and the vet was good, and i never left them a good yelp review  it's basically dependent on your situation, the age of the rat, and their overall health. eventually i think the tumors take so many calories to maintain that they start losing weight, benign or not. snoo fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jul 9, 2018 |
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Jul 9, 2018 23:35
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The Snoo posted:thicc Fat rats are the best rats. lil' tummy pudge perfect for kisses.
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Jul 10, 2018 02:00
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 The most pro of tips- never allow clothing you still want within a literal inch of your rat cage.
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Jul 15, 2018 06:36
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Yep, that's one of the first lessons you learn as a rat owner. Your clothes WILL get chewed.
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Jul 15, 2018 07:06
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Free assless chaps.
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Jul 18, 2018 00:31
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Fished one of my rats out from behind my PC again, same one as last time, this time I think he was sleeping in a box on the desk and one of the other rats pushed him off.
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Jul 20, 2018 19:50
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Jaded Burnout posted:Fished one of my rats out from behind my PC again, same one as last time, this time I think he was sleeping in a box on the desk and one of the other rats pushed him off. Awwe, poor baby.
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Jul 20, 2018 19:51
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https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3229729&pagenumber=121#post486355716 I don't want to crowd up all the animal threads. I'm the stereotype of my arms getting strong when I can't walk. I have a space for the cage and I've read the OP. Do you think rats are a good candidate? I don't want them if they couldn't be cared for.
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Jul 25, 2018 07:16
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craig588 posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3229729&pagenumber=121#post486355716 I don't want to crowd up all the animal threads. I'm the stereotype of my arms getting strong when I can't walk. I have a space for the cage and I've read the OP. Do you think rats are a good candidate? I don't want them if they couldn't be cared for.
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Jul 25, 2018 09:50
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craig588 posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3229729&pagenumber=121#post486355716 I don't want to crowd up all the animal threads. I'm the stereotype of my arms getting strong when I can't walk. I have a space for the cage and I've read the OP. Do you think rats are a good candidate? I don't want them if they couldn't be cared for. The vast majority of the interactions I have with my rats are sat down, to the point where they actually don't like it if I stand up and walk around with them on my shoulders. That said that's not super typical, other people's rats seem to like being trucked around, but I can't imagine they're going to care the difference between a shoulder perch on a walking human vs a rolling one. The things that come to mind are: 1. Make sure you set up the cage in such a way that you can access all of it from your chair for cleaning and such. 2. Consider your cage choice, the one I have is a good size for my 4 rats but it's a huge pain to move because it's heavy and bulky, so be wary of that if you're planning on doing it on your own. 3. Have a think about your normal mobility and what happens if a rat makes a bad jump and gets lost behind a bookcase. 4. For play time my rats actually spend most of their time on my (fairly large) desk, but the key is they need a fairly large flat space of some kind that isn't their cage. So you may want to think about how you'd go about playing with them, usually people fence off an area and sit on the floor, though anything works really so long as the rats are safe, they can access you, and you can come and go without them running out. So I guess to condense that, think about mobility for cage setup and maintenance, for tracking down and rescuing escaped rats, and for setting up and accessing their play area. You know your limits better than anyone else, so if this sounds workable or you have a strong support structure at short notice then I don't see any issue with it.
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Jul 25, 2018 10:05
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In terms of boredom and sociability, it's my understanding that rats get a lot more out of being with another rat than with people; if you don't have a single rat living by itself, it shouldn't be that big a deal if you don't play with them outside the cage much. Furthermore, rats have such bad eyesight that they can't really see the floor when they're on a table or desk, so they're unlikely to jump or quickly climb down to the floor unexpectedly. Key word here is "unlikely:" one of our rats was almost suicidally adventurous and would have no qualms about trying to leap off my shoulders the moment I stopped bribing her with food.
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Jul 25, 2018 14:41
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DKD posted:Furthermore, rats have such bad eyesight that they can't really see the floor when they're on a table or desk, so they're unlikely to jump or quickly climb down to the floor unexpectedly. Key word here is "unlikely:" one of our rats was almost suicidally adventurous and would have no qualms about trying to leap off my shoulders the moment I stopped bribing her with food. I can back this up, my rats have never shown enough interest or bravery in leaving my desk unless they can use me as a bridge. I've only had a floor rat twice so far and that's the same rat falling off accidentally. I've also found that they won't climb down any (near-)vertical surface except when desperate, even the ones they're very comfortable climbing up, I guess because they don't have any rear-facing claws.
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Jul 25, 2018 14:46
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One more thing on rats who fail to slip the surly bonds of earth: I've found that when our rats have a sudden fall into somewhere they're not already super comfortable, they will bolt to shelter and stay in place. While this may mean you have to fish them out from under a bookshelf, it also means that they'll be relatively easy to find. Once, we left the cage door loosely secured; one of our girls apparently climbed up on the door, which swung open like a drawbridge. We heard it happen from the other room, saw she was missing, and immediately panicked and ran around picking up all the roach and ant traps, putting towels under the doors so she wouldn't escape the apartment, etc. We shouldn't have bothered; she was huddled in a pile of laundry near the cage, too busy hyperventilating to get into any mischief. For extra security, feed your rats so many treats they don't go faster than a fast waddle: not only will it make them less able to bolt off into the unknown, it turns out that a rat's cuteness is almost directly proportional to their chubbiness. (Besides, when their time comes, it's not the obesity that will get them.)
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Jul 25, 2018 15:07
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DKD posted:One more thing on rats who fail to slip the surly bonds of earth: I've found that when our rats have a sudden fall into somewhere they're not already super comfortable, they will bolt to shelter and stay in place. While this may mean you have to fish them out from under a bookshelf, it also means that they'll be relatively easy to find. Once, we left the cage door loosely secured; one of our girls apparently climbed up on the door, which swung open like a drawbridge. We heard it happen from the other room, saw she was missing, and immediately panicked and ran around picking up all the roach and ant traps, putting towels under the doors so she wouldn't escape the apartment, etc. We shouldn't have bothered; she was huddled in a pile of laundry near the cage, too busy hyperventilating to get into any mischief. For extra security, feed your rats so many treats they don't go faster than a fast waddle: not only will it make them less able to bolt off into the unknown, it turns out that a rat's cuteness is almost directly proportional to their chubbiness. (Besides, when their time comes, it's not the obesity that will get them.) Same. I've started putting a few of the boxes that they usually hang out in on the floor in strategic places, so if one falls again hopefully it'll bolt into there rather than underneath my PC.
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Jul 25, 2018 16:48
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DKD posted:Furthermore, rats have such bad eyesight that they can't really see the floor when they're on a table or desk, so they're unlikely to jump or quickly climb down to the floor unexpectedly. Key word here is "unlikely:" one of our rats was almost suicidally adventurous and would have no qualms about trying to leap off my shoulders the moment I stopped bribing her with food. It’s important to note too (I think) that rats aren’t usually going to bolt the minute you set them down somewhere or if you left the cage door open by accident. The three out of the four of the rats I’ve had, although they can be a little nervous, have been pretty good about learning to stay close to me when I take them out and normally return to me when I coax them out of or away from strange dark corners. My late rat Cream was honestly a little afraid the floor since i only ever put her on sheets or areas other than the carpet. My favorite one though, Cookie, she’s way more energetic and curious than the others and will often dart back to whatever area I was trying to keep her away from- using a serpentine pattern to throw me off  she’s the only rat I’ve had brave enough to climb vertically down out of curiosity lolOut of the four though only the one has been more of a handful when out of the cage, is what I’m trying to say. Even then though I’ve never “lost” any of them. And also any time I’ve left the cage open by accident they’re usually easily located within an area a foot or two away from the cage. e: if all else fails they’ll learn to run to you fast when they hear a sound resembling a treat bag being shook. Starman Super DX fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Jul 25, 2018 |
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Jul 25, 2018 16:53
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Starman Super DX posted:And also any time I’ve left the cage open by accident they’re usually easily located within an area a foot or two away from the cage. For sure. My rats have 24/7 access to the top of their cage, so if they really really wanted to get out they could climb down the cage (or do some leaps) and go straight out the usually open window. But they don't.
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Jul 25, 2018 17:33
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I need to build some area for them to interact with me. I came up with a big 6+ foot cage shelf but they would have no interaction area with me. Cleaning a cage is no problem I already clean stuff and I've kind of tested a cage analog but I will be in a wheelchair 24/7 so no floor area will be safe for them. If they jump that's one issue, but their normal area can't be around the floor. Do you think a big table/shelf would be good? My house is small but I find ways to get stuff in. (The doorways are just big enough for the wheelchair, but I make them work) Thanks for the info, I'm considering new things so that's good.
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Jul 25, 2018 18:01
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DKD posted:For extra security, feed your rats so many treats they don't go faster than a fast waddle: not only will it make them less able to bolt off into the unknown, it turns out that a rat's cuteness is almost directly proportional to their chubbiness. That is so extremely true. Fat ratkids are the best.
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Jul 25, 2018 19:44
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| # ? May 16, 2024 15:46 |
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I took one of mine to the vets today. "Well his testicles have definitely matured".
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Jul 25, 2018 19:56
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