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Isn't that what an emergency spay is? Spaying an animal that's already pregnant? Or are you saying take her in for an abortion/spay so that it doesn't become an emergency situation?
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Jun 28, 2010 01:55
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A Jeopardy contestant just informed Alex Trebek that he had a blue rat, and that the blue ones are "the smartest, friendliest species of rat!" 
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Jul 20, 2010 00:43
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eig posted:will it have a cover? cause they can scale that :] i don't see why taking them outside would be an issue otherwise. If they're supervised, I would think this isn't too much of a problem. I had one climber and one non-climber, and the only time there was ever an issue was when I made the mistake of walking away for two minutes when I had it set up indoors. The climber had made the leap to the nearby couch and from there to the floor, and had scuttled under an armchair and wouldn't come out. Of course this was a day when I was all dressed up to go to someplace and had a skirt and heels on. He wasn't fast enough to make it up and over before I could grab him if I was watching.
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Jul 26, 2010 00:38
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First Time Caller posted:Should I keep the second food dish & water bottle up there for him or not? I fear if I take those away he won't use the ones on the bottom level and just go hungry and get dehydrated Rats are pretty dedicated to keeping themselves fed, he won't starve himself. I had one boy who would camp out on the top shelf too. They are nocturnal animals after all, so he'll probably come down and eat and drink tonight.
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Jul 26, 2010 03:33
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Whenever I see a rodent with gigantic balls who has been misidentified as female, I have to wonder what the person sexing the animal thought those two giant things were, exactly, if not testicles. 
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Jul 28, 2010 00:55
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Skutter posted:Ovaries go on the outside, right? Those are pedipalps, duh. 
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Jul 28, 2010 02:17
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My exotics vet put together small flat-tip syringes with the correct dosage of ivermectin for each of my boys to be put on the back of the neck, very cheaply. It might be worth it if you're not experienced with measuring medications to call an exotics vet and see if they would do this for you without the cost of a full exam. Sometimes the vets can be astonishingly flexible with that kind of thing.
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Aug 3, 2010 22:22
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daggerdragon posted:Wanna smush face into baby ratty pile Most of my pictures of my rats and Charlie were just Charlie going "Ugh, gross."
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Aug 10, 2010 22:26
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I love pictures of rats with other pets 
oh god what is this thing it's moving and furry what do I do
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Nebalebadingdong posted:I have a rubber rat. I was taking Boo out of the cage for cleaning when the phone rang and scared the crap out of both of us. She flew from my arms, bounced off the dining room table and ricocheted off the chair and bounded off the floor like a beach ball. Van Buren once bounced down the stairs and off a door when I tripped while carrying him. I was bruised up pretty badly; he wandered off to explore.
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Sep 20, 2010 22:53
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Also, will chew holes in your clothes if you are posting on the internet when they decide they want attention.
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Oct 15, 2010 00:25
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Indigestable posted:Is it normal for male rats to make a lot more noise than females? It isn't loud but Zinc does this really low almost-squeak, mostly when he seems to be happy. It varies between the almost-squeak and a sort of "hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo" laughing kind of noise that I've never heard from my girls. I user to have one super noisy rat and one super quiet rat, both boys. I think it's a personality thing.
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Nov 2, 2010 01:30
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daggerdragon posted:Let's just say they'll only try sticking their paws through the bars once or twice. Rats do have a built-in defense mechanism: their teeth. Husband noses pressed against the bars elicit a similar response to cat paws, and let me tell you, he only did that the once 
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Nov 15, 2010 23:05
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ElectricSquire posted:I was reading a book recently where one of the footnotes mentioned that a researcher who was being interviewed in the book had previously done experiments that involved dressing male rats in tiny pants and seeing how the type of fabric affected their mating habits. Apparently rats in polyester pants don't get laid as much as the ones in cotton. Who knew?
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Nov 18, 2010 02:32
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Dr. Spaceman posted:This book sounds rad. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach. Read all four of her books, they are all well worth the price.
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Nov 18, 2010 23:41
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I was pulling the Thanksgiving turkeys out of the deep freeze to start thawing today and discovered a bag of leftover Harlan Teklad rat blocks tucked in a corner. They've got to be over a year and a half old, but they've been frozen at a pretty low temperature, so I would guess they're still good. I had considered donating the stuff after van Buren died, but none of the local shelters were interested. What should I do with this stuff?
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Nov 20, 2010 22:41
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Superconsndar posted:I'm sure squirrels would appreciate it as a nice boost to their winter diets maybe I hate the loving squirrels in my neighborhood  But yeah, that's probably the best use for it. Maybe it will keep them away from my bird feeders.
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Nov 21, 2010 00:11
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Serella posted:Who are you kidding Only myself 
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Nov 22, 2010 01:20
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Superconsndar posted:Yeah, this. That kind of handling might set back a completely unsocialized rat a bit, but the average pet will get over it in about 30 seconds. The hundreds I've done it to over the years certainly haven't minded. Unfortunately I have reason to believe that forcing medicine into Atahualpa may have contributed to his death  He fought me really hard when I was trying to treat his pneumonia, which was amazing given how lethargic he was the rest of the time, and the vet suspected that he may have done himself some kind of harm which resulted in a neurological episode (stroke or similar) that paralyzed the back half of his body. I'm sure for 999 out of 1000 rats there's no reason at all to worry about that, but it still made me feel pretty bad that I might have caused him to hurt himself like that.
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Dec 3, 2010 03:34
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Well, I scattered a few handfuls of the lab block along the railing in front of our picture window. Haven't spotted any squirrels checking it out yet, but we were putting up Christmas lights today, so they probably stayed away because of that. If they don't eat this stuff, I may just stir it into the compost heap and call it quits.
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Dec 6, 2010 03:22
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Big Bug Hug posted:No matter the size of the box or the number of rats, they will ALL fit in there. Its the rules. I guess mine were broken, then, or something, because when they grew out of their original nest box they would just take turns sleeping in it. Then when I replaced it with a larger one they took to sleeping on top of it
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Dec 12, 2010 17:55
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Big Bug Hug posted:Offer him treats EVERY time you walk by. Open the door and offer a treat at the box he's hiding in. Then try get him to come out to give him the treats. Soon he'll be running up to the door every time you approach. At least say hi to him every time you see him. Give it a little time and I guarantee he'll come out of his shell. Pretty much this. When I got my pair they were both pretty skittish, and before long every time I opened the cage door, this is what greeted me.  I miss those guys. I made the mistake of mentioning I used to have pet rats to my father-in-law a couple of days ago, and he proceeded to tell me about the pregnant female rat he poisoned in his woodshed
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Dec 18, 2010 05:07
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squidtarts posted:I saw the preview of that last night. While they were showing the rats swarming around a man in an attempt to evoke horror, all I could think is how cuddly that rat pile must be. It's like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where they're down in the sewer with all the rats - any inkling of horror I might have had watching that was blown away when I watched a behind-the-scenes interview where they mentioned all the rats were hand-raised and totally tame. There's even some footage of Harrison Ford playing with one
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Jan 5, 2011 00:38
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Amiss posted:MUST FIND. It's on the special features disc that came with the box set of the first three films. I think at one point he starts telling the rat what its motivation is for the scene.
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Jan 8, 2011 00:06
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One of my dad's friends mentioned that her daughter was interested in rats, and he apparently scared her a bit by mentioning that mine smelled. Towards the end of his life van Buren did get pretty stinky, I'll admit, but he was an old man after all. Her daughter still really wants them, and Dad feels bad about potentially swaying his friend away from letting her get them, so he asked me to do a little write-up of why rats are good pets. I suggested that if the idea of the buck smell bothered her, his friend should go for females. I recommended a trio instead of a pair, gave the usual "find a breeder or rescue" advice, and mentioned that while the females don't smell as much, they aren't as chill. I haven't heard back definitively, but I think it may have worked  I told him I wanted pictures if the gal and her daughter ended up with some rats, and I will share them with you guys if/when that happens.
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Jan 12, 2011 02:52
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sadus posted:I had pet mice before rats - to me it seems like rats live a really long time. "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" and all that. My pet mouse lived to be four, which is a good deal longer than either of the rats I had, so I guess mileage varies.
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Jan 17, 2011 18:30
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Mongoloid Joe posted:Hey guys. Has anyone ever had trouble getting their ratties to eat Oxbow's Regal Rat? I've tried and gone through several bags of just having it collect dust in the food bowl. It's gotten to the point where my girls starve themselves because they refuse to touch it. What's wrong with feeding them fresh? There are lots of good recipes for complete rat diets out there, to make sure they get all their nutrition. They don't eat the block because it doesn't taste good.
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Jan 30, 2011 16:44
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Actually chocolate is not terribly bad for rats. 
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Feb 16, 2011 00:06
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Mongoloid Joe posted:ok, but how about conversation hearts?..which is what I'd really like to give them... I bet they would really like them because they're crunchy, and Big Bug Hug is right - a little sugar isn't going to hurt them. On the chewable furniture, I got van Buren a chewable hollow log thing and used to stuff treats in it for him to forage. He hardly ever chewed on the actual log unless he was trying to dig something out of it, and only a tiny bit then. He never actually consumed any of it.
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Feb 17, 2011 03:30
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polyfractal posted:Do people commonly get their males neutered for reasons other than aggression (smell, etc)? Or is it really only done as a last-resort sort of thing? I think some people like to keep mixed-sex groups, and it's easiest to get the males neutered. I know I've read a few places that a neutered male and a female is one of the least drama-infused pairings you can keep.
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Feb 21, 2011 21:01
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Superconsndar posted:Most of them mean well and it isn't malicious, they just don't really see the bigger picture. I was reading somewhere about a company that supplies GM rats for laboratory study, and one strain they offer has the genes responsible for certain specific cancers turned on (for cancer research, naturally). I had to wonder if they could similarly provide rats with all the genes turned off. I know cancer doesn't exactly work that way, but they've isolated a few genes that are known to cause certain cancers, so maybe they can make a rat who is less genetically predisposed to get those types of cancer? The rats from this company are pretty expensive, but I wondered if it would be worth it in the long run to have some breeding stock with precisely determined genetics.
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Feb 25, 2011 23:53
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Some of the same companies that provide GM rats do genetic analysis of outside lines. Again, cost might be prohibitive, but it's entirely possible that you could have ~*^Fancy Kolor^*~ rats analyzed and only breed the ones with a clean genetic workup to your plain PEW lab rats. If I ever win the lottery, I will fund you to do this. I have no interest in breeding (either myself or an animal), but if I was rich I would totally be the patron of a super-scientific program aimed at making rats that consistently live to 5 or 6 with no tumors
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Feb 26, 2011 01:35
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Nebalebadingdong posted:Christ, I feel like a bad person just posting this I gave up after a single pair, it was just too heartbreaking.
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Mar 22, 2011 03:38
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Pickle Chops posted:I bought some baby food in the hope it would bulk my boy up a bit. (I am taking him to the vet next week!) But it would seem that he doesn't like roast chicken n veg flavour I've yet to meet a rodent that didn't like peanut butter, and it's very calorie dense, so you could try mixing some in. Straight-up PB is a bit of a choking hazard since it's so thick, but the strong smell/flavor of it might make him go for the baby food more?
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Mar 26, 2011 16:13
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Do I just buy others and hope he eventually likes one?
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Xeras posted:I need some dietary advice for my rat. He won't eat lab blocks, he won't chew on anything that would grind his teeth down. What can I get him to work on his teeth? Bones are probably the best thing.
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Jun 28, 2011 02:28
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Sounds like it's pudding-smearing time for Alhara
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Jul 23, 2011 16:57
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It also kind of sounds like the previous owner might not have handled him that much, since she rehomed him due to lack of time for his care. Alhara may just need to start over from a socialization standpoint and treat this little guy like he's fresh from the feeder tank.
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Jul 23, 2011 23:34
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dustbin posted:Seeing rats frolicking on beds always makes me want to put them in mind, but I don't want piddle in my bed. I used to just toss one of my $4 fleece blankets from IKEA over top of my comforter. The boys eventually got better about peeing on stuff and I stopped bothering with the blanket. They liked to hide behind my pillow and peek out at me
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Aug 13, 2011 16:57
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CompactFanny posted:My girl rats used to love jingle balls. We'd buy a couple packs in the cat section and give them one at a time, they loved carrying them around. A few days (hours...) later, SUCCESS they have removed the jingler!!!! So I gave them another ball. My boys were the same way. They liked the hard rubber ones best. They would chew like maniacs until the hole was big enough to extract the bell, then give up on the ball until I put in a new jingly one.
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Sep 9, 2011 02:09
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eig posted:i'm sorry but who would pay that much money for a pet that lives only like 2 years u__u A lot of times they only live two years because they get tumors.
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Sep 23, 2011 02:37
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 16:22 |
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pyriphlegethon posted:my little baby is worrying me so much! First I was allergic to him (which seems to have completely cleared up, but my partner is noticing it too), and then i noticed some scabs on his back, and now he's sneezing like crazy! He's such a little sweetheart, I'll be way bummed if he gets sick. He probably has mites and a respiratory infection. Take him to the vet and get some ivermectin and antibiotics, and he should be right as rain very quickly. Don't let it get worse.
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Oct 9, 2011 02:51
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