Pet rats? Tips....stories....advice please

gingin_2

After a previous thread about pets for a small child I was stunned by the almost unanimous votes for rats. I'd never considered them but we've done lots of research since and I have to admit that I've been swayed, they seem to tick every box. Even the videos of them on youtube look very cute - we'd love to be able to train them and they do look very friendly.

They would be primarily my daughter's responsibility, she's a sensible girl and I will supervise.

Does anyone have any tips? We'd like to get a pair from babies, I am seeing conflicting reports on a male or female. I don't want the stress of them fighting which is more likely with males but they are supposed to be easier to handle for children? What about cages? What size is best?


Any stories from rat owners will be read with interest It seems that nobody seems to fault them, are there any pitfalls I should know about?

Thanks

Fosterdog

I've had well over 200 rats over the last 15 years and can honestly say I've never had a problem with males fighting. Actually I have but never with boys from the same litter raised together, maybe I've just been lucky but even when I've merged two groups of older males I've never had too much of a problem with fighting other than some basic bickering to sort out their hierarchy. The only one I had who couldn't merge was a special needs boy who had serious issues.

How old did you say your daughter was?

As I said in the last thread males are more handleable (after the very young pinging around stage) but less active, they get fat easily and pee a lot more as they walk around scent marking. They have a certain musky smell to them (I happen to like it but some people don't). They are usually lazy and happy to sit and ride around on a shoulder or in the pouch of a hoody.

Girls are more fast paced, always on the go, fun to watch and hand wrestle with. They are still friendly and affectionate but don't sit still for long, somewhere for them to play and explore will keep them entertained. I've found girls to be more destructive and any toys made or bought for them barely last a week but they don't have the musky smell of males so are sometimes favourable just for that reason.

The Savic Freddy is my favourite cage for a small group as it has a nice big door, handles to lift the cage from the base and is very easy to clean. It is a good size for three to four rats. There are lots of bigger cages but I wouldn't recommend anything smaller.
http://www.londondogcompany.com/freddy-2-ratferret-cage-navy-blue-80x50x63cm-36632-p.asp

They are very popular so you can sometimes get a really good bargain on ebay for one.

At one stage in my old house before I got the dogs I had a whole room as a rat room. I had a huge play area filled with boxes and tubes, a small cat tree, wooden wine racks (climbing frame) etc. Whenever I was at home I would have a cage open with a group free ranging. They all knew their names and would follow me around the house, I did sometimes let them free range in the whole house and could stand on the stairs call their names and they'd all come scurrying back from wherever they were playing.
I had no electrical item's in their reach and nothing really of value they could destroy back then so I could do it. I would never do that now though.

As I said before if you PM me with what area of the country you are in I can put you in touch with a breeder, they are usually happy for you to go along and meet their rats and see their set up. You can handle males and females to get a better idea of what you want in a pet. Two or three of either is best so they have company.

Another option is to go along to a rat show here are some up and coming ones with the NFRS http://www.nfrs.org/shows.php?month=0&count=10
I know some of the people at these events so can recommend who to talk to at some of them

I know of someone who has two females looking for a pet home right now, the home they had lined up fell through so they are looking again, I've personally had rats from this breeder and they were certainly the friendliest rats I've ever had, completely bomb proof as pets and very well socialised when young.

The biggest pitfall with rats is 100% their short life span, that's the reason I'm not getting more for a while and am taking a break. I can't keep going through losing them so often. The average is 2-3 years but I've lost some as young as 6 months and had two live to 4 years.

Males can get hind leg paralysis as they age, either through kidney failure, stroke or pituitary tumour and females are prone to mammary tumours.

Please go to either a small animal rescue or a breeder if you do get some. Pet shop rats will not be well socialised and are not bred for health or temperament. They come from rodent factories where hundreds are kept in tiny cages and just used to breed repeatedly for the pet and snake food markets. Any pet shop that says they use a local breeder are usually lying. No responsible breeder will ever sell to a pet shop where they have no idea where they will end up. At the best they will come from an accidental litter so again not bred for health.

without-a-paddle

i have 4 boys, 2 were rescues (around a year old) then 2 12 week old boys were introduced. In the main, they get on well, occasional scuffle when the yoghurt covered fruit come out lol. My tip would be have the biggest cage you can fit in, i have modded 2 cages together so it stands around 5ft x 3ft, with plenty of things to climb up and exercise on when they are not free-ranging. I have water bottle and food at the bottom and the toilet at the top, to make sure they keep on the move, (yes they are toilet trained to a degree).

When you are starting the bonding process i found it helpful to put them in the room you use most, so they get plenty of interaction, also not too many hidey holes to start with because they will just hide( sounds cruel but you only need to do this for a few days ime).
Offering something yummy like yoghurt on a spoon is a good bonding tool, stretch in and let them come and lap, be patient, as they get braver(and you lol) offer yoghurt on your finger,( they tend to test bite to see if you are food, only had one !!!!!! who drew blood and still does if i'm not paying attention) When you want to pick them up it's best to scoop them from underneath rather than grabbing from above, less likely to receive a panicked bite (btw, some scream blue murder, don't drop them in surprise lol)...never grab their tails!. sorry, rambled on lol

Pupnik

I have rats, they make excellent pets. Both boys and girls have their pros and cons - boys are much more mellow and more easily handled, but they are smellier and harder to litter train. Girls are more playful and stay youthful and energetic for much longer, they don't smell and they are very easy to litter train. Both genders are very affectionate.

Make sure you get the best sized cage you can buy - one which is nice and tall to allow for hanging toys. There is a forum called Fancy Rats Forum which is full of advice about looking after rats.

Person_one

I'm currently ratless, but had them for years in the past. I always had girls, partly because i find the boys' disproportionately massive balls really unattractive (sorry, they're gorgeous in every other way!) but mainly because girls are so much more bouncy and active and its so much fun to see them interact and play.

The best tip I can give you is to buy the biggest cage you have room for and fill it with accessories for them to clamber and chase each other on. I can recommend the explorer, which has the advantage of small gaps between the bars so no escapes (a baby rat can easily squeeze through a gap of 2cm, as I learned to my cost with my first group!) here's a link, but you can alsp pick them up on ebay: http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&q=explorer+cage&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.d2k&bpcl=40096503&biw=1074&bih=586&wrapid=tlif135595556216610&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14962363899940007066&sa=X&ei=dT3SULCxM-ak0QX9yIGYDA&ved=0CDsQ8wIwAA

I would also suggest getting more than two, rats are very sociable and love to be in big groups. Also, with two, you can find yourself losing one unexpectedly or quite young and ending up with one very unhappy lonely rat. They don't do well on their own at all.

To get them used to me, I've always put the cage in a rat proofed room, sat on the floor and opened the cage door. In their own time, the ratties will venture out and explore, including exploring you! Keeping the cage in a busy area of the house is a good idea too.

Rats need 'free range' time preferably every day where they can run around outside their cage so you'll need an area where its safe to do this too.

I loved having rats, the only downside is that they just don't live long enough. I miss my rats.

gingin_2

Thanks everyone.

Fosterdog, she's almost 9.

Girls definitely sound like a better bet, smelly with big balls doesn't sound too appealing. We've got enough room for a generous cage.

Husband is not too keen and in a moment of weakness/ guilt, said we could get another cat instead, so we have an added dilemma. We can't do anything until end of january anyway, so we have a while to consier.

loubel

gingin wrote: »

Any stories from rat owners will be read with interest It seems that nobody seems to fault them, are there any pitfalls I should know about?

I've kept rats for years and love them. That said, you do need to be aware that they are not a cheap pet.

You need a very big cage and plenty of accessories to get you started and once you've got them you'll keep wanting to buy them more stuff and after a while some more rats too.

Rats are considered an exotic pet and many vets don't know very much about treating them so you do need to hunt down a good vet. Make sure you've got a vet fund to cover unexpected costs such as surgery or out of hours vet appointments which can easily run into 3 figures (most expensive vet bill we had was over £300 for emergency surgery and that was a discounted price!).

I would definitely recommend joining Fancy Rats for help and support.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

gingin wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

Fosterdog, she's almost 9.

Girls definitely sound like a better bet, smelly with big balls doesn't sound too appealing. We've got enough room for a generous cage.

Husband is not too keen and in a moment of weakness/ guilt, said we could get another cat instead, so we have an added dilemma. We can't do anything until end of january anyway, so we have a while to consier.

When does it ever?


Go and see them, handle them, talk to their breeders/enthusiasts - there are so many varieties, but be prepared to lose your heart to a little bundle of meepers.

Toomuchdebt

I started off with 3 rats..then added a rescue boy..and have now added 2 babies Just as well I ordered a new cage a few days ago.My 10 year old adores the rats-more so than any other pet we have.

muckybutt

gingin wrote: »

smelly with big balls doesn't sound too appealing.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::T

Sorry that made me chuckle

krlyr

Didn't post as lots of it was covered, but had a ready through - get your hubby along to one of the shows or to rescue or a breeder's house to visit and they'll win him around! I worked in a petshop (though from experience would recommend you steer clear of buying rats from one) and we had two teenage girls come in for a pet, they were quite convinced from the start they're like a rat but the mum wasn't keep. We explained that we only sold them in pairs, but had just got two young girlies in which had been well handled by us staff (several of us had rats ourselves) and I went off and fetched them downstairs..after 10 minutes, the mum wouldn't hand the rats over, not even to her daughters, she was smitten! Cute little babies have a special heart-tugging skill too...


Girls can be very fun to watch and with regular handling they can be just as interactive, though less likely to curl up for a snooze on you (but young boys are quite active too, it's the older males that get lazy/cuddly!)
Boys from a decent breeder are unlikely to fight, and a known pair from a rescue should already give an indication of their temperament. From my experience, aggression in rats is 99.99% of the time related to hormonal problems. Some males get an overload of hormones which causes the problem behaviour. Neutering has fixed these issues in all the males I've had problems with - about 7 or 8 (but although that number sounds high, it makes for a very small percentage, as like fosterdog, my personal number of rats is well over 200 - I did some small scale rehoming too so lots of ratties coming through my door) so even if you end up with squabbling males, it is very likely that neutering would solve those issues (and as a side benefit, no giant dangling balls! It isn't a huge op but it's not minor either though, which is why it's not a regular op like in dogs and cats, so don't think of it as a fix for the balls issue)

If your daughter has a crafty side to her she may have just as much fun kitting out the cages as playing with the rats too! Owning rats really got me into sewing once I learnt to make toys and hammocks (rats LOVE hammocks!). I ended up with nice colour coordinated cages, girly ones for the girls, masculine ones from the boys, matching the toys and accessories to the colour theme where I could..









I really went to town on one cage - a bit of a rusty secondhand cage I'd been given, that needed some tlc. Sanded down, painted with a child-safe metal paint (Japlac or Plastikote) and lots of appropriately themed accessories..I had the manliest rat cage of all!


Also, I'd really recommend a playpen. I've done it two ways - I had some folding puppy playpens already so I lined one with cardboard to prevent them getting through or climbing up the bars. The second playpen was made with corroplast/correx - the stuff 'for sale' signs are made from, you can buy large plain sheets of it. Means you can set up an area on the floor (use a picnic mat or large oilcloth to protect the floor if needed) and your daughter can sit inside with the rats and there's no worries about them getting lost under furniture, chewing wires, etc. You can fill the playpen with various toys - be creative, when you own rats you start seeing a million uses for everyday items, like stringing hammocks across a shoe rack