New pet rat, but has she got mites? And more ratty questions

alanalea

I've actually decided that I'm getting her a new mate just after christmas (we're going away for christmas and taking Bindi with me- I don't want to start introductions then).
I'm going to read up on the Fancy-rats forum about the first introductions. I'm scared something will go wrong and they won't like each other
Before I delve in too deep- do I need another rat the same age as Bindi?

Kelinik

Yay! :T

Same age or younger.

Stephb1986_2

i used to keep hamsters i know they are not the same, i had sam and max and after about 3 months sam killed max, i then had chocolate and fudge chocolate killed fudge i then had 3 hamsters together they was all from the same litter i dont know if thats the right word lol! but they had little hamster babies i cant really tell the sex of hamsters so it wasnt my fault and the mother ate one of her babies

Stephb xx

alanalea

Stephb1986 wrote: »

i used to keep hamsters i know they are not the same, i had sam and max and after about 3 months sam killed max, i then had chocolate and fudge chocolate killed fudge i then had 3 hamsters together they was all from the same litter i dont know if thats the right word lol! but they had little hamster babies i cant really tell the sex of hamsters so it wasnt my fault and the mother ate one of her babies

Stephb xx

A little bit of Christmas cheer then :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I don't like hamsters- they bite. Bindi has never bitten me, even when I had to treat her for mites. I used to have 2 mice called bubble and squeak, they were biters but they lived for years. Why is it all of the evil ones live forever, pretty much like old people

borderlakland

i reckon bindi is try to tell you she approves of you by marking you as "hers"(rats have odd ways of showing affection:p ) one thing i tried with my 1st boy was to put an old tshirt i had worn for a few days:eek: in his cage.he weed on t shirt then went to sleep on it and never scented on me again.

as far as intros go most people have relativly few probs.esp if you go for a younger girly.FR have loads of ideas on how the best way to go about it.

by the way bindi is a very pretty lady.

Rat_Chick

alanalea wrote: »

I've actually decided that I'm getting her a new mate just after christmas (we're going away for christmas and taking Bindi with me- I don't want to start introductions then).
I'm going to read up on the Fancy-rats forum about the first introductions. I'm scared something will go wrong and they won't like each other
Before I delve in too deep- do I need another rat the same age as Bindi?

That's good news about Bindi getting a cagemate!! It doesn't really matter what age the rat is just as long as it's a rat of the same sex, you only have to look at my mob to work that out - they range from about 10mths-ish to 2yrs-ish, and they are all rescues (so I don't know their proper ages) and they all moved in at different times.

I'm a member of Fancy Rats as well

Psykicpup

Dont worry too much about introductions - I used to have ratties & only once found any that didnt get along! sometimes lady rats will argue but only usually after a while living together & it is only an argument usually snuggling up together by bed time at least lol Good idea to watch that tho in case you need to split them up as I said I have known one pair not to get on. One of our friends rats used to come to us while his owner was on holiday & he seemed to love playing with the other rats & ratty babies (he was an 'only' rat)

Rat_Chick

Psykicpup wrote: »

Dont worry too much about introductions - I used to have ratties & only once found any that didnt get along! sometimes lady rats will argue but only usually after a while living together & it is only an argument usually snuggling up together by bed time at least lol

I've carried out loads of introductions and have never had one that failed, some have only taken a few days and others a few weeks and one was a couple of months (but that was due to snuffles/lump etc).

I second the bit about lady rats arguing, I've got one rescue lady who hates new rats and tries to make intros hell (but I can read her like a book so I know exactly what she's gonna do next!!), she is nicknamed "Lippy" Lily because of this, and she is a very good teacher as she has now got a second-in-command "Lesser Lippy" Esme :rolleyes: The pair of them put new rats through a rat-boot-camp and have adopted the moto of "toughen up or ship out", but what they haven't realised is that I'm always one step ahead of them and once a rat moves here they never ship out And they have learnt that if they misbehave they get told no and if they don't listen to the word no the water spray comes into play, but most of the time all I have to do is say no and they walk away or I just have to pick up the water spray bottle and they walk off pretending they were totally innocent!

I am pretty sure your intros won't be like mine (for starters there is only one Lippy Lily!!) but if you do have problems you can post on Fancy Rats under the behaviour section, and someone will help you out!

blue_monkey_2

Stephb1986 wrote: »

i used to keep hamsters i know they are not the same, i had sam and max and after about 3 months sam killed max, i then had chocolate and fudge chocolate killed fudge i then had 3 hamsters together they was all from the same litter i dont know if thats the right word lol! but they had little hamster babies i cant really tell the sex of hamsters so it wasnt my fault and the mother ate one of her babies

Stephb xx

Just to add on from this so you are not worried about the intro, rats are not the same as hamsters and they have a totally different temperment and like to be social - hamsters are the complete opposite. Hamsters are evil and like to be on their own, even from the same litter they don't like each other and they won't tolerate each other for long and, as the other poster found out and should have been told when she got them (so shame on the pet shop for not advising you of this because they told me) they WILL Kill each other, even their siblings and children. So, if you have more than one hamster always, always keep them in cages on their own and if you want to mate them keep an eye on them until they have 'finished' (ahem) and then put them back into their own cages.

We got a hamster for the children a year ago and now, when this dies, we will be getting a couple of rats (I should not have told them this though as it is all my son goes on about). Our hamster is a miserable little thing and my son likes to pick her up, call her name, play with her and she is having none of it and bites everyone. I won't go near it, LOL - so we have decided rats would be the better option next time (I had 2 years ago, from the pet shop for my birthday - a week later I had 14..... :eek: when I walked in the lounge - !!!!!!..... LOL). They are more toleratent and like to be played with and they are awake during the day and don't sleep all night!!

flower7

Hamsters are very fussy creatures they have to get to know their owners which requires lots of bribing with food while they learn to trust you. our Barney (hamster) knows his name now and comes over when you call him. Anyway back to the mites If your rat has a problem again it might be because the mites have moved into the furniture or carpet but hopefully in this cold weather they will be killed. If that fails they do furniture mite spray in petshops.