Meet our tiny new family member! (not a bunny)

[LittlePuffyTail]

Lady Sniffles!!! Our new little Rattie!

  

We took her in late last week when Ricky’s sister was moving and had to re-home her. She is over a year old but not sure her exact age. She and a male were pets but they were feeding their babies to the boyfriend’s snake.   Just don’t understand that, but anyhow… Ricky wanted to take her as a favor to his sister. I always found rats cute but never really wanted one. Like most people, the tail kind of creeped me out. But she is soooo sweet and friendly. In the pic here, she’s giving Rick kisses.

When she came here she was in a small, poorly ventilated aquarium so we moved her in an old rabbit cage and changed her bedding and diet to much healthier options. I really don’t know much about rats but I’m learning.

 At first, she was in the basement but I felt bad since we don’t spend much time down there so on Sunday we moved her into the rabbit room. Olivia was a bit freaked out at first by all the strange noises. And Sniffles is still pretty stressed out but that was a lot of changes in a short time.

 Who has Ratties? I want to see pics! And expect you all to help me become a good Rat Mom.

 

 

 

[jerseygirl]

Ahhhhhh!!! Look at the little toes!
Good on you guys for taking her in.

[Bam]

Oh, what a cutie!!!
I had rats when I was WAY younger and all I can say is that they are sturdy animals. Compared to rabbits, that is, but then rabbits are kind of un-sturdy. I’ve never fed a rat anything that made its tummy flip out.
They like cords just as much as bunnies do.

[MoxieMeadows]

Oh my goodness she is so cute! I’ve wanted a rat for a while but haven’t been able to talk my family into letting me get one. (we have a mouse problem here and my sister is extremely scared of them giving diseases to us, so no rat for me any time soon!)

The closest I’ve gotten was many years ago me and my sisters got a pet Gerbil who we named Panda. He was a cute little guy. Be warned, you’ll never imagine how attached you’ll get to something so tiny! Congrats on the new addition! I think we’ll need some more pictures of the cute little girl. AND I’m sure you’ll make an amazing rat momma!

[Diamond]

aaaaah I love rats and I would have had one a long time ago if my mother let me (she can’t do the tails). Some day, perhaps. Some day. But she looks like such a sweet girl, I want to kiss her little nose.

[Mimsy]

Grats on your new family member! lady sniffles is adorable.

I have ratties too. They do best in pairs. You can keep boy/girls together as long as you neuter or spay one.

Nice you got her out of the aquarium. The most common ailment among rats are uri’s. Aquariums are terrible for that. Dusty substrates is also not great with them.

Diet wise, rats are much more like us than rabbits and can eat a variety of foods, even ones that are not good for other pets-such as avocado and chocolate. Most people put them on a good block food and then give them veggies, fruits and grains daily. You can do your own mix, which I do, but that is a bit more complex since they need a good variety of foods to meet nutritional requirements. Easy things to do though-feed them their block food. (oxbow is one of the most commonly used ones) They can eat many of the fresh greens your bunnies eat, though not in such quantity. They can also eat a lot of your foods. As an example if I make pasta, rice or a grain, I will take a portion of cooked pasta out that does not have salty sauces or such on it for the rats. I will give them some of our human salad without the dressing or onions. When I make stews, which I do often in the winter I don’t add salts to it and leave that on the table for the humans to add and that way I can make a little portion up for the rats. They enjoy oatmeal in the morning with me topped with a little soymilk. I don’t add sugar to theirs. If we have chicken, I’ll give them the bones to chew on.

http://www.isamurats.co.uk/feeding-and-nutrition.html

You will find a ton of conflicting information online about rat care. I gave you someone’s website above there that I trust, and it gives a lot of basic information. The conflict I think arises since there are so many raising them as food for other pets, use in labs and then as pets themselves.

Being rats have been used in labs for a very long time you can look up information on almost any subject on rats and find studies done as well. If you are obsessive with your pet care, as I am their is a lot of information on rats.

Lifespans are relatively short, unfortunetly, being about 18 months to 3 years being the average.

They are very smart, many equate them to small dogs and can be taught in a lot of the same tricks as dogs and as easily.

lastly watch out for a pregnancy since she was in with a boy. We have 3 girls (We’ve always kept them in 2-3) and one was pregnant with 12. So we have 2 huge cages now one with 7 girls and the boy cage with 8. That was a little over a year ago and definately more than we ever intended. We’ve had rats for a little over 30 years and I’ve never had more than 3 so it’s been…well interesting.

[MoxieMeadows]

I never realized how short of a life span they have. I don’t know, I guess I thought because they were bigger than mice/hamsters/gerbils they had a longer life span? Even though I know that doesn’t really make much sense…

[LittlePuffyTail]

Bam- I don’t think there is any animal on the planet as unsturdy and fragile as bunnies!!!!

Mimsy- Yeah, I discovered the conflicting info when researching diet. One site says its good for them, the other says it’s bad….The people I got her from were just feeding her table scraps so she’s pretty, um, pear shaped. I bought her some Oxbow and give her little meals of fruit veg and grains when I’m feeding the bunnies.

Is it true that yogourt is good for them?

[Mimsy]

Yes, they can have yogurt. Though I get plain yogurt put fruit in it myself. (I share my smoothies with them) A lot of the premade fruit yogurts have just a ton of sugar which isn’t so great for them. They can handle animal source foods well since they are omnivores. They are just heavier on the grain side than say a dog would be.

Think of them more like little people with diet. Sugar is not going to totally grenade them like a bunny, but it can cause diabetes and make them overweight. So a once in awhile store bought treat, or human treat isn’t big deal, don’t make a habit of it. If I do eat something bad, like pie or cake or ice cream…you get the idea, the rats can get a little bite as long as it’s not something you do often in your home.

My animals help me eat a better diet, thanks to so much overlap in diets.

Their teeth also grow forever, like the bunnies. However they grind their teeth together to keep them at the correct length. Unless there is an actual misalignment issue or an abscess they usually never have teeth issues. They do love to chew, so pieces of wood and such is great for them, but not all are interested, but you don’t have to worry about over growth because of a lack of chewing stuff.

Obviously all animals can have medical issues. Rats are fairly tough little guys overall. Their sensitive side would be their respiratory system. So refraining from dusty litters or substrates is good, as well as making sure their home has plenty of airflow. (no terrariums and the such.) Familiarizing yourself with mycoplasma is a good idea.

http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/mycoplasma_mycoplasmosis.php

Some sneezing is ok, especially if they are in a new area. However, if it turns into a uri they need antibiotics before it goes to pneumonia. Lung scarring is really terrible on rats and happens often if they do not getting treated in time.

[jerseygirl]

Posted By Mimsy on 10/26/2015 10:47 AM
. …They enjoy oatmeal in the morning with me topped with a little soymilk…

Haha. That made me smile. I had mental picture of everyone at the table for brekky.

I’m glad you mentioned ratguide. That resource has been around for ages I always thought it really good, so its good to see it validated by a rat savvy person.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Thanks for all the info, Mimsy. She was sneezing quite a bit at first but it’s calmed down since we changed her litter and housing.

Hope you don’t mind my Qs, you are obviously very knowledgeable.

Can they be litter trained? She sort of just pees and poos all over the place which makes cleaning hard due to the large cage.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Here’s Sniffles snuggled in Everly’s old hat (it was a bunny, of course, I cut the ears off).

 

 

[LBJ10]

Awwww!!!!

[Mimsy]

She’s a cutie. I love talking pets, so if it’s one I have knowledge with, I’m happy to share.

Yes they can be litter trained. Poop can be close to 100%, and then depending on the rat, some marking will probably happen with the pee.

Make sure if you are using a substrate in cage, to use something different in the litter boxes, or it will confuse them. I use wood pellets in all the boxes. My boys cages have fleece in other places and the girls have aspen at the bottom of the cage.

You may need more than one litter box if the cage is large. They will also use the box as multipurpose-bathroom, bedroom, toy box. I probably use more than most people and put a box on each level, I’d rather dump a box than have to scrub down the whole cage often.

I put a little baking soda at the bottom of the box, then cover with wood pellets and then put a rather large smooth rock in it. They like to mark rocks, so it can encourage a lot of them to mark the rock instead of the rest of the cage. The rock trick works almost 100% for my boys, but my girls still tend to like to mark their hammocks for some reason. Hammocks and bedding in the girls cage has to be changed out a few times a week. Other folks might have an opposite reaction, so it’s worth trying to see what Sniffles thinks about a pee rock.

[MoxieMeadows]

She’s so cute!

[Sr. Melangell]

Oh LittlePuffyTail a rat, so cute, when I read the title of your post I thought you had adopted a baby, well you have, she is lovely, I’m sure you will make a wonderful rat mum, you have 3 healthy bunnies, toast (from whole grain bread) rats like and peas, they like greens but too much and you’ll have a lot of cleaning up to do, they like to catch and eat spiders, which is good if you don’t like spiders, they can have and only a tiny bit of dark chocolate or bitter sweet chocolate, they like chicken and canned oysters.
Chocolate, hmm where is mine? Oh here it is, I’m happy now.

[Sr. Melangell]

Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 10/28/2015 2:11 PM

Here’s Sniffles snuggled in Everly’s old hat (it was a bunny, of course, I cut the ears off).

 

 

If it was bunny, where dat likkle tail come from?
Is your baby getting on well with her?

[Niamian]

Ok. I could never belive I could see such a cute rat but she is absolutely adorable

[Author]

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