Yesterday I went to PAH to pick up some treats for my 4 boys. I accidentally walked past the pets and out popped this little head. She had 2 other cage mates and i fell in love. I had a spare cage and i just couldn't resist. So I came home with 3 or the friendliest sweetest girls you could imagine. My boys are going nuts when. They get out because they can smell the girls
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Small pets
RattieOfCatan ·
12/05/2016 18:38
She is a cutie!
With four boys and three girls you'll have to be super careful when free ranging. When we had a similar set up two of our girls were spayed and one of the other two was terrified of being out of the cage, so we only had the one to worry about when the girls were out and the boys usually got a nip through the bars if they managed to get near the girls cage in their free range time 
I'm not sure what your set-up is like but whilst we had ours on a low table next to one another, it did mean that in free range time we could put them on the floor or sofa and they couldn't get back up to the cages easily, so it was much easier to keep them separate than it is when you have both cages on the floor. It might be worth considering creating a height difference. The only issue is that they then can't come and go freely, but ours used to make it clear when they wanted to go home so it wasn't a problem for us at the time.
The boys will calm down somewhat once they get used to smelling the girls, though there may be excessive nose dabbing on places where the girls have recently been. It might be worth washing hands between handling the two sets until you've determined if there's any aggression towards the opposite sex, one of our girls would nip quite hard if she smelt the boy on us for a good few months. She came to a point where she calmed in many ways and that stopped then but it wasn't fun if we changed the boys food/litter first by accident 
RattieOfCatan ·
14/05/2016 10:37
Oh bless her. We don't buy from pet shops as a rule, but both DH and I have agreed that if we found a loner in a pet shop we'd probably take them home as the chances of somebody who knows anything about rats coming in and taking them home in intro to an existing cage would be relatively slim. I hate how they let just one get left behind 
RattieOfCatan ·
14/05/2016 11:14
Do you have a shed for them bastard? I think once DH and I get our own place we'll be building a nice shed for ferrets! The rats can stay indoors
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
14/05/2016 23:22
starshaker - I have posted several deranged ranty posts about P@H and even more about Gumtree in the past, but I have to admit (to my eternal shame) that I emailed a Gumtree advert recently about some guinea pigs (I didn't buy them though)
You will have to do all your shopping online now or wear occlusive goggles and blinkers to stop you looking in the RatCages
Unfortunately, the sad truth is, as soon as your new FurBabies left the cage, it will be cleaned and the next batch will go in. (I saw some adorable piggies in P@H , the sales assistant said there were some even cuter , younger ones -must've been less than 5 weeks- waiting in the back to take their place once they were sold or demoted to Adoption 
)
BUT- you have made THE WORLD of difference to these rats' lives. They have a home, they have a future, they have an experienced owner.
It's just a shame there is the never ending conveyer belt of pets.
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
14/05/2016 23:26
Very 
at Rattie
My GP (guinea pig) has never offered to clean anything (well maybe her own chins) , but I let them off because they can't eat cream and obviously have their minds on other things like Particle Quantum Physics (or something). Most likely "When's Dinner?"
RattieOfCatan ·
15/05/2016 08:32
I do as much of my shopping as I can at my breeders, at least I know the babies in her shop have come from lots of gorgeously cuddly big fatties who are all spoilt We are usually free to cuddle the girls she breeds from too which is nice, it's really reassuring to know exactly where you're small furries are coming from! She breeds a few different rodents now and has a small group of people who foster the Mum's and babies after they've got past the pinkie stage, I'd love to do that
Don't know where we'll buy all our day-to-day stuff from when we move in September, bit gutted! We'll still be getting our rats from her though 6hr round trip, totally worth it
70 ours don't often get to clean things but when they do it's very amusing! The girls are mad at the moment, we thought we'd start trianing again and we do it during free-range time. It ends with five girls jumping on me whilst standing up and down because they think I'l going to give them treats [which I will]
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
15/05/2016 09:20
So Rattie you're going to be a six hour trip from your breeders and how far from your Rat Vet?
Are you sure moving is a good idea ?
You'll need to be on the lookout for a new vet (maybe your RatVet can recommend someone? )
6 hour trip to buy new rats.............. don't see a problem there 
RattieOfCatan ·
15/05/2016 10:23
There's a small rodent specialist 20 minutes drive from our place in Essex, so we're thankfully sorted on that front It was the first thing I searched for when DH got the job and we found out that we'd be relocating 
Luckily we can always mix picking up new rats with seeing friends from the area, so it won't be a strictly 6hr round trip We'd likely stay for the weekend and see a few people. There aren't really many other breeders near where we're moving too though tbh and we love our breeders rats, they are huge, cuddly and friendly and a little bit mad We'll be at the arse end of the A12/A120 so it's a good hour or so just to reach the M25! There are closer breeders in Kent and Cambridgeshire but a round trip would be a minimum of 3hrs for those anyway. And we don't know much about those breeders. Though there are a couple of breeders in Cambridgeshire and a little further who I may go with occasionally as they have really good reputations and social networking pages where people rave about their rats in a similar fashion to what people say about our breeders rats (friendly, playful, cuddly, etc). And they breed rats that my breeder doesn't, roans and silverfawns which I've been coveting for a while! Though if my breeder isn't able to get the harleys and martens or get them breeding as she plans I may eventually go elsewhere for those too. Her SFs wouldn't breed in the end, just had no interest in doing the deed I'd happily travel a long way for lovely friendly rats, especially if they are on my covet list My breeder has a steady supply of blues, agoutis and blacks in smooth/rex and top ear/dumbo so I know I'm sorted for my agouti rex and smooth black as I've currently got a smooth agouti and black rex from her
RattieOfCatan ·
15/05/2016 10:31
star I don't think that there is anything wrong with favourites 
We had to have my heart rat PTS on Tuesday and it wasn't nice. Not that it's nice anyway but it has left a little hole in my heart! We have favourites out of those left too, Howl has always been our special one eyed wonder (he's the little shit who got under the fridge ) and Aeryn is special as we got to bond with her a lot in the accident-prone six weeks where she spent most of the time in the hospital cage 
I must admit that our foster boy, Ben, is a little daring as well, if I didn't know we'd have to give him back when Howl died I think I'd let myself fall a little more in love with him!
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
15/05/2016 10:58
Rattie I'm just flabbergasted ....yes there's my flab ->>>> all gasted
Surely OREO should be your favourite, 'tis the Best Name Ever (I have that on authority from my PiggieDaughter GP5 )
(By the look of the video, she wouldn't fit under the fridge anyway )
How is the Ruby Eyed Himmy doing (you got her as a tiny baby )
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RattieOfCatan ·
15/05/2016 18:27
star I think it's sweet when the rats have favourites, unfortunately mine all seem to favour DH rather than me though Gits I love bogglers! Our old boy will sit and boggle at you through the bars of the cage, he's only got one eye which makes it all the more amusing!
70 Oreo is being an antisocial sod at the moment! I walked in ten minutes ago and she gave me the doe eyes which she never does so I got her out for a cuddle and the sod ran under the sofa! I bet your Oreo is much more cuddly
Himmy is doing well. She's now 8 months I think and is still tiny and absolutely mad. She's so so fast and a brilliant climber. During free range time she thinks it's great fun to climb up onto our shoulders when we're just standing in the middle of the room, she's so quick at it too! Our 'new' baby has outgrown her already as well, she must be about 3.5/4 months old as we got her in mid-March. She's the weird coloured one in the video, we think she's some odd genetic mutation of blue/platinum but she's got some beige in there too oddly! She's a bit of an ugly girl, bless her. Our breeder was going to use her as a mummy and then saw her tiny eyes and bumpy tail and decided not too! She's ugly in a cute way
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
15/05/2016 20:47
Weirdly, my Oreo is the most uncuddly piggie I've had (apart from Evil Edna, she was unique though). She'll sit happily on my lap but not my shoulder unlike most pigs.
And she always gives the impression that she's tolerating the cuddles because it's "in her job description" nothing more.(And I feed her)
She wouldn't go under the death trap sofa though, doesn't like laminate "I can't walk on pretendy wood" she says "it's not natural"
RattieOfCatan ·
16/05/2016 12:07
How funny! Must be a thing about Oreo's Our Oreo used to be quite cuddly but she's backed off a bit since the baby came along, I think things are a bit tense in the cage and she's not sure where she stands, bless her.
I have my external hard drive back so have to share my own mischief! These are the boys as the girls got their video. Howl the one eyed wonder and his friend Ben. Ben is such a sweetie, we're so glad that somebody lovely let us borrow him as Howl is so much happier! And, of course, I can't forget my heart rat Ashi who had to go to the rainbow bridge last week :( He was beautiful though and I can't post pictures/videos of the others and not include him!
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