Rats

[BlueRaptor]

Today DP and I bought our first pet together - 2 lovely little rats!

We bought a cage at the shop that accommodated 6 rats, but only have our two in it as didn't want to overrun ourselves. They're two little girls, about 9 weeks old.

Just looking for any general advice from previous rat owners! We did research before to make sure rats were for us but first time owners and want to make sure we do everything right. They're currently snuggled up asleep in their cage and we've been advised not to touch them for 24 hours to allow for settling in.

Haven't posted here in a while but have come back to say I feel like the meanest rat mummy ever :(

Our girls are nice and settled now - they're very active and it's a very rare occurance for one of them to slow down enough to have a good stroke and cuddle - far more interested in exploring the living room.

We went and bought them some new activities and toys today as didn't want them to get too bored, and saw 'rat shampoo' previously they've had a little splash in the bath (very very very shallow warm water, just covers their paws) and thought that was fine. Bought the shampo and thought we'd give them a proper clean when cleaning them out earlier. Filled the bath every so slightly more than usual (still easily shallow enough to allow them to walk in it). Well, you would've thought I was murdering the poor girls. All going well until shampoo was on and needed rinsing off - the squeaks coming from them made me feel genuinely awful. They have never ever made those sounds :(

Safe to say rat shampo will not be coming out again, and I'm quite happy to just let them have a little run in clean warm water and be done with it!

Oh I'm sorry, I laughed a little, i fully understand how you feel! Some rats hate water, let alone baths. Not one of mine will go near water if given a choice. My arms get shredded when I try to bathe them and the noise! You'd think I were murdering them.

With one of my boys, shortly after we got him we gave him a bath. He was a tiny runt and the big boys had been peeing all over him so he needed it. He didn't scream (the others did!) but he flooded porphyrin from his eyes. It's the only time I've had that happen and I felt awful for it. He forgave me and your girls will forgive you :)

Has your grey and white one started to lose its grey yet? I have 8 again now so DH won't let me get any more until next spring, which is when I hope to get a roan :D and a marten, our breeder is hoping to start a marten line by the end of the year :D

Thanks for making me feel a bit less bad! Genuinely felt awful at the time, though I gave them a boiled egg after and think they may have forgiven me :)

No grey loss as of yet! She's getting big though, definitely growing quicker than the other one. I'd love another but don't think it's likely as DP has said no! I do worry though about how much they depend on each other (they snuggle to sleep!) and if anything were to happen to one how the other would cope!

Boiled eggs are good bribes ;)

If there is a rat group near you it's always handy to join one. Our big boy was alone from November until 2 weeks ago, we thought he'd be okay and that he would die soon but he became more recluse and was barbering a lot, so we asked on the group about any lone males we could borrow to keep our boy company and we were offered a few. To be fair we had asked on the group back in November if they thought it would be fair to keep him alone and explained the situation and we were offered a few boys then so we knew that people would lens is a rat, but it does mean that he had a friend who we can then give back to his original owner once Howl dies. Which won't be long as we discovered a tumour on his testicle last night, poor boy!

Another option is to get another pair once one dies of you intend to keep rats beyond the two you have. That's how we started with the girls, as soon as we found out that one of our girls was going to die we booked in for a new pair, introduced them to the old pair and they had a month before the girl died and we ended up with three. Then we got another one later on. And then another and another...