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rat owners (rodent, not snake)

tsst said:
What physical size cage would we need for two females? I have some bird cages but they are not 3 story. It is like a 2 foot cube. What do they need to keep teeth healthy and not over grown?
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The do need chew toys to keep their teeth worn down. I found bird toys seem to last longer then the chew toys they sell for rodents.

I have 9 females (2 are hairless) and 3 males. I love all of them but I think I prefer girls because they are more active and they don't have the big male parts lol.

I prefer cages with levels because they love to climb and run up and down the ramps.

This is one of the cages I have.
http://www.finfurandfeather.info/rat-cages/

I use the natural carefresh and unlike the others I love it for my rats. I wouldn't use or pay extra money for the dyed ones that's just a ripped off. If you choose to use anything else just don't use cedar or pine. Rats can also be litter box trained which I wish I knew when I got mine.

I feed mine Mazuri, I read the food Sratevol recommend is the best for them but I can't order it all the time so I buy Mazuri cause I can buy it in bulk from our feed store. I also give them fresh veggies and fruits and some uncooked pasta some times.
 
dragonmoon said:
we are gonna be getitng a new cage for our male in the next couple of weeks and introducing another rat at that time to reduce chances of incident as opposed to adding one into the current cage
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I would keep the new rat in the new cage and keep the two next to each other for a week or so then you need to introduce them in a neutral place, I used the bath tub. Then clean the cage and then try putting them together. It may take awhile, it took me months to get one of mine to except other rats.
 
ShenziSixaxis said:
My two cents for the OP.

Housing
Even with pets, I say large tubs are the way to go. It's far more rewarding to buy a 90qt tub, cut out pieces of plastic and glue on screen for ventilation, and make it your own to buy an over priced piece of metal. Tubs also allow for LOTS of room, unlike even multiple stories cages. A 90qt bin, like in that picture, holds 5-6 adult females comfortably, and about 4 or 5 males comfortably.
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I would think with tubs you run into issues with respiratory distress. From what I have read, rats are very sensitive to ammonia fumes and other odors produced by their waste, hence why wire cages are reccomended. I know people raise feeders in tubs (modified for more ventilation in most cases) but I always assumed that it's better to keep pets in wire for above reasons.

I always assumed that breeders who are out for snake food don't really care much about longevity of their adults.
 
That is why you cut ventilation holes in with 1/2 inch screen. It's also why you offer plenty of bedding and bother to clean the tubs out. If you're smelling ammonia and have ventilation, cages are not being cleaned enough or well enough.

Really, if you want healthy breeders for feeders, you have to take care of them. If you want a pet to live for a long time, they have to be healthy. The way I see it. Sure, you can half ass it with feeders, clean them out only every 2 weeks, have no ventilation, over crowd them, only give them 1 inch of bedding, but uh.. I wouldn't feed those rats to ANYTHING.

healthy pets = long living rats = healthy feeders
Just how I see it. My breeders are both sort of pets and just breeders.
 
I dont know where you guys are getting your age ranges for rats, but I have had over 30 and only one made it to 3. Most of my rats were from reputable breeders. I am also personal friends with at least 10 different rat breeders, that breed mainly for healthy and temperament, and they all will tell you its possible to get a rat over 3, but its definitely not common, at all. Just dont get your hopes up for a rat that will make it over that mark. At least kids tend to have short attention spans, in that case rats make a good pet for them.
 
ratsncorns said:
I dont know where you guys are getting your age ranges for rats, but I have had over 30 and only one made it to 3. Most of my rats were from reputable breeders. I am also personal friends with at least 10 different rat breeders, that breed mainly for healthy and temperament, and they all will tell you its possible to get a rat over 3, but its definitely not common, at all. Just dont get your hopes up for a rat that will make it over that mark. At least kids tend to have short attention spans, in that case rats make a good pet for them.
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I agree, I have had one live to 2 1/2 and have a 2 year old right now who just developed mammary tumors. I haven't heard of any making it past three with 2 being average.
 
The rat book I had, and this was quite awhile ago, said that their more normal lifespan was something like 4 to 6 years. But it said that more and more, the pet rat lines were being crossed with the lab rat lines and the lab rats had been deliberately bred to be susceptible to all kinds of cancers and other ailments. It said that as a result, the lifespans of the pet rats were diminishing.
 
Makes absolute sense.

I think life spans also depend on the area you get them. Since it's hard to ship rats, you're not going to be able to keep the gene pool varied unless you really try hard at it.
 
That is the huge downside to having female rats. Almost every one I had developed mammary tumors. I had them removed if they were young enough, but they came back eventually. Males were great companions because they seemed to have less health issues. Unaltered males can get aggressive to other male rats, and they get buck grease which makes their fur rough and oily. Neutering solves that problem. But, the tumors rats are prone to are due to crossing with lab rats. I really wish they hadnt done that :(
 
I have to agree with Angela about rat ages. I kept rats in the early 90s and did EVERYTHING wrong. Did not know it was wrong at the time, and I seem to remember out of the 4 I had most of them made it to at least 3 years old.

Since 2003 I have had a total of 13 rats, 4 of which I have right now. One of my females made it to 30 months, and of my males died at 17 months and I have lost them at all ages in between.

I consider my rats the way most people think of their dogs or cats. There are 2 things I would NEVER EVER do, and that is to put my males and females together (I will not use these animals for food, they are PETS). I won't even keep a snake that needs rats, and if I did, I would buy f/t. I also would never ever house them in a tank or a tub, no matter how well ventilated it is. Wire cages are the best, and Martins cages are the best of the best. And my rats deserve that.
 
Anyone ever build a cage? I was looking at that Martins site and they look super simple to build. If we decide to get the rats I am thinking of building a 24"long x 24"deep x 42"tall 4 level tower on a wood base with casters. It would look somewhere between the Martin's R-695 and R-699.

If we get a couple females what is the recommended relax time between purchase and extended handling time? A day or two to settle in? Also I assume it is best to buy siblings or cage mates so they are used to each other from day one?
 
My daughter (8) loves playing with the rats. Depending on how close you are to Perry, Ohio we could introduce you to her pets and let you go from their. We started breeding for snake food and the daughter just seems to pick out a couple and adopt them from time to time. In our feeder group we have dumbo, calico, albino, pinto, and ... genes. If you are close and interested we could let you get a pair here at feeder price. We can also make sure they are old enough to be on their own, but young enough to have a long life ahead.
 
tsst said:
Anyone ever build a cage? I was looking at that Martins site and they look super simple to build. If we decide to get the rats I am thinking of building a 24"long x 24"deep x 42"tall 4 level tower on a wood base with casters. It would look somewhere between the Martin's R-695 and R-699.

If we get a couple females what is the recommended relax time between purchase and extended handling time? A day or two to settle in? Also I assume it is best to buy siblings or cage mates so they are used to each other from day one?
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They don't need a relax time once you get them home. The sooner they get used to you the better. And it is impossible to handle them too much. The more you put into them, the more you get back.
 
Gloryhound said:
My daughter (8) loves playing with the rats. Depending on how close you are to Perry, Ohio we could introduce you to her pets and let you go from their. We started breeding for snake food and the daughter just seems to pick out a couple and adopt them from time to time. In our feeder group we have dumbo, calico, albino, pinto, and ... genes. If you are close and interested we could let you get a pair here at feeder price. We can also make sure they are old enough to be on their own, but young enough to have a long life ahead.
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Thanks for the offer but Perry is a couple hours away. We will probably just get some locally.
 
starsevol said:
They don't need a relax time once you get them home. The sooner they get used to you the better. And it is impossible to handle them too much. The more you put into them, the more you get back.
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Thanks Bethany, and thanks to everyone else for all the help and input. I think we are going to get a pair but like with everything in our house, that involves the kids, they have to share in the investment and commitment. He will be spending some of his allowance from chores and he will have to help with the setup (and cage building if I go that way). We are making sure he understands what all will be involved.
 
As far as food I never trust those seed mixes they sell in stores....I feed my rats a mix of Harlan Teklad lab blocks (3/4 of their diet) and Suebees grain mix (the remaining 1/4) to give them some variety and make it a little less "blah": http://ratsrule.com/diet.html
 
I have actually used Martins cages as a model for a cage I built. I used hardware cloth that they sell at home depot. Its just a major PITA to cut and hard to hang things from the wire as its only 1/2"x1/2". Martins uses 1/2"x1" bar spacing. I used hardware cloth because its PVC coated, not just galvanized. But it was easy enough to build and I used that cage as a spare. I did a lot of rat rescues back in the day, even fostering 40 of them in my condo that I eventually transported from Colorado to Chicago to South Dakota. That was a trip! But that extra cage came in handy!
 
starsevol said:
They don't need a relax time once you get them home. The sooner they get used to you the better. And it is impossible to handle them too much. The more you put into them, the more you get back.
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I think they should get at least a day to relax though. Keep the stress low. :p
 
tsst said:
Thanks Bethany, and thanks to everyone else for all the help and input. I think we are going to get a pair but like with everything in our house, that involves the kids, they have to share in the investment and commitment. He will be spending some of his allowance from chores and he will have to help with the setup (and cage building if I go that way). We are making sure he understands what all will be involved.
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Sounds great! Now you probably already know the drill and don't need to be told, but we are definitely going to need pictures! Of the rats for sure but if you decide to make your own cage, pictures of that too are a necessity.
 
I only gave my rats a couple of hours of settling in before I started interacting with them. I took it slow in the beginning, just would open the cage door and hold out my hand to them, let them come to me on their own. Thats about all the first day consisted of, and even on that day I had one of them climbing out onto my lap and stuff. The second day I still took it slow like that, and they were more confident in me not wanting to hurt them so I even took them away from their cage and let them ride on my shoulder, and by the end of that week it was like we were old pals. I got them on a Thursday :p
 
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