Oh, Rats! I need some pet rodent advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

My 12-year-old daughter has been lobbying long and hard for a pet rat. I have to give her credit - she has been doing research, and has been working hard to prove her responsibility. However, a great deal of the information she’s found on the internet about rats as pets has been contradictory.

Here’s what I already know about rats: they chew, and need to chew to keep their teeth from growing too long; they like to climb; they’re very good at escaping; they need bedding that does not contain volatile oils; they’re omnivorous and can eat dog food; they’re social (which means I’m probably going to end up living with TWO rats); they’re pretty intelligent; and they are unable to puke.

Anyone here have rats as pets? Any advice as to living quarters/food/toys for the beasties? Any tips and tricks for handling them so that they stay friendly? Any ideas for educational and/or fun rat activities? Any good rat websites you know of?

Thank you in advance!

2

Oh my, where to begin. J First off, I’ve had my four buys for a whole year now (yay!) and my fifth came to me about 10 months ago. Lemmie give them a shout-out: Hi Joel, Crow, Tom Servo, Torgo and Lucky!!! Ok, on with the show!

I recommend Carefresh bedding and Kaytee Forti-diet Rat and Mouse food. Marshall Bi-Odor waste deodorizer is a life-saver—smells go bye-bye. I get almost all my rat stuff at PetCo. They have cages, too.

Most stuff you find at stores will be ferret-based. Ferret cages work fine, except rats can squeeze out of any space 1” by 1”, so the wires have to be closer than that. Also, make sure there are no bars on the floor of the cage—they can hurt their little feets. If there are bars at the bottom, but you really like the cage, do what I did: cut the dang thing off. Worked fine for me!

The cage needs to be at lest 2’ by 1’ for one rat. Two rats really don’t need much more room than that, but as you get more you’re gonna need more room. I have 5 boys in a cage that’s a little more than 4 cubic feet. Probably not big enough, but I put in a lot of fun stuff and hammocks, so it makes up. Cardboard boxes are fun to hide in, and shread late at night while mom is trying to sleep. :wink:

Like I said before, the bedding is Carefresh, which I love. You have to make sure the bedding is not made of aromatic wood like pine or ceader. I hear aspen is ok, but I never used it. I also put in a litter box. I let them decide which corner they liked, and then put the tray there. They tend to use it more than anywhere else and I can toss it everyday so their cage smells nicer.

Here are some sites I like!
Rat Palace Has a great message board!
The Ferret Store Good place to buy stuff, or just look around
Martins Cages Good, cheap cages

If you have any more questions, I’m your girl! (Me and the 300,000 other people on this board who love rats!)

3

Now don’t hate me. I had pet rats in my classrooms for 3 years…now I have snakes, which eat rats. But, what I learned from those 3 years of experiences:

  1. If there’s a way to get out of the cage, the rat will find it. There must be some sort of rat-unfriendly locking mechanism. One cage I had had a simple tray that slid out for changing bedding. Rats #1 and #2 (I got a new rat each year and gave it away at the end) never figured it out, but rat #3 did. An unattended rat can do a heckuva lot of damage.

  2. If you’re concerned about stink, I suggest buying females. I always had female rats as the males (IME) were double to quadruple the stink factor, and I just didn’t want to deal with that. Note: mice are 10x than rats when it comes to this.

  3. You know this, but I’m going to underscore it: Rats chew. They will chew anything they find that’s chewable. In those 3 years, rats chewed crayons, pencils, fish food plastic containers, Beanie Baby tags, books, cards, cardboard boxes, and–gulp–the electrical wire to a fish tank. I’d just like to reiterate at this point that if rats can escape, they will. And oh, the damage they do…

  4. I recommend buying at a young age and handling them as much as possible. Not to be too dark, but I do handle dozens of small rats in the feeding of Henry, and I can assure you they are all very different. Some are quiet and sweet, some are exceedingly jumpy (literally–they jump instead of run!), some nippy, some squeak-noisy, some so hyped up you’d think they were on rat-crack. Don’t buy the “it’ll calm down as it gets older” riff. It might, but chances are jumpy, nippy baby rat will be a hyper, biting big rat.

Good luck! :slight_smile:

4

I never picked my rats. They picked me. :wink: World-conquering terrors of cats, they were. Lost one to cancer at 3 years and the other is still going strong…my ex-roomie has custody of her and his own rat. We couldn’t bear to split 'em up.

As for cages…here’s what we made. We got a 10 gallon aquarium (20 would be great if you had the cash and space) and a lid for it. Then we went to the hardware store and bought 36" tall 1/4" wire mesh, about 2 yards of it. We bent it using a yardstick into a rectangular tube that would fit inside the aquarium and then put the lid on the top, with a weight (pesky escape artist rats!) The advantage was that the rats had open air at the top of the cage and could climb up into the hammocks and stuff we made using fabric scraps and 1/4" dowel rods stuck through the mesh…and the foot of aquarium glass at the bottom kept them from kicking shavings all over the place. Total cost, $20 for the aquarium and $5 for the mesh, plus less than an hour of cussing and work. Dowel rods, $1, fabric from cut-off jeans, free.

I still firmly believe that there is a right rat for everyone that wants a rat…and the right rat won’t bite you. Mine certainly never have, even when I fed them peanut butter off my fingers. JMHO of course.

Corr

5

If you dislike cleaning cages, I very much reccomend using a small shop-vac. I can clean my cage in under 30 seconds, and all of the old litter is kept in the vacuum. I also use the care-fresh litter, and it works well. Giving them a wheel to run in makes for fun rat-watching- peer pressure seems to be a big factor in wheel use, so some of the tumbles they take are very funny. I give them rat blocks from petco, and just about anything else. I’ve given them baby-back rib bones to chew on, a peach (five rats ate a whole peach overnight), popcorn, carrots, yogurt covered raisins, a pair of shoes that an old girlfreind gave me as a gift (chewn up and lived in) and as a shelter, my two males have a PVC pipe “Y” fitting bought at home depot for a few bucks. It’s durable, and they love to sleep and hide in it. The rats seem to dislike spicy foods, but otherwise they are not picky.

6

We’ve had rats for years, & it is true that if you are worried about odor, don’t get males. They have a habit of burying their food in the corners of the cage, so cleaning often is a must. We bring them out just about every day & let them play. The only thing is, rats are prone to mammary tumors, & it can be very sad to have to put them to sleep.

7

We’ve had rats for a couple of years now (one just died in June, and the other is elderly but going strong). What I’ve learned in my research (without repeating the good advice others have given):

  1. Aquariums are not generally good homes for rats because the ammonia in their urine can build up and the fumes can’t get out of the glass walls. Cages with open sides are better.

  2. Those running wheels aren’t generally good for them unless you get the kind that are designed to be safe. On the “classic” wire wheel they can get their little toes caught and their bones broken.

  3. When they get red stuff around their eyes or nose, don’t freak–it’s not blood. Rat mucus is red. If it persists you should take them to the vet, but a little bit is nothing to worry about.

  4. They love unsweetened cereal, peanut butter, and Gatorade. :slight_smile: (Well, ours do, at least).

  5. Two rats (or more) are better than one, especially if you can’t spend a lot of time with them.

8

Wow! Thanks all, for the advice. We went today and picked up a cage (wire cage top that sits inside a sort of litter-box-looking plastic pan and snaps onto the pan), carefresh bedding, rat pellet food thingies, some yogurt treats, blocks of wood for gnawing, a wood house thing sort of like a half a hollow log that they’re also supposed to enjoy chewing on, and a hammock (which is going back - it’s way too big for the cage). We did remove the attached wire wheel from the cage - Kiddo wants to get a ball that the rats can run around in on the floor. Then, I checked out some of the rats (Kiddo stayed at home whilst I did this hands-on research, as I did not wish to be plagued with a constant stream of “I want this one!”) I found them to be very inquisitive, not quite as fast-moving as I was afraid they’d be, and awfully cute. So, looks like tonight or tomorrow we’ll be back picking out rats.

Oh, and we definitely decided on males - the store we went to has males and females in the same cages, and I do not want to risk a pregnant rodent. I was impressed with the cleanliness and that the cages weren’t crowded with rats. This is a small pet shop, not a big chain, and they told me that they do not get their rats from mills, they simply allow some of the ones they have to breed, and that once a female has babies, she is removed from the “community cage” and put in a “ladies only” cage. However, they will not guarantee that I won’t end up with babies if we buy females, thus we’re getting males and the plan is simply to clean the cage out more often.

So…am I doing OK so far?

9

Be sure to get your males from the same cage. They’re probably littermates and they are less likely to fight. But be warned, when they become sexually mature (if they aren’t already), two males might well fight for dominance and have to be separated.

Also, if you notice your rats scratching a lot, the Carefresh might have given them mites. I had that problem with my mice and I think it came from the Carefresh, not the aspen bedding I used before. Carefresh is better for odor control than aspen though (as someone said earlier, male mice really, really stink).

For dog food, Nutro Lite is very good (at least for mice). It’s a low-fat dog food. My mice liked it, though not as much as the fatty sunflower seeds and birdseed they would get as a treat.

My mice really liked Milkbone Dog Biscuits for chewing (the kind that’s basted in meat flavorings). I don’t know how healthy that was, but it kept their teeth down.

10

You can feed your rats a piece of dry dog food every now and again just as a treat, but don’t make it a regular part of their diet- it contains too much protein and can cause kidney problems.

Carefresh is a great bedding- very soft on the feet. If you have any wire flooring in the cage, you can cut some rubber no-slip bath mats and use them as flooring. (This is what I do for the second and third levels of my rats’ cages.) They usually won’t chew on this because rubber tastes pretty horrible to them. It’s also very easy to clean.

Rats, unlike most hamsters, are terrified of those plastic balls to roll around in. I’d suggest not getting one. But plenty of exercise is a great idea- rats love to come out and run around, usually on beds. Some rats will leave little drops of urine behind them as they run around. It’s a very small amount, not enough to stain or smell. Just put an old towel or blanket down before you let them out.

Respiratory problems are common in rats; a few sneezes now and again are nothing to worry about, but constant sneezing and wheezing is a problem and you need to see your vet. (Wheezing becomes noticeabe when the rat is running around- hold him/her up to your ear and listen. A soft hooting sound means trouble.) Aquariums allow ammonia to build up; cages are better, but keep them away from all drafts. And you cannot keep rats in direct sunlight- they overheat very quickly and can die. Keep them in a dim room whose temperature never gets above 80 degrees.

Rats are incredibly intelligent and friendly, and they seldom bite, although like any animal, if they’re scared or angry, you just never know. Don’t get into the habit of giving them treats through the cage wire or sticking your finger through the cage wire- this leads to biting behavior. But some rats will nibble you lightly in a friendly, grooming way, and also lick you- this means you are a good friend, so be flattered.

Don’t give them cheese- it causes diarrhea, as do all dairy products. Some people say a little is okay, but I like to be on the safe side. Don’t give them anything gummy or chewy, like carmel or gum- they’ll choke on it. And no soda! Rats love it, a lick or two off your finger every once in a while is okay, but no more- rats can bloat badly from the carbonation. (They can’t burp, either.)

Males do smell a bit more than females- if you change the bedding more often, you won’t have any problems. They may fight enough to have to be seperated. Or, you can actually have your males neutered by a vet. This ends the fighting and the smell, and it also decreases the risk of prostate cancer. It also means you can keep females with them.

Absolutely no phenols- ratty respiratory systems can’t take it. Don’t even use phenol-containing cleaning products. I use a great disinfectant/bactericide/viricide/fungicide combo for all my animals, reptiles included- it’s called Quat Plus and yu can get it here.

Best of luck to you and your new ratty friends- give them a kiss for me. Keep us posted, and link to pictures if you’ve got 'em. :slight_smile:

11

Well, all you rat-lovin’ Dopers, I’m here to announce two new additions to our family, Rodney and Milo. So far, so good (it’s been all of two hours now :rolls eyes: but still) They’re a little shell-shocked, I think, and are currently hiding under the half-a-hollow-log thingie, but they did give their new home a thorough going over first. They figured out the water bottle, each had a quarter of a grape, then they turned in. They are littermates, and the guy at the store says they’re about 5 or 6 weeks old. Both are male (the guy at the pet store made me laugh - he pointed out their obvious maleness then said “like most males, they’ve got more balls than brains”). Oh, he also said his rats like the running ball thing just fine, so we did get one; if they prove not to like it, we have friends with hamsters who LOVE the balls, so it will be passed along if necessary. I refuse to deliver kisses, but I did pass the sentiment on, ratty.

Again, thanks to all for the advice. I’ve written down all the product names you-all recommended, and will check back if I encounter any weirdness.

12

A couple things … some probably reiterations of above.

  1. I didn’t see anyone mention this - rats are very succeptable to tumors. When I got my rats, I figured, eh, it won’t happen to them. But, it did. Tumors are not fun things, especially when they grow very large, which they can do easily. A small benign tumor is not a big deal, but when it gets bigger you’ll have to get it removed, or your rat won’t be able to move around well. Secondly, surgery on rats is not an easy thing - you’ll have to find a good vet who will/can do it, plus there is the cost. Also - since they’ll have to knock the rat out for the procedure - as with humans, it can be very dangerous to do so - esp. since rats are so small.

My rat got several tumors, all benign, until one grew a bit to close to her head - and that was the end. :frowning:

It’s just something to think about.

  1. Like posted above, rat’s respiratory systems are easily screwed up. I can speak from experience here too. My other rat began to wheeze as described above. The vet examined, but didn’t find anything wrong. Of course, there was something wrong. The results of which happened all too soon. :frowning:

  2. Rats really don’t live that long. Assuming they are unimpeded by ailments, unlike my two, you’ll be lucky if they hit five years old. They won’t be a decade companion like dogs, cats, etc.

  3. Rats need attention. Lots of it. It helps lots if there are two, but they still need to come out of their cage and interact with you. I regret it now that I didn’t do that enough - esp since my rats didn’t live out their entire lives as they should have. :frowning:

This post is definately laced with my own experiences - I’m not saying this’ll all happen to you, but it is something to remember.

~ AoErat (yes, the name is a tribute to my fine rat friends)ugh, cried as I wrote this line

13

I have two male rats, and I did not get them from the same place. But I did get them within a day of each other. I made the mistake of putting the new one in the cage and of course they started fighting. So I took the old one out and put it in the new one’s box that he came in. Then I took the new one and put it in the cage that was occupied by the old one. This is so they could get used to each other’s smells and could recognize each other. Then I closed off an area and introduced them. The old one ran right up to the new one and snuggled up to him! Took less than ten minutes and much easier, to me, than introducing them for days at a time. But then, that’s just MY experience.

14

Rats also often get ear infections that cause them to cock their heads to the side. For some reason only a certain percentage of rats can catch the disease, while most are not even phased. It looks bad every once in a while but it is rarely fatal. My well rat (Bandit) has lived with her sick cage mate (Smokey) for the whole year she has been alive , and has not so much as sneezed. When it first hits it hits the worst. I was covinced smokey would die because she sneezed all the time and her head was so coked to the side it was completly horizontal. She could only run in circles, and fell over every few steps. My girlfriend really wanted me to take her back, but I refused (I couldn’t stand the thought of her being fed to some stupid snake). Sure enough she got better ( with the help of echinacia) and her head straightend out to only a slight cok and her balance improved but then it hit again two months later. Then it went a way for good. She still has horrible balance, but i find that a good thing in many ways. She cant climb anywhere so it is real easy to keep tabs on her. She just races around my room and circle and sometimes come by and licks my hands or nuzzles my feet. She is like a miniture dog. Moral of the story IMHO is if it has an ear infection keep it. Even though it never goes away the rat is still a whole lot of fun. Also nevr buy rat leashes unless the rats are fat.

15

I used to have rats, then I went to guinea pigs, GPs are much cleaner, more friendly & happier
than any lab-reject rat I had.

16

Um, handy? If you don’t have something relevant to say, don’t say anything at all.