New Roommates Rats

a reply to: ketsuko

Aren't they pretty? Should I be worried all they do is sleep?

You can't tell from the picture but Lola is mostly grey, her hood goes almost full body.

a reply to: Peeple

If they end up like ours, they'll adjust their schedules to yours and tend to be awake when you are.

Monkey would clearly be asleep when we would come into the room and suddenly she would come boiling out of her nest full tilt and throw herself full-body onto the bars of the cage with her nose poking out as she was shouting, "HELLO! I'm here. LET ME OUT!"

There is an old Smashing Pumpins song that we used to always think of as her theme song:



Because in spite of her rage, she is still just a rat in a cage.

Oh they are adorable! I had one for a few years. It was supposed to be food for a snake that someone had, but I begged to have it as a pet and she was given to me. They do have short life spans and it is soooo sad when they die.

I look forward to more pics of your new fur babies!

a reply to: Peeple

haha peeple. my girlfriend says rats are awesome. of course she was using lab rats and experimenting on them, but she really did love them.

She might know a thing or two.

Edit:

shes out of town but sent me a short text about they need plenty of room but they also need stimulation. if they dont get stimulation they basically get sad and lazy. Also said they are really smart and some get attatched to you.

i thought she might say more. Well anyway i hope you love the new roomies.

a reply to: Reverbs

Already got a clicker. Today they moved in this is acclimation time, tomorrow we start.

Good to see you.

its good to see you to peeps.

i just woke up and in my dream i had a new pet. cute black cat with blue eyes. i dont think our pets would get along.

And just think, if times get tough, or ya' don't feel like another 7-11 burrito for dinner again, well, there's "Grille' Rat sur un Baton" It's kinda like a Corn-Dog, but with bones.

JUST kidding!!

I'm a bit surprised by some of the comments re: Decon/Hammer- these "jokes" aren't in very good taste- I realize that not everyone likes domestic rats as pets, but let's show the OP some respect!

I've had many, many rats and other rodents over the years and have worked at small mammal shelters, so, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

Here is a lady I know in WA that is somewhat of a legend when it comes to ratties: The Rat Lady

As far as cages- the bigger the better... I have a Ruud Cage from Martin's Cages: LINK - I have had it setup in a bedroom but left the bottom door open so the rats (or currently mice) can free-roam. They like having a place to retreat/hide, but exploring is one of their favorite activities- use caution with wires/cats/children/etc.

Great to see a rat thread!

a reply to: seattlerat

The ones we had in college were usually only in the cage when we weren't in the room. When we got back, we opened the door and had things set up so they could more or less rove across the study table, cross a bridge (leg) onto the couch and then climb up into the window sills if they wanted.

Generally, they were pretty clean choosing to go back to their cage latrine over messing anywhere else except for the males who would sort of "trail" pee, but that's kind of a normal behavior for male rats marking territory. There were occasional messes, but normally they liked going back inside.

a reply to: BlueJacket I lived in an old house years ago and after returning from a tennis match(4.5) was climbing the indoor steps when a rat ran across the step in front of me.I knocked the stuffing out of him with a wooden tennis racket.Just one swat, had to get a new racket....

How is it the animal that is responsible for more human deaths then any other in the world gets a free pass anyway ?
Dogs have use they protect us help us hunt . Cats have use they KILL RATS which carries the pleages
anything else is ether lunch ( rabbits ) or does belong in the house snakes spiders .

Smart great so now we have dirty stinking smart rats the human race is dead i tell you

a reply to: midnightstar

Odds are that one point or another, most of the medications that you have used to keep yourself healthy passed through generations of research rats, specially bred strains for laboratory research.

Interestingly enough both rats and pigs are close analogs for humans, so they are sacrificed in high numbers for medical research.

They might be disease carriers, but we also rely heavily on them in our quest for cures at the same time.

Just sayin'

a reply to: midnightstar

btw you are way off..

humans (the animal) are responsible for the most human deaths unless you include mosquitos..
you have maleria numbers or cigs??

"dirty stinking smart rats"

lol..

i think stupid humans are the most dangerous thing to our survival and your grammar sucks hard.

I hope english is not your first language haha.

"dogs have use they protect us help us hunt." [commas or the word and would have helped
"more human deaths THEN?? any orher. (after i guess?) [than*]
rats carry the plague not "rats carries the pleages.. "

"anything else DOES? belong in the house like snakes." [doesn't*]


lets go back to smart rats please haha.



wink.

They're crazy funny, I already fed both out of the hand, we touched, the names start to sink in, I redecorated the cage a bit

and now they're back to sleep.

Looks all great so far.

a reply to: Peeple

You are making me miss the ones we used to have. I don't think the cats would appreciate it though.

a reply to: Peeple

Great setup so far- I can't wait to see more pics! Hooded rats are amazing! Here are a few of some of my more recent roommates:
Harvey & Harrison:

a reply to: seattlerat

Awww.
Tomorrow we will have our first "outside the cage adventure". I'm more excited about it all than they are so far.

And I almost don't take it entirely personal Lillith built a wall and tunnel system between outhouse and home castle.

Crazy b1tch

Today was the first time she want into the hammock! So cute.
First thing she does:

a reply to: Peeple

lol..

a reply to: Reverbs

I believe it was an "inspection", she didn't touch it since. She's much smarter and more outgoing than Lola. Lola learns from observing Lillith. It's quite beautiful actually, she's not dominant towards her friend, but against my hand. Sometimes, otherwise she is much more with you if you work with her. Which I consider a good thing, she knows her name means something good. "Hoch" means go upstairs. Which is important, for maintenance, because sadly if you try to take sthg out of her cage she starts attacking. She is very focused on material stuff. Controls the best house the best food spot etc.

One of the reasons I went for trying rats was they're used in so many studies I wanted to check their behaviour in as good as possible environments without procreation stress, where they're still intellectually stimulated like in experiments etc... So I give them lots of stimuli, always try something new, no routine, without exhausting them, positive and reward based training. Utopia.

So far they seem to get more self confident every day, more awake, we will see where it goes.



They each got a tortellini as welcome home party food, she wrapped that in paper and kept a half one day, now she got new paper and wraps the apple bits.




My first conclusion clearly has to be, even in an unnatural small pack, they have different roles in a two pair one obviously has to be more "dominant" resources controlling in comparison, that's a clear true/false situation.



Don't cry for Lola tough sometimes she only notices what's going on because Lillith shows up in the house with a dried banana. Then she comes out is cute I already scratched her head a bit, the more feminine qualities, a real taker, used to pain it seems. Those were not in good hands she is on the edge of resignation. The new stimuli do her good.
The soft voice she gets more agile. Exploring also a bit more daring the new stuff.
She'll recover.
Lillith tough...
Has severe damage taken, the poor thing.



Finally I am Gawd to someone... oh gaaaawd yes.




Is animal culture a thing?