Pet Rats - Fancy, fancy, fancy rats

[Quixon]

If you want some cool ass plumbing you can't really find in regular stores:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/def...parentcatid=-1


They have clear schedule 40, and also flexible schedule for pvc pipe. The flexible stuff is great I use it on my reef tanks.

[CoreyX]

I like rodents but I could never have them as pets again because of their short lifespans =/ It's just too depressing. That's why I'm getting an iguana, they can live over 20 years if taken care of properly. I want my future giant lizard beast to be still be roaming around the house when I eventually have kids and I send them off to Mars or whatever people in the future do

[mallister]

iguanas are a serious pain in the ass. i'll never own another lol. i've had greens and black and white spiny iguanas, the black and whites are by far my favorite but they go sort of psychotic when they reach adulthood.

[CoreyX]

iguanas are a serious pain in the ass. i'll never own another lol. i've had greens and black and white spiny iguanas, the black and whites are by far my favorite but they go sort of psychotic when they reach adulthood.

Are you sure it was an actual iguana iguana or a different reptile species that looks similar to iguanas? I loved my green iguana, he did get a little irritable during mating season but it wasn't anything terrible. They are a lot of work to take care of but it's worth it IMO. My iguana was super sweet and tame and loved going places with me. I would take him to grocery stores and give him "free" samples from the produce isle lol. It's a nice conversation starter too with random strangers who either freak out or think it's adorable. He also loved to cuddle and absorb my body warmth

[mallister]

lol, yes i'm sure it was an iguana, just not a green iguana. black and white spiny iguanas (Ctenosaura similis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenosaura_similis) start out really docile as juveniles. by the time they're two years old, they're...not docile. it's pretty well documented with the species, i just didn't know it when i got my trio back in 1994 because nobody knew much about them. there just wasn't a lot of readily available literature.

some pics:

Spoiler: show

i'd own another one if i got a wild hair up my ass. fresno's hot enough i could build a place outdoors for it 7-8 months out of the year (with supplemental heat in spring/fall). they're omnivores so are a lot easier to raise properly.

green iguanas are a different story; they're just a pain in the ass in general. do not want. some folks love theirs; i had a good friend with a hand reared green iguana that was freaking awesome, but in general, not for me. too many things can go wrong with them as juveniles and i simply don't have the time to devote to them. had to do too many rescues from folks that got the cute little green lizard and fed it lettuce like the nice folks at the pet store said to.

[Ragns]

This thread is still about rats:

[Byrthnoth]

Rats are also nice because they'll pretty much eat wax (chocolate jimmies) and love it. We used to motivate them during behavioral tasks with chocolate jimmies and feed them fruit loops as treats.

[Cantih]

[WrenDraco]

My rats only made it to just over two years old but I knew a lady whose rats were almost eight when they passed away of old age so you never know. My gerbils lived to be over four, when they usually live one or two years, and even then it was a tumour that got one of them and depression at losing his brother that got the other. They are so social that they can get very depressed if they don't get enough interaction, that's why it's always a good idea to get a pair so they aren't alone when you go to work or whatever. And teaching them tricks is great bonding and also really good mental stimulation. Not that different from dogs, really.

The chattering is usually a happy sound. They also grind their teeth, it's called bruxing and generally means they are very relaxed. If you pet or scratch one just right they also do a crazy full-body vibrating kind of high-pitched purr sound that means they're REALLY happy.

I found the carefresh to be the least smelly, I also worked in a pet store with the wood shavings and carefresh was much nicer.

[Mina]

This thread is still about rats:

Looks exactly like Pepa.

I'm going to have to try a lot more treats. So far the things I own in the house that they seem to like are...
Pepa: sunflower seeds, fresh fruit.
Salt: puffed cereal

I got to pet Salt this morning. She was really drowsy and not paying attention so I got to pet her LOTS. I was really happy about that. Of course after I closed the cage door and she realized what happened she darted to the safety of "under the stairs" in the cage.

[jinkazama]

I miss my rats. I had two for an Operant Conditioning experiment and thesis. Like it's been said, they are incredibly smart. Wish I had my maze still, they loved that thing.

[Mina]

Auuughhh man what a bad morning for me!

I'll start this story by saying they are safely back in their cage.

So apparently they chewed a hole through the bottom of their plastic liner. I guess they did a pretty good job of hiding that fact from me although I'm not to pleased they pulled it off. (Note the cage I had did not have any cage to prevent them from escaping after they got through the liner)

Thankfully the rats were not caught by my cat while I was sleeping last night. Cid didn't even seem to even care as he watched them dart around. I'm mystified by my cat's behavior. I ended up luring them back into the cage by putting all sorts of treats and good smells in the cage and leaving it on the floor for them to climb into.

New cage is being shipped.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BGznDyXDL.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
this time no chewing escapes.

litter pan is shallow but I can modify that.

[Grey Jorildyn]

That's the same cage I had. Well, still have in the garage. Rats are excellent at hiding tunnels and stuff. It's part of their survival instinct.

My older cat did not care when we let them run around either. In fact she'd often sit under or around the cage because she didn't mind them. One or two of them would try to clean her (long-haired cat), but she'd just let them do whatever with her fur and she'd go somewhere else. Interestingly enough she would also cat live mice from outside and bring them indoors and look at me with "can I keep him?" eyes. Such an odd animal she is.

[Mina]

I'm hoping this new cage will be very spacious. The reviews and videos I've seen of this cage seem pretty positive about it and I've learned from my experience with my current cage that cleaning a cage through a tiny opening is a pain. Rats are great escape artists anyways so even when I try to maneuver around to pet them or clean or do anything they are already diving out of their cage.

So hopefully when you say had you mean it in a positive way that the cage wasn't bad or defective!

Yeah it's really weird! I thought my cat would have caught these rats or chased them with that hunter gaze he has for birds but he just watched me freak out over catching them for a few hours and went to go drink from his water bowl.

[BaneTheBrawler]

keep/escape proof the small cage, put them in it while you clean their usual cage.

[Ksandra]

when we first got our rats, one of them was so small she could fit through the bars. She used to crawl into the bed sheet at night (scared the shit out of us the first time).

Thank god she got fat lol.

[Leashedragon]

We've had rats in at work (humane society) for a little over a month now. I must say they have completely changed my mind on them. Before I would never consider having one as a pet, now I would love to.

First we got three male rats in. The one was NOT socialized very well at all. He drew blood on me once, and constantly got ahold of my gloves while cleaning/changing food. The other two males were more social and I could handle them. Then we got 7 baby females and 2 adult females. My GOD were the babies fluffy and cute. They would totem pole behind the plastic wheel in the cage. Their momma and her sister were very friendly and I would walk around the shelter with momma on my shoulder for a while. People would come in surprised at her just sitting there. I'd hand her little treats and she'd nicely take and eat them.

I did a lot of research into their care so I could take the best care of them at the shelter. I'll often give them paper towel to shred for fun/nest. I also went out and spent 60$ buying them wooden toys to play and chew on, and yogurt treats. I also spend around 8-10$ buying greens, fruits, and veggies on them(and the rabbits) every other week. I'll share a banana with them in the mornings, splitting a piece off and giving it to each of the rats, then eat the left over. They LOVE banana. They weren't too into the plums I bought.

I made the mistake of leaving the papel towel roll too close to the one rats cage, though. The next morning I came in.. he had pulled the WHOLE ROLL into his cage. I could not stop laughing and pulled my co-workers over to show them his paper towel mansion he made. He seemed quite happy with it.

[Mina]

NEW CAGE IS HERE!


I've taken up sewing... this is made with fleece with an old old old towel inside the fleece sheets for absorption.


I still need to make them for all the levels but I'm exhausted learning how to sew and the running around /cleaning I've done all day. They can be satisfied with one nice level until I can make another.