Rats!!

[Hypnorm]

Just read a post where some one said Rats were vermin - how wrong can you be!
So I thought i'd put up a post for all the rat lovers out there.

I started owning rats in 1998 when i moved out of home, mum hated the idea, my first rat was called Foster mum fell in love with him when she saw him and is now a rat lover. My hubby hated rats but i converted him too! he thought they were vermin (from a farmers point of view) but then Rat sat a friends rats and loved them so got two of his own!

I am presently Ratless as i dont have enough time to devote to them and my last boy got sadly neglected after ewan arrived.
So heres to all my boys - RIP
Foster - 3yrs
Audi - 2yrs
Louis - 1.5yrs
Max - 2.5 yrs
Rum - 2yrs
Raisin - 3yrs
Spot - 3 yrs
Fidgit - 2yrs
Badger - 2yrs
Coco - 2.5 yrs

My boys.
Rats are the Best pets!! they are clean easy to tame and rarely bite and love attention.

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

hey, I agree with you

I love rats too, my last was a lovely albino boy called Merlin, he was so adorable, he would sit on my shoulder under my hair and fall asleep, or he would sleep in the crook of my arm, he was so active and playful! He sadly had to be put to sleep after getting a brain tumor

They are seriously under-rated as pets, they're clean, intelligent (thats why they are used in experiments so often ) very affectionate and playful, my kids have about 6 at the moment and love them to bits!

I keep threatening to get another rat but my OH has the usual prejudices against them, oh well!

 

[Riley's Mommy]

ive kept rats for years. im a member of a rat forum. and it annoys me when people call them vermin. im ratless atm too because of stupid landlord. but i have loved everyone of my rats.

i previoisly had 20 rats. 15 girls and 5 boys. of all different colours including siamese, burmese, hoddies, berkies.

i miss them everyday. and there so intelligent. oh i could go on forever

 

[Hypnorm]

The most we had was 4 althogether, Spot a rescue rat, whose owner was going to PTS him, fidfit, coco and badger, i got from pets at home, they were the last rats left, very skittish, never made cuddly rats but were great still.

I've only had one Rat die naturally, and that was Spot i came home after a night duty and he was cuddled up in his little tub died sleeping bless he looked so peaceful.

All the others i have had to PTS - i've done them all my self, one of the blessings of being a vet nurse. i could just go in to work and do it peacefully instead of being rushed through a consulting room.

most are burried in the garden - my collegues though i was mad when i had audi and foster individually cremated, they are in a lovely box upstairs, louis was cremated but i scattered his ashes under the rose bush. Max was cremated and scatter too, but spot, coco, fidgit and badger are all in the garden - its like a crematorium out there!

 

[Riley's Mommy]

can i take a guess that the ones who had to be pts had breathing problems?

alot of mine have had that. its called mycoplasma, every rat has it lying dorment, but the use of sawdust and bad breeding makes it act up. all my petshop rats have had it and alot of my rescues too. the only ones who didnt have it were the rats i got from breeders.

 

[Hypnorm]

Yep all but two were mycoplasma.
Foster had degenerative myopathy - he gradually lost the use of his tail, and he got stiff on his hips then he started dragging his back feet, untill his whole back end wasnt working, i rearranged his cage in to one level for him put old carpet on the floor so he could pull him self around and got him an angled feeding bowl he was happy and stilll lively. but eventually his front hands werent gripping and his breathing was bad so i had him PTS, that was heart breaking, as he had been my sole companion whilst living away from home for the fisrt time, plus he was my first rat so his is very special.
Coco had the same too.

Myco is a pain and so horrible, and once they have it all you can do is manage it with anitbiotics like baytril, and mycolytics like bisolovon.
steaming then in the shower can help, also ecinachea can help. in the liquid form but no alcohol liquid.

 

[Londoner Claire]

Great thread, rats are brilliant pets. My sons dad started me off on them then I started breeding them until I had Ryan. I currently only have two, Charlie and Cinnamon. Cinnamons brother died a couple of months ago, don't know what of as he seemed fine to me, just found him dead. Charlie's brother ended up covered in lumps but apparently wasn't suffering so I didn't have him put to sleep until they got too large for him to run about properly.

I'm glad someone mentioned sawdust. I went to Birdworld two weeks ago and they were cleaning out the rat cages and using sawdust, Pet Shops do as well. It really annoys me that people who are meant to specialise in animals don't know the danger of using the stuff! I myself use shredded newspaper.

Here are a couple of pics of my boys.

I prefer males, more relaxed I think.

The one on the left is Storm who died, middle is Cinnamon and on the right is Charlie.

With my cat Smokey

Tootsie on Ryan's shoulder (RIP Tootsie)

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

thanks for sharing your pics claire, thier sooo gorgous and really make me want a rat again!

Tootsie looks like he was really mischievous!

 

[Londoner Claire]

Oh he was the best, Charlie was very reserved until he lost his brother. He lost a lot of fur afterwards too but it's so hard to get new rats to get on with current ones. It took a whole year for him to get on with the two I rescued. I had to get a huge cage but they all snuggled up together in the end and his fur grew back as he wasn't lonely anymore.