Welcome to The Rat Thread!

Why Rats?!

It's actually a very simple question to answer. Rats make great pets as they're very intelligent, sociable, inquisitive, lovable and enjoy spending time with you.

Contrary to popular belief, they are actually very clean animals and the rats themselves do not have the infamous bubonic plague, it's the parasites on them that carry it. But domestic rats do not carry parasites, though there are rare exceptional cases.

Rats can be trained to recognize their name, learn tricks like stand and now there are even rats that are trained to detect landmines.

Coloured rats such as hooded and dutch, are commonly called fancy rats. I would say most domestic rats make good pets, even if they are albino or coloured. Good upbringing and attention will result in a wonderful companion that sits in your pocket or waits for you in his comfy cage at home.

A Rat? Or Two?

Rats should never live alone. They are very social creatures and need a companion to groom, socialize and play with. Even if you think it's alright if you spend 4 hours a day playing with it, what about the other 20 hours? They should be in pairs to avoid loneliness. Single sex pairs are the best.

Don't be afraid that two rats equals more work. It's almost the same to take care of two rats as it is to care for one.

What to Feed Them?

Generally, a high protein and low fat diet is recommended. Lab blocks are the best staple but difficult to get here. They need higher protein levels, which can be supplemented by good quality cat/dog kibble. Recommended brands are eaglepack, CSFTCLS, california natural, innova evo, Royal Canin and Nutro.

You can use a basic hamster mix and supplement it with natural ingredients to ensure a more diverse and balanced diet.

Here are some sites that can help.

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/homemadediet.htm

http://www.ratz.co.uk/petrat.html#Feeding%20rats

Start with pics of Crazymouse and my rats.



Winter



Autumn



Crazymouse's brown hooded


Crazymouse's cream hooded



Rattie Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup of chicken broth (No MSG)
1/3 cup margarine
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon sugar
1 egg beaten
1 clove garlic, minced

*For a meaty texture, cooked chicken meat or cooked livers can be used but must be minced in a food processor after it is cooked.

Directions

In a large bowl, pour the chicken stock over the margarine.
Then stir in powdered milk, salt, sugar, egg and minced garlic.
Add flour 1/2 at a time, mix well after adding each 1/2 cup of flour.
Knead the dough till stiff and clean.
Roll in to half inch thickness.
Cut into your favourite shapes and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 325 degree for 45 min. in the oven.

*if using minced chicken meat or chicken livers, add into the mixture before the flour and mix well. If the dough appears too dry, add a bit more chicken broth or plain water.

This post has been edited by Reanne: May 23 2007, 11:07 PM

seriously wondering. do ppl keep longkang mouse ?

LOngkang rat cannot be kept cause they have disease and horrible parasites on them that can pass on to humans. Well, there is a possibility to train a Brown rat(the longkang rats) to be pets but very risky. I once tried to save a young brown rat coz it fell off the roof but couldn't, died in 2 weeks under my care...

Yay, now I get to see my ratties... yah... must change my nick liao hahahah...

Long Kang mouse???!!

My Winter and Autumn are not long kang mouse!

They are considered fancy rats, except for Winter.

This post has been edited by Reanne: Nov 19 2006, 05:43 PM

I saw some of these at pets family. Tempted to get, hehe... my family would freak I guess.

Well, is the eyes really red or they are caused by the camera's light?Anyway, too bad i dont really like rats.The tail always scares me off but those pictures that Reanne had posted does look cute.Are they hard to take care?

wat ?

keep rat ...... ?

the tail r so scary .....



~hamster and gerbil still acceptable for me , but.......RAT .....

~juz my 2c ,




This post has been edited by steventan85: Nov 19 2006, 08:34 PM

Crazymouse's rats and my Noelle are from there. I haven't posted any of Noelle's pics, will later.

Winter and Autumn's eyes are red, Noelle's and both of Crazymouse's are black.

Nope, they're very easy to care for. They can bond to you and can even learn tricks. Very intelligent animals. They are also like gliders in that they are true pocket pets.

My 2cents is that they actually make better pets than most common small pets.

Aiyoh, I can't wait to get them hahahah...

Precisely Reanne.

Why?
1) Clean, know where the toilet is, always groom themselves.
2) People friendly, can recognise owner and know it own name. Just like a dog.
3) Can be trained to do tricks, even can do work for you for peanuts. Rats have been trained to look for land mines.

waaa happy la u..lol

i think rats (in general) are getting a bad name solely because of the reputation of their cousins the "longkang" rats. to the untrained eye and due to lack of knowledge, they are all the same even though they're totally different species/subspecies

Rats are actually considered the best pocket pets.... correct, people misjudge them coz there are those wild feral rats that are dirty and eat everything...

Yes, best pocket pet.

Or you also can put on your head , with a cap over it. The rat will sit there quietly for hours.

I know Reanne put her Winter in her T-shirt for hours with any problem.

WELL, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. Take your time to do some research on rats and you probably will hook to it.



My rat and mouse

pocket pets meaning, can put in pockets? come to think of it, i've seen scenes in movies or in tv where they bring their pet rats, put wherever on their body (t-shirt, pocket,under hat,etc) and they stay still. i think only rats are like that. all other pets wil get agitated

are they smelly?
will their tank or cage smells as bad as hamsters'?

It depends. They have a different smell compared to hams.

Once my granpa gota brown rat as pet, he kept it for about 20 years oredi ! in only a Milo tin. my granpa used to feed the rat with Durian, Milo, sometimes with cheese, of course taking the rat out to feed it, & i can see that the rat also been tame by my granpa, it won't run's away, but still can't escape from dead, it was so old that time oredi.

20 years? I don't think a rat can live that long.... maybe 3 to 4years. There is a potential of 7 years... if 20 years, can masuk guinness world records for oldest living common rat loh.

haha. mayb ur grandpa buy another one to replace wothout u knwing it.

by the way, how much is one rat woh? diet same like hamster ar?