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

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

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.

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

If anyone wants to get rats just let me know la.

Apparently they need more protein and would need extra dog or cat kibbles in their diet of basic mix. My rats love my cat's food which is Innova Evo.

This post has been edited by Reanne: Nov 20 2006, 11:35 PM

lol
A rat can really speed eat. Winter finishes a fat mealie within 2 seconds. It's like crunch crunch, no more mealie.

But they bite though. lol

Yer... PF there got one very good looking cream male. Dunno if I should get.

lol
I know la. But I don't really intend to breed. Cuz the male has very nice markings and colour.

No more tanks la... Many people FFk on the hams for adoption until now all full up.

Ermm... I don't believe that their colour variation is called morphs. They comes in a huge variety of colours like cream, dove, black, agouti, blonde, white, roan etc.

But very hard to find here cuz nobody breeds fancy rats.

This post has been edited by Reanne: Nov 24 2006, 10:19 AM

Nope, Taman Bahagia is nearer.

Heya Tikusniaga, crazymouse helped me find the colour of Autumn. She is a champagne.

Winter when she was younger

Hehee.. Yea, that's Chelsea. She has her own hamster. Very cute KCS.

http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm#litter

Here's a site with some info on basic care and fun activities for you and your rats. It even shows you how to toilet train your rat.

Got a new rat today. The size of a robo.

It's a baby rat. Very cute. Her name is Snowball! She's only 3 inches from nose to bum.

Now PF got quite a few cute baby rats!!! Go buy before they get fed to snakes and monitor lizards!! They're around RM5 each.


This post has been edited by Reanne: Dec 12 2006, 01:10 AM

SNOWBALL!











Noelle's first pictures on LYN.





This post has been edited by Reanne: Dec 13 2006, 04:49 AM

Autumn

I only keep female rats, so their smell is quite minimal with regular maintenance. Male rats smell much stronger. As for mice, I have 2 pairs and they really poop and pee a lot, very smelly.