Got me some rats!!!

[recycling goddess]

are you serious? oh man, when we had two pet rats they stunk sooooo badly. we couldn't stand it. but i find mice barely smell at all. esp since i only have one male and then two females.

[Shelby]

I've never had rats smell as long as the cage is cleaned weekly.

TekWarren - glad your rats do well on it. I was thinking more of the mixes that have sunflower seeds and corn in them.. a bunch of junk without much nutrients. Problem with those small bags of rodent diet is they're just too darn expensive.

[wolfy-hound]

I got my mice and rats today, although there wasn't any really large female rats, so I will keep one of the larger small rats to breed with. I have some dozen rats in one container and about 25 mice in the other. That is one weeks worth so I only have to drive out for mice and rats every other week. I bought double the amount and fed today, cleaning all the cages as I did so. Everyone ate except 2, my pied female who would rather bite me, and a large male who is in shed. I did use the sticky velcro, and did put it on the inside so I will have to change that. Most likely I will have to make larger enclosures for so many rodents at once. We will see. I still have to make a 3rd enclosure for the breeding pair.
So far so good, although two of my young female BP have gotten out and I have yet to locate them. They have to be in the room somewhere and I will find them no problem. IT is surprising to me that 2 got out at once.

[TekWarren]

Sorry for the snap shelby, I agree the mix bags are expensive and not really enough. Unfortunately that IS how I started and it was a super pain to convince the rodents off it and onto the block diet but once the litters started getting raised on it that problem dissolved.

[Shelby]

Sorry for the snap shelby, I agree the mix bags are expensive and not really enough. Unfortunately that IS how I started and it was a super pain to convince the rodents off it and onto the block diet but once the litters started getting raised on it that problem dissolved.

Yes ratties LOVE junk food! I splurge and give them treats a lot. They go nuts for dry ramen noodles.. try it sometime.

Silly things think anything 'not normal' is a treat. I give them two different brands of dog food.. and if they don't have one for awhile and I give them some again, they all fight over it and eat it all up before touching the other brand!

[TekWarren]

haha yes that is so funny especially watching the little ones steal from each other! I'll have to try the ramen...I think my wife has a whole stash left over from college...I don't think that stuff ever goes bad? My latest treat which they seem to love is a kind of generic frosted mini wheats. Its mostly crushed up into small pieces and more wheat than sugar (we where eating the cereal but most of it somehow got crushed up). I've been giving a little bit of it to them a couple times a week and they seem to like it. Although I probably won't continue giving it to them when its gone since it does have some sugar in it and I don't want obese rats or teeth rotting LOL

[mlededee]

i gave my rats some leftover chicken last night and that about caused a serious brawl. my breeders are in a 3 level wire cage and one of the little males would grab a piece out of the dish, race up to the top to get away from the others and start eating, only to drop the piece of chicken, which would fall back down to the others. then he'd look all confused before racing back down to get another piece. silly butt.

[recycling goddess]

oh you HAVE to give them some cooked spaghetti... it's the funnies thing. one will start eating one end and another the other end (make sure it's long) and they tug and try to take 'their' piece away but it's attached to another...

good entertaining stuff!

[Shelby]

Gotta try spaghetti!

Another thing that's a riot is giving them a cooked hard boiled egg in the shell. They lick it and roll it around and generally look cross-eyed at it until someone gets the idea and bites into it.. then, watch out! Rat fight!

[frankykeno]

Just a few treat ideas I'm trying with our current rat colony.

Frozen Peas - great for summer treats on hot days.

Frozen Fresh Cranberries - you can get bags of these really cheap right after Thanksgiving and Christmas and they freeze w/o blanching - another good summer treat or unfrozen anytime really.

Left over cooked spaghetti - I just sort of drape it through the bars of the wire cage and they have fun and exercise having to climb to retreive it.

Cooked bones from steaks, roasts, etc. - they love them and are great for keeping their teeth nice and worn back

Pizza crusts - I stuff them through the cage bars so that they have to climb and tug to get their treat

Tiny live feeder goldfish - lots of fun for them to hunt live prey themselves, a bit messy so use a really heavy low bowl of water or they'll tip it in their excitement

We actually got this really funny plastic rat hanging toy. It has a ton of holes in it and a chain to hang it up. You put cat kibble or small dry treats in it and they have to bash at it to get the treats to fall out. It also has a bell LOL. A friend gave it to us after she got rid of her pet rats and it's a lot of fun and distracts them from bored destructive chewing.


~~Jo~~