they really are fun!

Thank you so much joanna for the wonderful suggestion of adding pet rats to the family, we really have had a blast with them, aside from the snakes which i love they have been the best addition we have ever had.

thanks so much!

You're very welcome Ashley. People are always amazed at how great they are as pets. My husband Mike was really resistant to having rats as pets (this was before we bred them for snake food or even had snakes) but he quickly realized they have a lot of the benefits of a companion animal with none of the drawbacks one usually finds with rodents (bad smell, tendency to bite a lot, etc.). Glad you and your family are enjoying them so much! :)

If you or hubby are the handy sort you can create mazes for them. A lot of fun for the kids to "bet" on which rat will get through to the treat the quickest.

Add this one to your favorites list. Probably one of the best sites online for anything you need to know about rats.

http://ratguide.com/

awesome, i added the link to my fav. list.. tonight we brought the rats out "to play" after the kids went to bed and we really enjoyed watching them and playing with them.. my husband actually admitted that they are "cute" and make great pets. its something we can do together (the rats and snakes) we were lacking that lately and were searching for something we could both enjoy doing in home, were young (almost 23) with two young boys so its not often we can go out and party it up like most 20s.. we dont have many friends as we dont have that party lifestyle like the rest.. im glad we found this. wee got lots of pictures tonight of them playing in the living room..


i do have a concern however. the creme and white one is sneezing alot (the all three are really) but the creme and white seems sleepy alot, they will actually fall asleep while your holding them. we switched them over tonight to carefresh ultra bedding to maybe help cut down on the dust & aspen.. hoping it would help a bit (we will see how it works out soon im sure) ill check that website tonight you listed to see if it says anything about the sneezing. i will also add some better pics of the rats tonight

thanks again!!!!

remy
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3/nrok665/2remy.jpg
no tear in ear
remy/missbigears
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3/nrok665/1.jpg
emmie, notice tear in ear
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...5/IMG_7956.jpg
hubby & missbigears, hehe new hair cut to boot ((rolls eyes))
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3/nrok665/3-2.jpg

wow, those came out huge.. sorry! photobucket isnt making them smaller as i thought it would

Don't worry hon, most of us with kids don't have a life either LOL. My husband and I really enjoy our snakes and rats as a shared hobby too.

The rats look good. Likely the sneezing is related to dusty bedding and the typical overcrowding/fight for food and water in pet store enclosures. Just make sure they are on a low dust bedding, keep them well fed and fresh water in their bottle and they will likely be fine. None of them appear to be all fluffed up (guard hairs) and miserable looking or have any red discharge from the nose or eyes (it's not bloody btw it's porphyrin - just in case you see it). The one with the wet eye may just have some dust in there. Treat it like one of your kids, gently wipe the area with a damp, warm cloth.

Look up mycoplasmosis. All rats carry this, it flares up when they are under stress or kept poorly. If they are healthy it'll pass on it's own. Just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get bad.

I use FastStone Image Viewer 3.2 for picture resizing and cropping. Free and easy as pie to use.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm