When feeder rats become pets

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Originally Posted by Kinra

Thanks everyone. I ordered a hammock online and it should be here Wednesday.

I will look into getting another cage setup for the male. I've already been thinking about looking for a couple of blues or siameses soon. These guys are awesome and I wish I had some as a kid, hamsters and gerbils have nothing on these guys. :D

The ramps do have some small gripes but I move the levels down so they weren't as steep. There is also an igloo in there that I took out for the picture. If you look at the first picture you can see it at the bottom. I also took out the very large wheel that was in there, should I put it back in or will they get enough exercise running up and down the ramps and when I take them out?

I'm also going to pick up some single level cages soon as maternity cages so the babies won't get trampled.

Edit:
Also does anyone know what they would be called? I was told they were dumbo rats and if I understand color/pattern names they are also call hooded right?

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I love blues and siamese. My best breeding pair are siamese.

Keeping the wheel in the cage won't hurt. Your rats will probably appreciate it. Mine are in theirs constantly. Just make sure it's the right size for them.

Picking up a single level maternity cage is a good idea. Wouldn't want babies falling off the levels. haha

Chocolate is an agouti hooded dumbo. Vanilla may be champagne/fawn variegated dumbo. (variegated is like hooded, but instead of a linear marking along the spine, will have patches)

That's awesome that you're enjoying them that much! They are pretty neat to interact with and they each have their own personalities. They're kind of like snakes in that you can't have just one, lol! I bought mine to raise just as feeders and then got more interested in the coat types, patterns, colors, etc. It's addictive, lol!

I could never feed live because I am a sap. I'm totally fine with feeding frozen, humanely killed feeders, but I could never do it myself! I think they're too cute!!! :P

Chocolate is so adorable!

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Originally Posted by Kamille Kirkendoll

I could never feed live because I am a sap. I'm totally fine with feeding frozen, humanely killed feeders, but I could never do it myself! I think they're too cute!!! :P

Chocolate is so adorable!

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I have trouble feeding live too, but the snake has to eat too. It's easier with mice because I really hate them, but I would rather have my snakes eating rats.

They've both been getting better about being handled (I don't get pooped on any more), but they're still not completely sure about me. :P

I did get them both to take a Yogi from my hand last night. :banana:

They're so much fun. :D

try litter training them, it makes the bedding last longer and cleaner. then they can play out of the cage and when they have to go , they will go in the cage to the litter box.all of mine are litter trained and it took only a day or two.

have fun with them

They are cute. Just watch that they don't chew the plastic cage bottom. I have a similar cage made by the same company and within days my rats chewed a hole in the side. I had to make a new bottom out of coroplast, the cage sits inside of the coroplast so it is shorter now, but works.

So how are your rats settling in? I am a big fan of feeder pet rats, we currently have 0.8 rats, 2 were CL, 2 were pedigree breeder and 4 were feeder breeder. You couldn't tell the difference in personality and where they came from if you ever met my tribe of rats. All 8 of them will come running to the cage door as soon as anyone goes walking by. Over the last 20 years or so of owning snakes we've almost exclusively kept feeder rats as pets and never have I regretted this choice.

We used to raise nice feeder mice by the hundreds when we had full collection of nearly 100 snakes, always had pet rats at the same time but never fed rats, I was thankful that even my largest females over 6 foot still did quite well with 2-3 jumbo mice at a time for meals. I could raise feeder rats but am just glad I never had to :D