some rat questions

ok, i know nothing about rodents but right now i have to take care of one because my snakes aren't eating. i p/k the other on and didnt want to by 2 more rats so i just kept this one. anyway, i have a couple Qs about him. first, how do i tell if its a boy or a girl? second, ive been feeding him dogfood and carrots. will that keep him healthy and happy till my snakes eat? third, is newspaper a suitable bedding fo him? i'm keeping him in our backyard, in a 20g, with a little cardboard box for him/her to hide in. is that ok?

ok, i think i got it all. thanks:)

i used to keep rats. you might want to buy some rat food made for rats. maybe just a small bag because dog food has way too much protein for the rat. carrots are fine. is it cold outside during the night where you live? if its too cold, you might want to keep him in the garage. rats acutally do not smell so keeping it indoors would be most ideal. newspaper is fine. make sure there is plenty of water. as far as being male or female, males will have pronounce testicles under the tail. just watch him/her for a few minutes and if you see testicles, its male. if not, female. i am actually thinking about breeding rats to save money constantly buying rats. so that might be an option for you too. good luck.

Yeah, Males are really easy to tell. They will eventually have to straddle their "testicles" as they get bigger. Those things will just drag along behind them. :) I used to feed them dog food, but they will eventually get a protien rash that is really disgusting and bleeds a lot. But if your only going to keep him for a week or so, you should be fine. The protien problem is a long term problem and has no short term effects on them.
~Jim

As far as dog food goes.. feed Nutro Lite! It is LOW protein, and very high quality. Commercial rat foods (that you find at an average pet store) are crap.. don't waste your money.

Never use newspaper, because your rats will stink FAST. Go get some aspen shavings, or carefresh or whatever.

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Those things will just drag along behind them.

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HAHAHA - no DOUBT. What I call "draggin baggage" - makes them rather easy to seperate once they've matured to that point.

As far as the food goes I have used both Beneful and Kibbles and Chunks when the Beneful is unobtainable and not seen the rash mentioned. The mix is heavily adulterated with grain cereals though.

I've been trying the newspaper supersubstrate (laid underneath the shavings - not instead of) idea for a bit now and it really doesnt seem to affect the odor one way or the other. If it makes cleaning the bigger tanks easier though I may stick with it.

Yeah, it's not common, but it does occur when they are overfed protien and underfed all other forms of nurishment...I used to feed mine only dogfood and soon realized my mistake... :redface:

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only dogfood

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OK I gotcha now.

Sounds kind of like what happens to me on a strict diet of Cuervo and SuzyQs ;)

Okay then...well that'll do it too

its not too cold, about 50-60. is that ok? and what would you recomend i feed if i cant go out and by anything? my mom has a whole crisper of organic fruits and veggies so if you name it i probably have it.

Cooler temps are actually better for rodents. 50-60 is fine.

If you have any grains/cereals, they are good to mix with dog food. Stuff like puffed rice/wheat, cherrios, oats.. etc. Nothing with sugar added though.

ok, cool. like i said... my mom has all kind of organic stuff. all kinds of no-sugar, grain, wheat cereal.

i've decided to keep breeder rat's. i was thinking of getting some of those shelves with tupperware shoeboxes to house them. are those big enough, have enough ventilation, etc.?

also, if i keep them in my room with my snakes. will the smell of the rat agitate, or stress my snakes out? so far i feed my one rat a little dogfood, mostly cereal(no-sugar, wheat/grain type cereal), and some veggies. im keeping him on aspen in a 20L. is everything right so far?

A shoebox is waaaay too small. Plus that.. the rats will chew out of any rubbermaid shoe/sweater/whatever box. Do yourself a favor and buy lab style rodent cages. I got mine here http://www.bigappleherp.com/bigapple...roducts/110100

Snakes/rodents in the same room is fine. Feed half dog food (quality! get Nutro brand Lite variety) and half cereal mix. My mix is:

cherrios
puffed rice and wheat
oats
tri color pasta

I've never had any mice or rats chew their way out of the tubs I use...rubbermaid/steralite. Sure they do some chewing if they can get a hold of an edge...but personaly never had a rodent go all the way through.

I modify the cover by cutting most of it out and securing hardware cloth (mesh) in its place. Then just use office type paper clasps to keep the cover secure. The only time I've had escapes is when using short tubs with hardware cloth that was big enough for hopper mice to squeeze through so be mindfull of that.

cool, thanks. i'll try that and see how it works.

I have found that some individual mice/rats will chew more than others. I kept a pair of rats in a tub for months and months just fine.. I put different rats in the same exact thing, and a few weeks later there's a 4" hole chewed in it. I have 8 tubs with holes chewed right through them.. try it if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you.

yeah, i know what you're saying. the rat i have, i have'ne seen chewing anything yet. could it be cuz he's a small rat?

He probably just hasn't figured it out yet.

i noticed he licks me a lot too. he's so cool! do your rats lick you?

Yeah tame rats love to lick and groom you. Sometimes you can make them 'melt' by scratching their back and their ears.

LOL! mine "melts" when i do that too! you know the funny thing, i used to be scared of rats!

I was never scared of them.. I don't 'get' being scared of rats.. mice though, I'm always afraid they're going to bite me!

LOL, shelby. we've done it again! i guess we just like hijacking my threads.

Eh, it still has to do with rats.

to keep rodents from chewing you can give them things to keep them occupied. I usually raise my rats with a running wheel available so they don't look for other things to do. I don't have the smaller mice very long as they are fed off to the smaller snakes but little hides like the cardboard toilete paper rolls work wonders for another "distraction from things like chewing. If they are chewing most likely they are bored...so give them something to do.

I give mine paper towel tubes to chew on too. Rodents don't chew because they are bored, they chew to keep their teeth ground down.. they also will look for a place to escape.

Actually rodents in captivity WILL chew because they are bored...and yes the goal usually being to escape. Keeping their teeth ground down is a given and again leads back to what you have available to them to do such natural tasks. If your not feeding foods that will help keep the teeth warn or other "objects" for them to naw on then ya I can see why you'd end up with holes in your tubs.

Point being if you are setup correctly you can raise colonies of rats and mice in sterolite/rubbermaid tubs with no problems...I've been successfull for years.

Well, I feed mine crunchy things (raw pasta/dog food) and I give them things to chew on, and I still have holes in my tubs. They sometimes start the holes from ventilation holes I drilled in the sides, but they even start the holes by themselves.

Let's put it this way.. they're capable of chewing through sterilite/rubbermaid plastic!

i finally went to walmart and got a 3 tub shelf. i'm gonna get another rat for a breeder on wednesday.

BTW, do you guys think you could tell if my rat is a boy/girl from a pic of its underside? it's only 54g's

Shelby, that brings up a good point with vent holes. When I used vent holes on the sides of the actual tub I had to make sure I put them up high where the rodents couldn't reach them. I don't use any holes in the actual tubs now as the top is nearly all open. I cut out the whole center of the tub lids and fasten the mesh in place of it so the lid still snaps down (but I also use clasps) but has free flowing ventilation.

mr p: you should be able to distinquish between males and females around 4ish weeks give or take a few days of development.

i honestly dont know how old it is though. it's 53 grams, would that put it at four weeks?

I would assume near 4 but without knowing what they have been eating and how often etc... This may help you more: If the rat is 1.5 - 2 times the size of an adult moust...you should be able tell the difference. The "sack" will be prominently hanging.

ooh ok, then "howard" is deffinitely a girl. i think i'm just gonna feed him to zulu