New Rat

I got a new rat tonight, absolute sweetheart. Grey and white female, i'll be getting her a black and white pal tomarrow (i want to make sure i can tell the diffrence. lol). here are some pictures of her set up, this is my first pet rat, so any suggestions are definatley welcome :D
The names that i have picked out for arats are from the book Copper Sun.
Teenie
Tidbit
Hushpuppy

is what i'm choosing from, im going to wait untill tomarrow when i get the other girl to decide what to name them.
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...7/PC065697.jpg

Thos brown things are nuts, i wanted to make sure she had a few treats when she got into her new cage, make her feel at home.

oh, and i know, water bowls get really messy..i'm getting them a bottle tomarrow when i get the other rat :)

Nice rat! Looks like a nice setup! What are you feeding them?

uhm, nutrafood (?) rat mix, and i got some nutrition pellet things....i can take pix if you want. I basically got what they told me was the best for her, considering i am a new rat owner.

I'd get rid of the wheel, as those are known to break tails or even dislocate hips/shatter femurs. Get a solid bottom wheel or a Senior Wodent Wheel(search online.

Also, that food is junk. There is nothing in there that is even close to what they need nutrition-wise, and their health will suffer for it. Read the recipe I posted in the feeder section under "Becky's Mix". It is much cheaper and nutritionally balanced. Also, I wouldn't get the lab blocks sold in pet stores. They generally have ethoxyquin in them as a preservative, which is known to cause cancer. Purina Mazuri blocks(6F) can be found at any Purina mill(feed store). Or you can search online and have some Harlan Teklad blocks shipped to you(2014 or 2016).

If you can, get them a decent powder-coated wire cage(Super Pet cages are ok, just watch for bar spacing) One with a few levels would be ideal. Tanks just don't have adequate ventilation unless there is only one rat in them(about to birth or raising babies) for a short time. It wreaks havoc on their lungs and they can get scarring from the ammonia build up.

Good luck with them and watch out for breathing issues. They may sneeze more than normal(which is ok), but if it gets any worse such as they have porphyrin crusting around their eyes/nose, their breathing is labored, sides sunken in, or they are open-mouth breathing, they need to see a vet immediately.

anyone ever try that rat food from ratsicles? It is cheap and seems like it has a good make up as far as I can tell, but I am no expert on rodent nutrition. I 2nd that wire cage thing, they will start to small absolutely horrible in there even with frequent cleanings. the wire cage will help with smell more than you can imagine.

like i said, suggestions are welcome :), i have tri colored pasta, cherrios, kashi, lentils/split peas, peanuts, and raisin bran. i'll get the other things tomarrow, but i'll put that in her food dish tonight. And, i took the wheel out. She was trying to get on top of it anyways, and was almost falling over, and it just wouldnt be safe, so i took it out. It is made so it looks like it can't cut their tails, but whatever, no point in taking a risk either way :).

Thanks all, ill keep you posted :D

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Originally Posted by Amy05

like i said, suggestions are welcome :), i have tri colored pasta, cherrios, kashi, lentils/split peas, peanuts, and raisin bran. i'll get the other things tomarrow, but i'll put that in her food dish tonight. And, i took the wheel out. She was trying to get on top of it anyways, and was almost falling over, and it just wouldnt be safe, so i took it out. It is made so it looks like it can't cut their tails, but whatever, no point in taking a risk either way :).

Thanks all, ill keep you posted :D

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are these breeders? I will be ordering rats from rodentpro tonight but i think i will still try to breed a few rats and freeze em at the sizes i need anyway. i have an extra 4x2x2 enclosure so why not

nope, just pets. I might breed them in the future, but for now, nope just pets.

Both females right? You can give them things like toilet paper rolls to play with, or even ripped up strips from old phone books (they love dragging it around and building sleeping nests with the stuff....great way to recycle old phone books too). Old shoe boxes or big kleenex boxes with a couple of holes cut out (they'll chew more too) make fun places for pet rats to explore. Eventually you can even buy a glass tank topper (made of rodent safe wire) made especially for rodents that give them a second level to play on and expand their available living area. Make sure to provide lots of hard food or things to chew on....rodents teeth never stop growing. Don't offer any head lettuce (it's all water), other greens are fine in small amounts...too much and they get the runs (yuck!). Mine love the big bag from GFS that's called "Spring Mix" as a once in awhile treat. They are great for eating up all sorts of kitchen leftovers....chicken wing bones being a huge treat for my colony for instance. I just keep a covered icecream bucket in the fridge marked RATS ONLY and put all sorts of scraps in there for the rattie crew.

Pet rats are great fun. They are extremely sociable and quite loving to the humans they know. I'm glad you are getting a second one as rats get very down if they have to live alone.

Also get some clips for the screen top, when they get older, they can easily reach that lid and push it off.

Good eye Robin! Amy you can get good strong black metal clips at most any major chain pet store. They are generally rated by size of tank.

I'll go ahead and try to find some clips when i go to the store today to get the second rat. I am at school now, and i put 2 textbooks on top of it, i cant even lift it with the books on there. lol. I put it towards the metal side though, so the screen wont fall in. I found this website:
http://www.dapper.com.au/fun.htm

that has a TON of play ideas, information, nutritional advice, etc. etc. I'm going to sift through it tonight and put some play stuff in their tank once i get the second rat. I'm also going to go ahead and get a water bottle, and food dispenser if they have one, i woke up this morning and there was TONS of bedding in both. lol.

oh, and to whoever suggested the wire cage (i forget who it was, sorry), i am going to stick with the glass one for now. I am at my computer a lot, and the tank is right next to me. Everytime they go to the bathroom i get up and clean it...im pretty much a cleaning freak, i'll make sure it stays clean. And if i do have a problem i'll switch over.

Thanks for the advice everybody! i'll post pictures of the new girl when i get her :)

They can do fine in glass as well as long as it's well ventilated by that mesh top and kept nice and clean. Females don't tend to smell as much as the males anyways (and they really don't smell much either if kept clean and not overcrowded).

This is what I meant by a wire tank topper. It secures to the top of any standard 10 or 20 gallon glass tank and doubles the living space (plus has a handy urine guard so you don't have rat urine running down the sides of the glass (ick).

http://www.qualitycage.com/rat.html

For the money though I'd go with the Rat Town Home. Looks pretty nice, though I'd replace that wire wheel with a solid one but those tank toppers are nice too.