lets see pics!

of your bins/cages/rats/feeders/exc

i wanna see everyones pets :D

im thinking about getting a large cage, looks like a ferret type cage, i saw one here with a group of female rats, forgot which member sorry :( (found it on craigslist) but im still up in the air on whether or not to pick it up, $20 seems like a steal if it has all its parts

ive listed mine in other posts lol but will again later

Here are my breeder tanks. A few are vacant now and one has feed in it; only have one dam on babies, but two are preggo. I just fed off 6 weaners last night; fat, happy snakes. :) In these tanks are 2 preggos, one male I am growing up, and my breeder male with his current girlfriend. I keep my large feed-mix bucket in the chest freezer to keep away feed bugs. I bag about a week's worth to make it easier on myself.
My rats are not pets; they are feed. If I got out of snakes, there would be no more rats for me! (not that that would happen..)

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...rattatanks.jpg

wow, i cant imagine having a room dedicated to the feeders like that lol... im a huge horse lover so i love the painting on your wall. i just sold our 2yr old APHA blue roan gelding a year ago.. before that we had a OTTB stallion and mare :( i miss our horses! were getting our son a small horse sometime next year, we hope he can continue the rodeo legacy ;)

I love horses too. :) This used to be my art room, until I moved that stuff into the dining room, so hence the painting on the wall. This is actually also a laundry and utility room also; it is great to have the sink in there for tank-cleaning, and it is where I clean out my snakes' tubs also.

great setup! im jelous lol

i love your siggy pics as well

Might you be thinking this?

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../Rattycage.JPG

If the one you found is similar to mine, then $20 isn't just a steal...it's a frickin crime! I paid over $200 for that cage, not counting the hardware and wire to convert it. :)

Good luck.

yes, something very similar. not as tall more box shaped, i do plan to pick it up though! i think the one im getting is more for ferrets, please check my post in "other pets" about litter training! i have a few questions about that enclosure (yours) if i find the pic of the one shes selling ill post it for comments on it.. i want to be a smart buyer for our little girls!
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...547fe274da.jpg

thats what shes selling for 20

LOL we're playing post tag here. :D

I know that cage type, we had one just like it as a quarantine cage for ferrets at the store. As long as it's still in good shape, it should serve well. See my post to you in 'Rat Cages' for info on wire bottoms.
As for the wire sides, you have to make sure the spaces are no more than 1/2". Most ferret/rabbit cages have much wider spaces, closer to 1", that a rat will find a way to squeeze through...or injure itself trying. That's why I put the hardware cloth wire over my girl's cage.

I think you should be fine with that cage there, as long as you make sure of the wire space (which I think was ok from the cage I remember) and maybe use the "Magic Mat' I was talking about in the other post to cover the shelves.

What do you other rat enthusiasts think?

Argentra - I love that setup....It is like a rat heaven

Here's my setup. These are breeder/feeders.....

First the mouse cages
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/100_0839.jpg


I have just recently gotten into rats..Iam experimenting with them trying to see what the best way to house/breed them for me is...So here are their cages
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/100_0840.jpg

what size tubs are those?

Those are the racks



http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...r/MiceRack.jpg http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...er/RatRack.jpg

On the left is the one for mice and on the right the one for rats.

here's an older pic of one of my rat racks... and my dog looking sheepish... :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...bylka/rack.jpg

You use cedar?? I sure hope you don't still use that mess. It's only good for dog beds where nothing can come in direct contact with it.

Here's the "maternity ward" for the preggo's and their resulting litters....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...rnityTanks.jpg

Breeder tub (about 19 x 32 x 14) which usually holds one adult male and up to three or four adult females cycling through with him....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ubSideView.jpg

We also use that same type of tub for our weans to grow out in, one for the males, one for the females.

We also have two very large glass tanks. One is the permanent bachelor pad where our 6 breeder males hang out between "calls to duty" LOL. The other is where our retired females live and where the breeder females go to rest and hang out with the other females until it's time for their return trip to the breeder tub.

Add to that a couple of spare tubs where females with really large litters are put so they have more space than the 10 gallon tanks to raise their big litters in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

You use cedar?? I sure hope you don't still use that mess. It's only good for dog beds where nothing can come in direct contact with it.

---

no, no not any more, it was a week-long experiment...

that picture is over a year old. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kagez28

what size tubs are those?

---

I think you where referring to mine...

For the rats the tubs are 18" x 11" and 12" high...Not sure what quart

For the mice the small cages are 12 1/2 " x 8" x 5 1/3"

The large cages are 18 7/8" x 13 3/4" x 7 7/8"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kagez28

what size tubs are those?

---

they look like the 42qt? tubs. Sterilite. Used it, but now have a rack.

Here's some of our rats....

HoneyChild (a beige hooded) with her first litter and our first rat litter ever birthed...the start of it all LOL....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...withlitter.jpg

HoneyChild today at around 2 years of age...she's retired as a breeder and just hangs out keeping the other females company and occasionally runnng herd on the newly weaned female feeder group....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...monthsold2.jpg

Squeekers, one of our breeder females, as a young rat....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../Sqeekers2.jpg

Stubby, another breeder female who was born into our colony, spent her life producing some lovely feeders for the snakes and is now happily retired and hanging out with HoneyChild....Stubs lost her tail as a newborn pink.....this is our "I love my food bowl" rat LOL......
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...odedFemale.jpg

Alita nursing her 18 babies while trying to grab a nap....she recently passed away after spending a few months lazing about in retirement....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ManyBabies.jpg

Betsy Buttpatch, who seems to think the only litter should be 18! LOL....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...PatchMar07.jpg

Dee, female Dumbo eared rat....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ibleDumbo1.jpg

Lightning, one of the adult males....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...tningMar07.jpg

Casanova, back in the day, our oldest breeder male whose still occasionally fathering litters at 2 years of age....a big love of a male rat that has always fathered perfect litters and is a favorite of the breeder females....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...reederMale.jpg

That's just a few of em! :)

those were awesome!! i love the one of momma nursing on her belly, PRICELESS! lol

Thanks! Alita was a great rat, very big and friendly with humans and the other rats and produced excellent litters during her time as a breeder. She was actually an adult that I found heavily pregnant at a pet store. The poor thing was in a big bin of adult males and very close to delivering so feeling sorry for her I had to bring her home. She had the worst delivery I've ever seen in a rat and almost bled out. Lost most of that litter and what did survive had to be fostered out to another female. Alita did however survive and after a long rest and some good eats went on to a very productive life. We miss this nice big girl around the colony.

You have some real QT's there Jo! :D I second the priceless pix comment! :P


This is a link to the rack thread I did a while back.... http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=46781

It's still doing great !!

Oh those are sweeties! I like Dee cause I love silver Dumbos, and Lightning cause of his cool markings.

I'm getting my two new babies tomorrow :D If you like, their pics are on this site. They are the first two on the page.

http://www.freewebs.com/camarattery/adoption.htm

Oh they are cute! I love that little tailless blue and the berkie is darling too. I'm sure they'll make lovely pets. :)

*Enthusiastic Grin* Thanks, I certainly hope so. I will be changing their names and working with them in quarantine to recognize them. The berkie will be Garnet and the tailless hasn't got one yet, but it'll be something related to gems and metals. :)

:D im actually sorta looking in to finding a rescue near here (dont tell my husband!) i would love to be part of helping another pet have a home (not that buying from petstore doesnt save them from certain death! :O cant wait to see pics of them! good luck

Ashley just be aware most rat rescues will not release one to you because you own snakes. In fact you may well get quite the lecture about "how evil snakes are". Just happened to another member here recently.

yea, stay away from rat rescues. they don't think rats and snakes can live in the same household. even if you don't mention the snakes, the one i was looking at wanted to do a home visit for an interview, to make sure i had a nice place the rats could live. not sure on how to hide a rack full of snakes from the rat detectives? i am not about to start lying to people just to get some rats...

Heh... yeah. Most of them are really uptight about that. I just got my new girls home from the breeder (they got kinda hot, but they're lounging about in front of the fan now). Got a nice surprise there when she and I were talking about the whole 'rats and snakes' thing: she has three corn snakes. :) She only tells snake lovers about them, cause her other customers would be livid that a rat breeder owns snakes...so it goes both ways it seems.

Her corns were so pretty (albino, snow, and anery). Holding them just made me wish it were Saturday so I could go get my own. :)

Just goes to show; not all rat people are against snakes. She even told me a great place to get a mouse breeder pair, since she used to breed mice too. :)

This is probably a bit of a silly question, but I've never been around rats... Can you play with them and stuff? My fiancee wants to get something she can pet and cuddle with- she loves Milton but said she also wants a furry pet.

I've heard you can teach them tricks and things... so all rat lovers, tell me about your rats and what all they do!

I always figured they would just run away if you let them out of their cages! :)

talk to joanna! shes the one who turned me on to pet rats, they really are awesome pets! we cant have "pets" in our building and no one has to know about animals you keep inside.. so rats and snakes awesome mix! our sons really enjoy them too. they are lots of fun to watch and i take each one out and "play" with them. we have let them loose in our living room we just keep a close eye on them so they dont get into wires or get away


here are most recent of ours!
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...5/IMG_8011.jpg
their enclosure.. we just added the blue tubey thing, they really like the bedding that came with it.. we also added the little litter box, we will see how that goes.
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g3...5/IMG_8013.jpg
remy and emmie sharing the tube!!

notice i resized these ;)

Hi,


I never taught mine to do tricks but they loved riding on my shoulder and chewing on my earing - and if I tickled their bellies they "giggled".



dr del

Here are my 3 simple tubs (I don't need to produce many feeders). I'm using Sterilite 1859 73qt tubs from Walmart. The boxes wrapped in saran wrap on top of the tubs are my DIY carbon filters used to remove any odors out of the tubs, that the rats/mice produce.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y10...z/_MG_5989.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Swingline0.0.1

This is probably a bit of a silly question, but I've never been around rats... Can you play with them and stuff? My fiancee wants to get something she can pet and cuddle with- she loves Milton but said she also wants a furry pet.

I've heard you can teach them tricks and things... so all rat lovers, tell me about your rats and what all they do!

I always figured they would just run away if you let them out of their cages! :)

---

Oh rats are the BEST when it comes to a small, furry animal you can pet and carry around with you on your shoulder. 'Cuddling' per say can be a bit hard, but some rats really like it.

I adore reptiles, but every girl needs something cute and furry; for me it's rats since my partner is allergic to cats. I've kept rats before and know what sweeties they can be. A few hints, tho, on getting rats:

1) always get a pair of same sex unless you want to breed. Rats do NOT do well alone long term, even if you give them tons of attention.

2) try to avoid pet store rats with all your might unless you know for a fact that the rats they get are from a good source (most are from mass breeders who never even look at their stock). I always owned pet store rats in past and the ones I got were sweet...but only lived about 1 1/2-2 years max. Case in point: Mint was a pet store rat. Look for breeders if at all possible...they have known bloodlines, are healthy, hand tamed from the start, and live much longer on average. Amber was only a few months younger than Mint and she still acts and looks like she's under a year!

Good luck finding some cuddly companions. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

1) always get a pair of same sex unless you want to breed. Rats do NOT do well alone long term, even if you give them tons of attention.

2) try to avoid pet store rats with all your might unless you know for a fact that the rats they get are from a good source (most are from mass breeders who never even look at their stock). I always owned pet store rats in past and the ones I got were sweet...but only lived about 1 1/2-2 years max. Case in point: Mint was a pet store rat. Look for breeders if at all possible...they have known bloodlines, are healthy, hand tamed from the start, and live much longer on average. Amber was only a few months younger than Mint and she still acts and looks like she's under a year!

Good luck finding some cuddly companions. :)

---

What's a good number to get? Also, do you know of a good way to locate breeders?

How about the stench-factor? She had cats before, and I found them to be quite smelly at times! Perhaps a better question is what the upkeep-to-smelliness ratio is... will she have to work her behind off to have them NOT stink up the house? ;)

Oh no way! I had five cats at one time, so I know the whole smell issue. :)

Rats only smell noticeably if they are overcrowded, sick, or you haven't cleaned in over a week. If you give them good proper food and a good bedding like aspen or that sort (NOT pine or cedar), they will be a pleasant addition to the house with "minimal" effort.

As far as number...that depends on your available cage space. The minimum number is two, and I've heard that there can be issues of dominance when there are over 3 or 4 (wouldn't know personally, only ever kept two at a time), but aside from that it depends on the type of cage. A cage like mine could hold dozens probably, but I wanted to spoil my girls. :) Just make sure you don't get in over your heads as far as a huge cage, cause they require longer to clean them.

For pet rats really two is a nice number and very manageable. Two females or two males of course. Best to get them from a rat breeder or a very good pet shop where they aren't overcrowded or mixed up genders all in one enclosure. Even some of us members here that breed for feeders are quite happy to sell off some as pets so ask around. Try to pick up a nice same gender pair that are recently weaned. They will be the easiest to hand tame and tend to be very, very cute at that age.

Rats can be taught simple routines/tricks. We aren't talking fancy stuff here LOL but things like homemade mazes are fun and keep a rat's agile mind working. They can learn to stand up fully upright to receive a treat (all our breeder males know this one). They can learn simple discipline. All our colony rats know what a loud handclap and BAD RAT means (basically..."knock it off guys, Queen Rat Lady is ticked at us again!" LOL)

When they are out for handling keep them in view at all times. They can and will chew lamp cords and electrocute themselves. They have amazing sharp teeth. They can and will get into furniture or in places that make it nearly impossible to retreive them. As they mature into adults they can be fitted with a small ferret harness and lead. Our kids used to take their pet rats into either the enclosed front porch or the bathroom to let them roam free. They'd just sit and read while their rats played around and crawled all over them. We used to save some old Fisher-Price toys to let the rats play with and of course, Kracker loved to ride in that big plastic dump truck (he really was a huge and silly male LOL).

With rats, everything is food driven so use that to teach them simple things or make them your best buddy. If they only receive a certain favored treat from your hands, you become very special to them. Watch for certain things that indicate your rat is happy with you....bruxing (when they rub their teeth together loudly) and boogling (when their eyes sort of bulge out) are happy rat behaviours. :)

Remember though with pet rats, a happy rat is not a fat rat. Many, many pet rats are allowed to become obese and this shortens their life significantly.

I know carbon helps with odor, but how well does it work in your setup, thats really ingenious.

Ok, without further ado... (drumroll please)....

I present Homer, the pet rat... :)

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...GAL-Homer1.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...GAL-Homer2.JPG

This all started as a puppy search today... as I was saying, she wants something cuddly, so after searching all the Wal-Mart parking lots I could handle, she wanted to go to a local pet store. They didn't have any puppies, but after holding Homer for a few minutes she wanted to get him.

Pluses for Aaron:

1. We already have a 10 gallon tank (Milton's old one)... I know he'll need something bigger/cooler before too long, but it works for now.

2. It gives me a chance to try out some aspen substrate for Milton since we already got it for Homer's setup. :)

3. No implied vet bill (shots, etc. for a puppy). Of course if he has a health problem we'll take care of it, but there's no need to neuter, etc.

So, good weekend... he is kind of fun, but today he was a little annoyed at being handled by giants. :) I can't believe how vocal he's already been- probably four different sounds for levels of annoyance. No biting, thank god!

Thanks for all the input, ladies, and any tips are welcome! I just read the response about having at least 2, so I'm thinking of getting him a playmate.

Uuuuuuummmmmmm, is there a SCREEN / lid for that tank???? lol He'll jump out. (Even our adults <esp. the females> are great jumpers!)



Just remember, Homer will need a Zeus or Hercules...not an Aphrodite. :) Oh, and with the tank, it's not an issue, but I wasn't taught...don't feed him thru the "bars" of a cage. It encourages them the bad habit of biting.


With a tank you'll want to clean it on time. Ventilation is the key and tanks are pretty airtight vs. a wire cage. 50* or warmer, he's going to drink (and piddle) more, so the boys' tank can get sort of smelly in the summertime.

Scabbers, Stewie, Robin Hood and Butterscotch were all big lugs, but Scabbers and Stewie were the lap rats. :)

Rats are really coooool pets. Now that we've had a few, I'll probably always have a rat for a pet now. :rolleyes:

Nice little Black Hooded. He looks in good shape and fairly young. He does need a buddy however, so another nice small male rat about his size would be perfect. Rats are very social creatures. They learn nice behaviour like no biting from each other (if one rat nips the other too strongly during play the other rat squeels and won't play...so the nipper learns nipping is not nice...much as puppies do). Rats kept alone tend to be nervous, nippy and don't make the best pets in my opinion.

You'll need bigger caging fairly quickly with two male rats. Check out your local garage sales/craigslist. I've seen big used enclosures for next to nothing (ferret, rabbit, etc.). Make sure the bars/wire isn't bigger than 1/2" so the rats can't get out. You can also just add 1/2" hardware cloth to an enclosure to rat proof it.

You can give him things to chew on and play with. Empty toilet paper or papertowel rolls, a handful of strips ripped from an old phone book, cotton rope to climb (must be cotton not synthetic). You can offer your rats lots of different human foods too as treats or to suppliment their diet. Great way toi use up your kitchen scraps. Here's some great links for rat care....

http://www.ratguide.com/

http://www.quite.co.uk/rats/#Red%20D...0and/or%20Nose:

http://www.ratnutrition.com/suppleme...forbiddenfoods

http://www.afrma.org/

Here is my mouse rack:
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...2/DSC05207.jpg

Here are the rat racks:

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...22/ratroom.jpg