My little rat colony...

[emroul]

I hope these guys get up and running, they seem to be doing alright so far. I only have 1.4 breeders (plus all the babies) in a 2-rubbermaid rack. Here are some pictures:





This grey one is the NICEST female (or rat in general) that I have EVER come across:







One of the babies:


Mom:










Sorry for all the pictures, but it's my day off and I'm bored, lol....

Jennifer

[sophie42204]

cute pix...the 'grey girl' even looks sweet!

[Brandon.O]

Wow those littel babies are too cute, it almost makes me want to go out and buy some, but i couldent, i would get too attached and i would be really sad when it was time for rocky to gobble them up.

[Ginevive]

Aw, is she licking your hand? My female breeders are both nasty little brats, but my male is a friendly guy. Isn't it funny how we sometimes get attached to the adults, but feed the babies off to our snakes without blinking an eye?
Only thing I hate is when one gets out. I can't have the luxury of keeping the rats in a closable room; they're in the laundry room and inevitably go behind the washer/dryer. But I have been more vigilant about not letting them get out, after spending an hour chasing down an escapee. You'd think my cat could help in capturing it, but he was scared, lol.

[Marla]

I saw a grey and white one this weekend that was very cute, and thought it would be a good one to start a breeding colony with, except that I'm not quite ready for that yet. They can actually make pretty good pets if you get them young enough, but then it's hard to feed them off.

[First_time_herp]

Are there any that are acually pets to you? I was thinking of getting am ouse. Just for the irony of it.

[Brandon.O]

i thought about keeping two of the mice that rocky didnt eat (back when i fed live) becuase i had an extra ten gallon with bedding,food,dishes,toys for rodents but i decided not to and i whacked them and put them in the freezer so i could try feeding frozen.

[SatanicIntention]

I have 4 fancy rats. 2 hairless and 2 normal hooded. The hairless are the funniest ones of the group. We got Mama, our elderly one, as an adult and she's the sweetest rat I have ever come across. Loves to lick and jump from my shoulder to my boyfriend's shoulder and vice versa. Never get any live feeders or pet rats from Petco... They have a parasite problem. Our first rat we got there, a little girl, had tapeworms and coccidia. This little feeder mouse I "saved" from being eaten, has pinworms and who knows what else, I didn't both looking through the whole fecal slide. The little girl rat is the same age as our hairless male. He's huge and almost full grown, but she's half his size. So I'm thinking that having parasites and a bad diet(they were feeding an alfalfa-based diet-which they can't digest for anything) early on caused her growth to be halted. Frozen feeders you won't have problems with, just make sure they're frozen for at least 30 days or so. Sorry for venting, it's just that Petco here and in Temple are both the biggest rip-offs I've ever seen. Grrr...

[led4urhead]

Looks like you have one heck of a colony going there! Food or pets?

[emroul]

The grey one is just going to be a breeder/pet until she dies; she's the SWEETEST rat I have EVER come across! (And I deal with upwards 1000 rats per week at my work). All the rest are bred for food.

Jennifer