new rat!

[Ginevive]

At my friend's pet store, there was this large female rat. Seems that it was a "school project" and is completely tame, and even supposedly responds to its name "Delphi."
So I picked her up and she was as tame as anything I ever saw. I decided to relinquish her $5 adoption fee, as well as promise I would not use ehr as a feeder (which I won't.) So I am now the proud owner of a friendly female rat. She was "spoiled" and I guess she even got taken to the vet and immunized, etc, which is much more than can be said of some pet store rats!
I'll get pics soon. She is skunk colored.

[Jeanne]

Great find! LOL

But what in the world do you immunize a rat from is my big question. I ran my rattery for years, and seen the same vet for years.. none of mine were ever immunized for anything.

[frankykeno]

Sounds wonderful but like Jeanne I don't know what one immunizes a rat against?

We also got a new rat a few days ago. He is a HUGE male, colored like a black bear, black with a white chest patch. Got him for the big ole sum of one dollar as he was so big and is not a young un (we suspect a retired breeder male probably) but we'll give him a good retirement home here. Heck he just spent 4 days with one of our lady rats so we'll see if the ole fella has any get up left in his go go. LOL

Most of our 4 rats know there names btw and I'm working on a few tricks just for fun with them. We are getting a harness for this new huge male so we can take hiim outside and freak out the neighbours a bit LOL.

The new female rat sounds lovely. I'm sure you'll enjoy her as our family thinks that a friendly rat is a perfect pet.

Oh one thing, if you want her to have a killer soft coat.....offer her a bit of brown bread (we just save the ends of loaves) ripped up and dipped in a bit of olive oil once or twice a week. Turns an adult rat's coat so soft they are like babies again and they LOVE the taste!

~~Joanna~~

[Ginevive]

I will have to try that bread trick!
The immunization thing might just be hearsay; it is just what I was told about the people who brought her in.
I noticed my friend's pet store has become a "catch-all" for alot of people's unwanted pets! Rats, an iguana, a savanna monitor ( ! ) all in the past week. Kittens up the wazoo too. This rat was just another one from people who "cared about the animal... BUT" could not keep her. Sigh.
Maybe they meant tht they dewormed her...?

[SatanicIntention]

I was going to make another post(but I'm tired, so bear with me, LoL), but I got a new baby yesterday as well... My poor mother is going to have a stroke...


She's only about 4-5 weeks old, but the good thing was that Petco(Yes... I know... I went INTO that dreaded store again...). She's an agouti capped blazed dalmation dumbo... That was a mouthful I haven't taken pictures of her yet since she is still settling in, but she is just the sweetest little thing. Will just sit on my chest and clean herself and otherwise be content with the world, LoL.

So what does that make now? 8 girls and 1 boy? Nope...I also have two boys coming from my breeder friend in Dallas, hehe. A Black-Eyed White and a Wedge Blazed Capped Dalmation Dumbo.... You can see the second boy here: http://www.rattiusmaximus.com/IzodXVanGoghs.htm bottom right. I guess I just can't resist them any longer... I have the GGMR disease... (Gotta Get More Rats!) LoL!

[Ginevive]

They make surprisingly awesome pets. This new girl I got, seems to be toilet trained; NEVER goes on ya!

[SatanicIntention]

Yes they do, they make great pets. Stupid hamsters and gerbils! Hehe. Mine only wee on me because in a rat's world, it goes like this: "Mine, mine mine mine, Ooh that's mine too, hey that was mine now I have to piddle on it again..." Or they do it out of spite... Sometimes when I clip Sneezy's toenails and I take too long, he will wee on me just a tad... Oh well, what can ya do?

I wish I could get mine litter trained. It would be so much easier that way. Friends of mine say that they are easy to train, but with doofus Harry over here, nothing would ever get learnt...

[frankykeno]

Omg hahahahah Becky! There's a comedian on tv I just saw last week that does a whole routine on peeing to claim stuff (as in thank gawd men don't do that!) LOL

Our rats rarely pee on us though will do it to friends that they don't see all the time (hard to explain to our friends that the rat is just "claiming" them LOL). They do however do the nugget drop so the kid's are on alert with the paper towel patrol when the rat's are out and about.

I'm sticking with the 4 rats we have other than hoping Cookie is preggie as she and the new rat LeRoy spent a few days together last week.


~~Jo~~

[Ginevive]

Yes they do, they make great pets. Stupid hamsters and gerbils! Hehe. Mine only wee on me because in a rat's world, it goes like this: "Mine, mine mine mine, Ooh that's mine too, hey that was mine now I have to piddle on it again..." Or they do it out of spite... Sometimes when I clip Sneezy's toenails and I take too long, he will wee on me just a tad... Oh well, what can ya do?

I wish I could get mine litter trained. It would be so much easier that way. Friends of mine say that they are easy to train, but with doofus Harry over here, nothing would ever get learnt...

lol, what a funny post.
I actually think that Delphi is too smart, too intelligent. She is always looking for someone to take her out of the cage. I know she was handled a lot when she was at the gradeschool, so every night I try to give her a half hour or so of handling time. I want to take her outside; but is there too much of a danger of fleas? Hm, maybe there is; we have wild rats here (yeah, they make their homes in NYC and other parts of NY, like Hicks-vill, where we are lol.)
She is so darn tame though, that you can literally let her run around the house without worrying about her hiding or getting away. She climbed out of my containment tank while I was cleaning her cage, and she just basically stood there, looking at me and I just picked her up. My wild rats (only the ones I did not breed; all of mine are at least handleable and about half as tame as Delph)... well the wild female I have, would be gone!

[frankykeno]

She sounds wonderful. Does she have a nice cage buddy tho. Most rats like a cage friend and I would think even more so if she's so sociable. I love watching our two males and two females just hang out with each other. Our girlie rats will share a special treat even, the boys just grab treats and run off to hide and eat (typical males LOL).

Maybe you can get her a little harness thingie and take her out on your shoulder for a walk. That way she would get a new experience but not be on the ground where she might pick up something.


~~Jo~~