Anyone else end up with pet rodents?

[DarthSlitherus]

So our new BP did not eat his rat pup last night. I went to get a container for it from the kitchen, to save it for another day, and when I came back into the living room my wife and son were bonding with it...petting it, naming it, and feeding it. By the end of the evening, they were carrying it around in a little pouch

Now they are off to the pet store to buy him a buddy...

Anyone else have something similar happen?

[Oxylepy]

Rat pup? As in too young to be weaned? Them bonding with it may be a painful experience as it might just die.

As for pet rats, all my breeders are my pets

[DarthSlitherus]

Well, the store is what called it a rat pup when I bought it. I'm still a noob in the hobby, so I'm still a bit confused about the terms used to describe feeder rodent size.

I just did a quick search on rat pup, and this little guy is definitely bigger than what I'm seeing. It's hard to tell without a scale to measure its weight (scale is coming later this week), but I'd guess that it is either a small or large weaner. Is this still too young to try to keep as a pet? My son is only 3, so I'd prefer to get him separated from the rat before he gets too attached, if it is going to die on him.

[Oxylepy]

http://www.joinrats.com/RatHealth/OO...aningRatGuide/

[redshepherd]

Is the rat very young? Lucky for them that the rat can already be held and bonded that quickly!

I had this happen to me only briefly, except just because I thought the rat was very cute and I couldn't feed him away after buying it. Unfortunately, the rat was already older and fearful, so whenever I tried to bond/hold him, he would freak out and pee and poo continuously in my hand. And then he got a bit older and finally bit me really well when I tried to pet him.

So off he went, back to the snake belly where he was first intended. :\

If I ever get another pet rat, it will definitely be one already tamed from a breeder.

[DarthSlitherus]

http://www.joinrats.com/RatHealth/OO...aningRatGuide/

Thank you for this. I have read through some of it and will take it home and compare it to the little guy we have.

Is the rat very young? Lucky for them that the rat can already be held and bonded that quickly!

I'm guessing it is still quite young, although it already seems to have all of its hair and markings. The link that Oxy shared gives me more to go off of, such as ears and head shape. I should be able to get a better guesstimate on the age this evening.

It is very social! They had it on the floor this morning and it was crawling around in their laps and hands and does not seem to mind being held. Was strong, too, as it held onto my wife's hand at one point when she tried setting it down and ended up gripping her fingers and was upside-down. She had to gently pry it off with her other hand haha

[piedlover79]

Yup. This has happened to me and I also had to go get another one for a buddy. They make awesome pets.

[wolfy-hound]

My colony of feeder/breeders is considerably more friendly than most pet rats I've seen, honestly. But then, I select for calm friendly rats too. Biters were culled, along with their offspring.

If it's old enough to make it, then it should do quite well. But get it a buddy for sure. Single rats don't do as well as a pair.

[DarthSlitherus]

Wife went back and got a 2nd one earlier today. So now we have two pet rats; Snickers and Spot haha

I'm still at work so I haven't been able to see the two of them together, but my wife said the one we got last night grabbed the new one and started nuzzling their noses together and then appeared to groom it. Now they are cuddled up together

[cchardwick]

Is it a male female pair? If it is you'll have babies in no time. My rats would never bite me, I keep them in glass aquariums and they watch me working in the snake room / rodent room every day. I imagine if I kept them in tubs where they couldn't see me they would be totally different animals and probably be really scared of me.

I know now a lot of snake people that have pet rats and sell the babies and use a few for their own snakes. Although now you may have to always buy frozen thawed because of your family bonding with the snake food LOL.