AMY HELP!!!!

[katt]

so i am out shopping today for a dress to wear to a big holiday party i have to go to. . . i am sitting in my car in the parking lot of a retail store (it is like a mini-mall were one of the stores is a retail shop) and i am getting ready to leave. a carcomes in parks, they open their door, close their door, and drive away, i am just about to pull out when i notice they left a box behind. . . i see another lady get out of her car and walk over to the box, she opens it and i can see she starts talking to herself. . . it then dawns on me the box is large enough to hold a kitten/rabbit/some small animal. . . i mutter to myself, and get out of my car, walk over and there are 5 small rats. we sit there going "hmm. . . what do we do" (i start cursing myself for not noticing right away and getting the plate numbers of the car that dropped the box off) neither myself, nor the other lady know anything about rats. we do our best to make out the sex, and work it so we *think* there are 3 boys, and 2 girls. . . now what? if they were kittens i would have brought them to the human society (our hs doesn't really put down animals, unless there is a health/behavour problem), but there is nowere to bring these guys. so i take the 2 "girls" and she takes the 3 "boys". . .

now what???? i have no idea what rats eat, or anything. they are very cute, and very little. i put them in olga's cage (our old hamster) and they are sitting there looking lost!

rattie people help!!!! what do i feed them? how do i tell there sex? i need good rat websites and such!!!! i called my roommate, and she won't be home till later on tonight!

ahh!!!!

anyone in michigan want a couple of lost rats?

 

[binkies]

Well crud! That is just awful! Thank you for taking them in.

I'm not Amy, but I will try to help a bit.

How big are they? If they are eating solids, there is a great mix for them to eat...

Wheat puffs cereal.
Total Whole Grain cereal.
Puffed Rice.
Whole Grain oats.
Black oil sunflower seeds.
Veggie pasta.
Egg noodles (I break them into little peices myself).
Honey Bunches of oats (a very small amount, just for a little flavor and treat

You just mix all that into a seal-tight container (even amounts of each). You can also add a tiny bit of Cheerios or a tiny bit of Fruit Loops as a treat instead of the Honey Bunches of Oats.

You also MUST add ONE of these as a staple:

* Harlan Teklad lab blocks #8604 (http://www.kimsarkrescue.org/content/view/35). Other Harlan blocks are available, but #8604 is a great choice.
* Innova Senior dog food.
* Mazuri Lab Blocks (can be bought at PetsMart, next best thing to Harlan).

Also, table food. They looove table food and it is perfectly ok to give it to them. I always make my two a plate of whatever we are eating.

Don't use pine litter, just like with rabbits. Fleece is great. They love to burrow in it and snuggle.



As far as sex: it is obvious unless they are tiny. Males have luggage which is out there for the world to see.

 

[JadeIcing]

:shock:I sent Amy a text message to check when she gets home. She is at work right now.



I want to beat this person.:grumpy:

 

[katt]

thank you binkies. . . i just put amy in the title, because she came to mind first. . .

okay, photos:

first, the cage, do you think it will beokay for them untill after thanksgiving? (i don't get paid till thanksgiving, and money is tight right now)

okay, first the cream and white one (who i have named lula-may after breakfast at tiffany's- it was holly's (audry hepburn's role) real name in the movie, i wanted to call her holly, but my sister's name is holly. . .so i choose lula-may)

she is the larger of the 2

next is sabrina (another audrey hepburn movie/role. . . see the theme?)

she is smaller, and her hair seems thinner then lula's. . .

if it is easy to tell the sex, then they are both girls, and the other 3 were boys. . . i just didn't know for sure. . .

as you can see i placed them by a soup can and a tuna fish can for size comparison. lula looks larger in the photos then what she really is, and you can see just how small sabrina is next to my hand and the soup can. . .

poor little dears. . . the lady that took the 3 boys sounded like she was going to keep them, and keep them all together. . . there was one that looked like lula (except had way less color on him) and the other 2 were solid sabrina colors (no white)


my poor roommate. . . she was like "why didn't you just leave them!" and i was like "would you have left them???" *pause* *pause* "no, but thats not the point"

she really didn't want me to leave them, she is a fellow animal lover, but we were very happy right now with it being just winnie the bunny, and norbert the goldfish. . .

i will be making a trip to the store soon, once my roommate is home (not for another hour or 2), i added a water bottle to the cage, and will break into winnie's nightly salad, and give them something to nibble on as i have no clue when they last ate was.

poor dears, they were handled before, i can tell, they aren't very shy of me at all. how can people be so cruel????

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Katt, I am a rat person too and have four of them. I recommend you make your way over to Goosemoose.com and go to the rat forum (called Rats Rule) there right away. I recommend you post in the Rat Care Corner section. I've been posting on Goosemoose for over a year and the people there are very friendly, knowledgeable and the forum is quite busy- even busier than this one!

http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat

Do you have any pictures of the babies? You say they are tiny and I'm concerned that they may be too young to be away from mom. If so, you're probably going to need to feed them Kitten Milk Replacement and some other soft foods.

Male and female rats are usually quite easy to tell apart and can even be told apart as little bitty newborns, so when you post on Goosemoose, it would be helpful if you straight away post pics of the babies themselves in relation to a quarter or something so we can tell how big they are, as well as close up pics of their bums so we can tell you the genders.

Until then, you can put a fleece blankie or fleece scraps in the cage with them along with a water bottle (if you have one, if not try a tiny container of water that they can't drown in) and try giving them a couple flakes of Total cereal or oats or a couple Cheerios since you don't have food for them yet. You will need to go to the store today though to get them whatever food they require based on their ages. Also, make sure the cage has close enough bar spacing that they can't slip out and I recommend that you put them some place rather quiet where you can keep an eye on them (I don't know if you have any cats or anything, but best to keep them away) and if you have a little igloo or something left over from your hamster, go on and put that in the cage so they can hide. A little box will work, too.

Ratties are great pets, congratulations! I hope they end up being pets you want to keep And even if not, thanks for taking them in!

 

[JadeIcing]

That is fine. Not like it is long till than.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Aww, they're so CUTE! Thank goodness they don't look super duper just-opened-their-eyes tiny. I still think you should go to Goosemoose.com before you do anything else, including feeding them salad. I'm pretty sure any kind of lettuce is a no-no. The people there will get back to you within minutes when you post, especially since it's rather an emergency. Oh and my username is Snowy! I'll see ya over there I hope!

 

[katt]

thank you!

i will post on the rat forum as soon as i can. . . i don't have much for food in the house. . . what about kix cereal? to much sugar? i have honey nut cheerios, would those work?

what about hay? can they have some of that? yougurt drops? (made for the bun, someone gave them to winnie as a present, and i give them to her like once a month because she likes them). egg noodles are in binkies mix, can i give them a little crushed up egg noodle? it is shopping night here, and there is no point in me making 2 trips to the store, so i am trying to wait for jessica to get home so we can just make one big trip.

what about stuff to cuddle in? a little box with shredded newpaper? how bout that????

can you tell i am completely clueless here!!!!

they are terribly cute though!

 

[katt]

thanks again shiloh!

my shock and "what do i do" freak out are slidding back. . .

after looking at online photos, i would say they are about six weeks old??? sound right????

winnies salad tonight has no lettuce in it, just veggies. . . but i will check with the rattie forum before i feed them anything green. . .

what about water crackers??? we keep them on hand because every once in a while winnie will get 1/2 of a cracker as they are one of her favs.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Hi there! A box with shredded newspaper sounds just fine! You can turn the box on it's side or cut a hole in it so it makes a good hiding place. If you have any old jeans, you could cut off part of a pant leg and give that to them. My ratties love home made tunnels like that. I think the Kix and Honey Nut Cheerios are too sweet, especially for such little ones. One Honey Nut Cheerio is huge for them! Do you have any uncooked pasta? If you have rice, cook up a batch of it, let it cool and give that to them. A little bit of hard cooked egg would be okay, too. Oh yeah and I meant to say that I think the little cage will be okay until after Thanksgiving! This is the cage I bought for me three rats (which have since become four), it's a little bigger than you need but there's a cage calculator somewhere on Goosemoose.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Oops! Oh, I forgot to post the picture.

It's taller than I am, it's a large ferret cage. This was right after I set it up, it always has more hammocks and stuff in it than the picture shows. That's not really important right now though! Rats Rule has a whole board devoted to cages, so later you can check them out.

I think 6 weeks is close, they're probably a little younger. Lula looks just a little smaller than my Peppermint Rattie was when I brought the girlies home. Here were my girls when I brought them home, Minty was hiding behind the other two and she was quite a bit smaller than they were (they were from a pet shop and probably not siblings)

Water crackers don't have much salt on them, do they? I think they would be okay! If you have any banana, you could feed them a bit of that, too if you wanted.

 

[katt]

cool, found some rice chex. . . gave them just a 2, and the both gobbled them down. . . i am about to go cook up a little rice, and give them a little pasta. . . gave them a box with chunck of fleece in it, and sabrina, the little once went right in a cuddled up. lula seems more investigative and is exploring the cage some. . .

poor dears. . .

 

[SnowyShiloh]

So sweet... I'm glad that they weren't outside for very long! Do you think you're going to keep them? :biggrin2:

 

[katt]

keep them???

i really haven't a clue. wasn't thinking about getting anymore animals. . .

we will see. . . they will be here for a while at least to make sure they settle in all right and don't have any problems.

you could tell they were hungry, as i was cooking the rice, i look over and they are both sitting at the side of the cage, looking at me and smelling the air. . .

 

[SnowyShiloh]

LOL! To be honest, they do that even if they have been fed well. When we eat dinner, my rats all go to the corner of the cage closest to where we are and stare at us in the most pathetic way the ENTIRE time. Also, I forgot to say before that ratties can't digest alfalfa, but every once in a while I give mine a strand of hay and they go crazy dragging it around everywhere. They don't really eat it though, it's not a food for them.

 

[undergunfire]

Okay....phew! Ratties are such a suprise every time, eh ?


Alrighty. Let's start with their food.

The food mixture that Binkies posted is my own personal food mixture, I'll post it again here:

Wheat puffs cereal.
Total Whole Grain cereal.
Puffed Rice.
Whole Grain oats.
Black oil sunflower seeds.
Veggie pasta.
Egg noodles (I break them into little peices myself).
Honey Bunches of oats (I put the whole box in now, actually, since my mix is so huge).
Kashi cereals. I like the 7 type kind.

You will need a staple. Dog food is great. Nutro Lite, Innova Senior, AvoDerm, ect. Only high quality dog foods should be used. If one comes to mind, ask me if it is high enough quality before buying it.

You need to cook them up meals everyday. Start out by cooking them up an egg with soy milk, then use some meaty flavored baby food as a "dressing". Rats can eat almost anything that you eat, as long as it is healthy and not on the rat forbidden foods list.


Housing:

Your little cage is fine for now. Your babies do look roughly 6 weeks old. If you have fleece or scraps from blankets, shirts, even undies....cut them into a square and hang them up in the cage with safety pins or paper clips. Ratties love to cuddle in hammocks. Lower the shelf down, though, as low as it will go....and take out that tunnel. They will use the space under the shelf as a "hide out".



Care:


Rats do best in pairs, keep them in their pair. If you notice them sneezing a lot after them being with you for more than a week, it's time to go to the vet for some Baytril, they will most likely have an Upper Respiratory Infection, no good for ratties. During their first few days to a week, you will notice sneezing....this type of sneezing is "the new home sneezes".

Play with them a lot. Ratties LOVE human socialization.

Keep their cage clean, do some "spot cleaning" for the poopies, and clean the whole cage every 3-4 days if using bedding. If you use fleece bedding, you will want to change it every 2-3 days. Air quality and clean living conditions is key for ratlets.






If you have ANY questions and/or want to discuss them deeply, you can call me, if you are comfortable on the phone with a "stranger", lol.

As Shiloh said, please join http://www.goosemoose.com. Yes, members on that board can be rude sometimes, but they are only watching out for the rats. We get a lot of cheesy youngins' on the forum saying stuff like, "I just bought two rats from the pet store, how do I take care of them?"....that kind of immature stuff. Just be straight up honest and explain your situation. You will learn A LOT from the forum, and I am sure you will fall in love with rats. They are so special, but can cause you heafty vet bills, unfortunately, because most rats have poor breeding/genetics because they were bred for profit or for "food".




EDIT TO ADD: I am pretty sure we have A LOT of goosemoose member's on the forum that live in Michigan, if you want to rehome the girlies...I just know someone will step up and give them a forever loving rattie home.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

They are SO CUTE!!!! I can't believe people do such awful things! Leaving a box like that is just evil!

Those are cute baby rats and don't deserve to be treated so inhumanely!

I'm so glad you took them and the other lady took the boys. that little light colored one is precious!

 

[undergunfire]

I want to add also:


If there were boys in the box with the girls, they owner may have dumped them off because she learned that she was supposed to separate the baby girls from the baby boys at 4 - 4 1/2 weeks.

With saying that, if the babies are 6 - 7 weeks old (which they look it because my litter is only 3 1/2 weeks and yours are more developed), it's not always true, but can definately happen...


You need to be on baby watch . Your ladies may be pregnant. It doesn't always happen at such a young age, but it can happen.

 

[katt]

bless you amy, and shiloh, and binkies!!!!

i plan on joining the rattie forum tomorrow, i am getting ready to head to bed!

i bought the stuff for the food mix, and the mazuri lab block. . . they were rather hungry for their first tossed together meal, and gobbled down the cereal, 1/2 the cracker, and then picked out the rice to get to the bits of noodle i put in there, then later went back to the rice!

they are very happy right now! we already had them out playing a bit, and lula cuddled right into my roommate for a snuggle, and sabrina sat their in my palm watching the tv. . . and giving herself a bath. . .

babies???? *slightly faints* please no! we will just keep hoping for no babies! what are signs of a prego rat?

they will stay together, they already seem very bonded and are currently cuddled up in their cage together sleeping. it has been a busy day!

not exactly what i thought the day would bring. . .thought maybe to find a dress (and i did!) and the most exciting thing would be to find a pair of heels or 2! never expected a pair of rats!

i know you said alfalfa is bad, what about timothy hay? just to cuddle in???

 

[EileenH]

Hi Katt! Another Goosemoose member here. Looking forward to talking to you over there as well, and thanks for taking in those little bubs.