Sheesh, why do I gotta be the "rat lady"?

[undergunfire]

I took in three rats for a girl who found them after they had been stolen from her and dumped at a shelter a few weeks ago, I had a lady call me last week asking me to take in or help her rehome 3 baby rats that she rescued from being tossed outside by a relative, and now I just had a girl that used to work with me send me a myspace message asking if I could take in her 2 baby rats because she can't keep them and they'd have to go back to the pet store to be sold as snake food.

Ryan's going to be pissed, but looks like I am getting two baby rats to rehome :?. Please cross your fingers, toes, and paws....that they are males!

 

[timetowaste]

LOL You are the Kelly of Prescott, but with rats and not bunnies! (Although sometimes, with bunnies, right? BENSON!)

HEY is Benson adopted and with a forever home?!

Tr

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Amy, I've had 3 people PM me on Goosemoose asking me if I can take their rats. They all live in towns a few hundred miles from here though! We did make an 8 hour drive round trip to get Colby Jack from someone, but we're not going to do that again. One of the people has a 1 week old litter of babies which sounds so tempting, but no more ratties for us for a while! Good luck with your new babies :biggrin2:

 

[LadyBug]

timetowaste wrote:

LOL You are the Kelly of Prescott, but with rats and not bunnies! (Although sometimes, with bunnies, right? BENSON!)

HEY is Benson adopted and with a forever home?!

Tr

yeah, he has.......she's keeping him, last i heard:whistling

 

[undergunfire]

Tracy...Cindy is coming to get Benson this Sunday :?. He is going to such an amazing home. I will miss my Benson Bunners.

Shiloh....GET MORE RATTIES! Ah, how do you stand to not have these darling little critters around? I wanted to take a break after my 3 boys pass away, but I am just not sure I would last long!


Anyway...

Talked to the girl and wanted more information, so I asked her these questions. It goes something like this...

Me: How old are the babies?
Her: I am not sure.
Me: Are they male or female?
Her: One of each.
Me: I sure hope the girl isn't pregnant!
Her: She is WAY to young!
Me: Send me a picture.
*she sends me a picture of the babies*
Me: Those babies are JUST about 5 weeks old, it looks like. How long have you had them for?
Her: A week.
Me: Well, why did you get two rats of the opposite sex. You know you could have ended up with over 12 baby rats.
Her: I know, I have had up to 13 rats at one, but they all died.
*ugh, by this time I am getting so frustrated*
Me: Do you have a cage and food that can come with them if I take them in?
Her: They are in a fish tank right now, so no cage can go with them. I do have a travel cage that can. I can only give a little bit of food because the food is my cousin's hamster food for her hamster.
Me: Okay, just bring them to work at 3:30...I'll take them home and separate them so the little girl doesn't get pregnant.
Her: You are going to separate them? They have always been together, though.
*I totally ignored that and tried to remain calm*



Anyway, they are both safe now. I absolutely need to rehome the female. This is an all male household (I am the only female!). Hopefully I can find someone with another female who needs a friend. I am torn between keeping the male or finding him a new home. He is what I think to be a chocolate berkshire...most adorable little sweetie. I am very unsure how my three boys would take to him (they are 1-2 years old). I also don't know what I want another little one around because I was very sure I wanted to take a break after my current three guys pass away. Then, when they do, this little guy is all alone...unless I keep the chain going. My fiancee is joining the Navy, so I don't want to have "too many" pets...even though the rat's would all be in one cage. The little guy also can't go into the Ferret Nation until he is larger.

Ugh...I just don't know. If I kept him I would be at 1 dog, 1 cat, 3 bunnies, and 4 rats. Ryan and I are adopting another kitty in a few weeks for Juju, too.



The male...

The female...

 

[NZminilops]

They are both adorable :inlove:! I would love a pair of rats, I actually had two lined up but it didn't go through .

Just being nosey, but do you not like female animals?

 

[RexyRex]

They are both really cute, but I LOVE the first pic of the male. Good luck with whatever you decide to do with them. Either way, they are really lucky that someone like you stepped in to make sure that they are cared for!

 

[undergunfire]

NZminilops wrote:

Just being nosey, but do you not like female animals?

Michelle...I don't not like them, I just do not prefer them . I feel that I connect better with males. It might be my luck or it is true, but I find female animals to be more temperamental. Males always just seem so much more laid back to me. I especially LOVE male rats. They can get to become big squishes and are more like lap buddies. Female rats are always "Go! Go! Go!" and they get to become too much to handle sometimes, IMO. I love walking into the house and yelling "Momma is home, boys!".

Have you joined www.goosemoose.com? GREAT rat forums and there are some NZ members, I do believe .

:biggrin2:

Ryan noticed that the baby male is "so cute" and has a bone shaped white spot on his tummy, as well as a heart shaped spot. If I was to keep him, I really want a name that is fall-like or Halloween-ish.

 

[NZminilops]

That's fair enough, I kind of agree too (about the female pet thing), it's how I feel about human females for the most part . Online they are fine, but in real life, I just don't seek out female friends at all.

I really think you should keep the little ratty baby, he is really just preciously cute.

I'm gonna go check that forum out now, cheers :biggrin2:. My friend James had two rats a year or so ago and they were awesome, constantly begged for attention, were so intelligent and loving and cuddly. I have to avoid petstores as they have so many at the moment, I want to take them all home.

Michelle

 

[undergunfire]

I think I'll name him "Spook" if I do keep him . The little girl was using her hammock for the first time last night! They are SOOOO tiny. They are about the size of an adult mouse right now...with a bigger head, of course.

Michelle, there may be rescues in your area! You should check out the adoption section of goosemoose, too. If you do buy from the pet store, be very careful if you get females. Like rabbits, they don't show they are pregnant until the last second.

 

[myLoki]

A few months ago, I would have completely agreed with you.

Now I have my little Bailey girl. She is my dog's daughter from an accidental litter. We were going to take the boy home. So adorable and fat and happy little guy. Then I look over and see this scrawny little ratty thing that is missing a hind leg and I was lost. She's my sweet little baby girl. More independent than her father, but just as loving and not as whiny.



t.

 

[NZminilops]

The only rescue I know of in NZ that takes anything other than cats and dogs is the SPCA, they have some mice in at the moment but no rats, boo hoo!

I did see some baby rats the pet store the other day, they looked so sad in their little plastic tanks . There are some breeders I know of online though so if I were to get any ratties I'd look there is the SPCA didn't have any. Plus the pet stores wanted $50 each for the baby rats :shock:, yikes.

 

[undergunfire]

Michelle....$50 USD per rat? Uhhh...rip off? Lol! They run $5 for a baby here in the states.


The little girl is SOOOO licky! She just attacks your hand with licks. I kinda wish I could have her spayed and keep both babies, but then the baby boy would have to say in a cage until he is big enough to not get out of the bar spacing on the "big boy cage". Also, the female would have to live alone in her own cage until she is big enough to be spayed. It just doesn't seem fair to both, so I decided to rehome the female and *maybe* keep the male. Ryan is totally ticked that I am thinking about it!

The only issue is that once all my *old* guys pass on, then this boy will be all alone and I will have to get him a friend around his same age...or two baby boys.


Suuuuch a tough decision!

 

[LedaHartwood]

Your new little boy looks like my Hachi that died not to long ago . He's pretty.

 

[NZminilops]

Nooo hehe, $50 NZ, I don't normally think of money in terms of US$ . I think that's about $30 on your side of the world.

Aww, see? Girl animals can be nice! I wish you could keep her , but I know you'd find her an awesome home. I found the female rats that James (my friend) had were lovely, they were so excited to see you everytime you went into the room.

How is the little boy one today? You know, you could always go hunting for another baby male rat now, so he wouldn't ever have to be alone....

 

[undergunfire]

My heart is slowing gearing towards modifying my Ferret Nation cage (putting hardware cloth on the outside, so the bar spacing is smaller) and keep the little girk and have her spayed for $125.

This way, I could put the little boy in with the big boys (if I modify the cage), then the little girl would only have a couple of months until she can be spayed. I should be able to raise the money by then by sewing my new rattie bed creation.

Ryan doesn't know about my master plan. He is going to want to totally kill me.


The kids are doing fine. They love to hang out with the big boys. Louie is a little rough and pins them to the ground so that he can power-groom them. Spartie is just getting so old that he doesn't mind their company, and Ralphie is just sweet 'ole Ralphie.

I am for sure separating the little ones tonight. It is going to be so sad! I have to break the news to Ryan this weekend, so that we can go get hardware cloth to modify the big boy cage.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Amy, we were at Petco last night and as always, I had to go look at the baby rats. The cage that my girls came from was full of teeny baby girls... They looked like they were maybe 4 weeks old, they had the cutest baby faces and were definitely younger than my girls. I so wanted to grab some because I know probably EVERY SINGLE ONE will be fed to something. Poor little babies! Then when we were checking out, there was a little cardboard container with a baby rat in it at the register, the people ahead of us decided not to get it for their snake. I was so tempted to say, "that's it!" and buy that baby and a couple other same gendered babies.

 

[undergunfire]

Why don't you, Shiloh ? I just find that when I am sad, the rats REALLY bring a ton of happiness. When I am frustrated, I go to the bunnies because they calm you down. It would be so hard to not have them both in my life, even thought I always think I should take a break after a species passes on.

 

[Spring]

They are so adorable!

Baby rats are just so cute.. I've honestly never been in contact with a live rat in my life (deprived, aren't I? haha!) but hearing you talk about them, so makes me want to look into them in the far future.. just worry because of their short lifespans and health issues.. but I guess it's worth it for the little ones!

Is 'rat bonding' easier than rabbit bonding?

 

[undergunfire]

Spring wrote:

Is 'rat bonding' easier than rabbit bonding?

Definitely! Sometimes you only have to do a few "intro's" (bonding sessions) in the bath tub before put them all into a freshly cleaned cage.

Rats live in colonies, so a majority of them do like to live in groups. Very rarely will you find that some rats will just NOT get a long, even after neuters and intense intro's.

They say, "no blood, no foul" when it comes to rat "bonding".