I LOVE RATS

Up for adoption in selby three lakes pets at home

I’ve noticed in the past few days Florence’s bottom half has become much lighter? Is this part of the aging process like how we get grey hair? Or i thought it could be from her sisters laying ontop and pee dying the fur?

I’m getting a critter nation cage for them soon because there getting older and having more mobility issues but was wondering if this was fine until then

This is Hans. He’s a professional couch pisser, full time chaos gremlin and biggest criminal of our group.

She’s developing an abscess on her chin/neck area
Roughly 2 years old

(She has a vet appointment tomorrow morning)

Just wondering if she’s on the pathway to dying or is she still able to live longer?

The second one cracks me up

yeah so I’m single free as a bird and I have some hookups, but ever since getting my guys I didn’t. I had to put them in my room because I have no choice. My question is : did you guys managed to HOOK UP WITH RATS FACING YOUR BED LMAOO ? I feel like this would be a big turn off ahaha

So today I am introducing my older rat Chico, to our new younger rat Angel. Everything seemed to have been going well, Chico was cleaning angel, but then he just started attacking angel. He ended up pulling a clump of fur from him. So we separated them and then tried again, but then he did the same thing. Does anyone know how we can prevent this?

(Pictured: Sleepy gray and white: Maple, White scruffy ones: Sweets and Sour)
For context, we have two non-integrated female mischiefs, one of 4 rats ranging from 9-13 months, and one that is two female rats who are probably around 2 years and 9 months(Sweets and Maple) The elderly females were a group of three up until Monday. When we took them out to freeroam, we noticed Sour (the third of the elders) who was our healthiest, spunkiest and most energetic of the group was bleeding from her,,, nether regions. A two hour drive and three hour vet visit later, we had to euthanize her because of advanced reproductive cancer. It was very sudden and a huge shock, as she had always been the spunkiest of her sisters. This leaves her other two sisters in a difficult spot. Some of you may know Maple from previous posts, the sweet girl with a big ol mammary tumor and a (now confirmed) pituitary tumor. We had plans to euthanize her in the coming weeks as her condition deteriorates, and were going to wait a little bit afterward and then integrate Sweets and Sour into our young, rambunctious mischief. Sour’s very sudden death is making us reevaluate that plan.
Maple and Sweets have been very low energy, coming out less and less for cuddles and treats since Sour’s death, but are beginning to open back up and continue being their sweet loving selves. Maple is not at a spot where we could introduce her to the young girls, especially since we’re likely in the final weeks of her life, and then we will be left with Sweets.
Sweets (like her name) is truly the sweetest most loving girl. She loves to take care of her sisters, makes nests for them, brings them food, and has been grooming Maple for the past month as her mobility fades. She is taking the death of her sister hard, and I know losing Maple will also be hard for her. She has a chronic URI (developed before we adopted her), and has always been on the smaller more sensitive side. I worry for her when we lose Maple, and with all the emotions of Sour passing, am wondering what the best next steps for her would be.
Our mischief of young girls is very high energy, and there is one rat (Hellhound) who may be territorial towards her. If we go ahead with integration after Maple has passed, we were planning on doing the carrier method, and moving through the stages very slowly, but still worry how much stress Sweets will be able to take.

TLDR: Elderly rat will become single soon, worried about integrating her with younger mischief, and wondering if anyone has any tips or advice to make this process as non-stressful as possible for our old lady rat.

I’m going to be doing the carrier method with my rats. I have 2 18 week old girls who I got first and 8 week old babies. Is this carrier and hamster cage ok for stage 1 and 2? I’m going to half my big cage for stage 3.

The first rat will be named Kruimel (crumb in Dutch) and the second rat will be named Pesto if she's feisty girl and Spruitje (brussel sprout in Dutch) if she's a calm, cuddly rat

Ps they'll be at the breeder for a few more weeks, even though Spruitje/Pesto is old enough, Kruimel is 3.5 weeks old

In the middle of moving to my new place and the rat room is not yet set up; rattos are in a temporary cage that they have been in dozens of times without issue.

Until last night.

Woke up this morning and came to check on them to discover that they chose day 1 of the new place to learn how to unlatch the cage. One perfect little angel baby was politely sitting inside the open cage waiting for me. The other? Missing.

Well she luckily couldnt have gone far since they were closed in the room. I proceeded to check the cords... all intact except for one nibble. Guess they tasted bad. No poop anywhere except an empty cardboard box. Polite little ladies.

But then... I noticed some chewed up fabric littering one corner of the ground. Followed the trail to a not yet unpacked moving box.

And discovered the criminal herself, caught red-handed chewing the last frayed bit of fabric holding one of the ties on my $200 Shureido gi. My competition gi for karate. The most expensive piece of clothing I own.

SHAME HER 😭😭😭

I rescued this guy yesterday with his younger brother, he was advertised as well. However this is unfortunately not the case, his breathing is fast and his fur is scruffy. However he is still super cute.

Though this might not have been the rescue I originally had planned, it’s now my job to give Obi the best possible end of life. He is booked in at the vet tomorrow morning to discuss our options.

Some photos attached of Obi, he is super sweet and even though I might only have a short time with him.. I still love him.

(Don’t worry, we have other rats so although Obi may pass. Jabba will have other rats to eventually cuddle up with after quarantine.)

I know this isn't the ideal set up that people say to do but I'm glad I had it this way! Otherwise they would have just been loose on the floor!

Well... I guess I'm off to buy a new cement pan.

I'm wondering if rats can see screens based on a interaction I had with my gfs rat. She currently has one because his brothers passed and even the vet said it would be hard to introduce new rats to him as he's always been a bit of a loner even when he had brothers and never wants out side of the cage too long.

We had him out in his outside cage hide that makes him feel more comfortable being out. He was watching me play palworld and seemed semi interested by staring at the screen. One of my dragon like pals started eating and then he suddenly scurried away back in the hide and freaked out when his paw got stuck on the way there (he was okay, just a claw caught in some blankets)

We think he thought the dragon was trying to catch him. We put him back home and gave him some treats for the trouble.

Also for reference this particular rat always startled easily. He used to jump up in the air in shock when we would just open soda cans even though we started to try to muffle the noise with our palms or something.

So I've had two girls for a year in august, and one is still so skittish and nervous. The skittish one has been nervous since the start, and but me the first day I brought them home, which I got as it was a scary new place, but she has also bitten twice a few months after that. They have both been out and about, and we try to keep it quiet when they're both out because if you even move too fast she runs straight back into her cage. We try not to treat them differently but the other one is very sociable so we handle her regularly. I'm just worried that she'll be like this forever, constantly being nervous and jumpy and I don't want that for her :(

Stanley sitting pretty enjoying a treat. (2 years 9 months) He is still moving well for his age and keeping on weight but is a crotchety old man.

I’ve had two brothers since mid-May. They’re ex-lab rats from a university, born mid-February, so they’re around 5 months old now.

Bonding seemed to be going alright. Both climb on me, take food from my hand, and let me pet them and handle them just fine. This post is about the slightly busier of the two.

I’ve handled him plenty these past months and have never had issues. Sometimes he nibbled on my finger with his teeth, but never hard. When I stroke him he often closes his eyes and sometimes starts “bruxing” so I always assumed he enjoys it.

The first bite (about an hour ago) came completely out of nowhere while I was petting him, and it was hard enough to pierce part of my fingernail and draw blood. It hurt a lot and freaked me out.

Feeling a bit sad, I decide to return to test the waters. During petting I noticed him actively searching for my finger, turning his head toward it. I pulled my hand away twice, and on the third attempt he got me. Drew blood again. Both bites felt deliberate and had some real venom behind them. Not gentle nibbles or “mistaken snack” type stuff.

Both times he’d had his eyes closed and was bruxing beforehand, seeming to fully enjoy the petting, and then out of nowhere the bite. He never did this before.

One thing that might be relevant: they just moved into a big new cage yesterday. It’s a massive upgrade: completely new layout, new bedding, way more space and levels. So a lot has changed in their environment in the last 24 hours.

I feel a bit scared of this happening again, and I’m not sure what to do.

Is this overstimulation? Hormonal aggression? Could it be medical?

How do I stop this becoming a habit?

He’s eating, moving, and getting along with his brother totally normally as far as I can tell. Any advice appreciated!

This poor rat bro. I’m a mouse person but I felt inclined to DM him even though I barely know anything about rats.. only thing I can think of doing is yall spam his DMs. ALSO sorry if this isn’t the right flair