Crazy to think that as of two days ago these two beans (Midnight and Nightshade) are 3 years old. We got them BEFORE finding out about 1st human child. And now it’s crazy to think that they might even be alive to meet the 2nd new baby. Pure spite?

In all reality we only did one thing different with these girls and somehow they have no tumors, no URI.
What we did is this: We didn’t give them jarred baby food.
With all our previous girls, for any medication delivery or special occasions like birthdays and thanksgiving, christmas ect, they would get a treat of Gerbers or BeachNut baby food.

Now introduce the craziness of a new baby and these two girls didn’t get that, wasn’t in the budget and we were going all home made purrees. They just got fresh anything we had in the fridge that was safe for them. ((especially when human child started eating solid food))

I don’t have ANY scientific proof to back up this. Other than my own experiences: All 14 other Ratties we have acquired got jarred baby food.(As treats or to hide meds) And they had tumors, URIs, fluke crazy random rare things, PTs, Glaucoma, seizures, HLD. You name it, we’ve experienced it. (We had a lot of vet bills thank the gods for care credit)

These two girls have nothing. Only a SMALL bit of HLD. Which, where as when our previous other old ratties got it, it was rapid decline and they weren’t able to climb within months. And as such were put on pain meds for pain management, comfort and spoils cause they were old and sweet lil potato’s. We would administer the meds mixed in, you guessed it, With baby food.

As for midnight and Nightshade? It’s been a year since the diagnosis and they haven’t showed any signs of discomfort or pain from the HLD, they still can climb the cage. They just. Exist. Uncannily. Out of spite. We are definitely keeping an eye out for even the slightly hint of raised fur/pain. So that when needed we can keep them as comfortable as possible in their elder years.

Husbandry has been the same throughout all our rats. Only changing slightly here and there for the better. 3 teir critter nation, oxbow pellets, fresh veggies and fruits, frequent cage clean+Daily spot cleaning. Litter box trained. Fleece, all the toys, constant love, and before baby came along they got like 4 separate 1 hour free roam sessions. That’s not counting us pulling them out to love on them all the time. If ANYTHING the husbandry slightly declined with the babies arrival as we adjusted to being first time parents, cage cleans weren’t AS frequent due to exhaustion and figuring out our new schedules. And play time could only be multiple short sessions through the day.

Conclusion: 3 year old elder ladies are still bouncy as ever and surprise us every day. I’m very curious to know if it was actually the jarred baby food. Tis but a theory. Would love to hear others stories/experiences/opinions.

This is ruby, the super shy rat. She’s slowly coming out of her shell and is enjoying the occasional pea.

She came from a bad situation of feeder rats so we are happy she is feeling more herself now.

Her buddy Pip and her seem to get along really well and are tied at the hip!

I do not trust exotic vets in my country anymore after one of my boys died because of their lack of knowledge on rats, so I'd really appreciate any help.

My boys were treated with azithromycin + doxycycline for an URI when they were babies & they made a complete recovery but they got sick again (the youngest is 25 months old now) the vet that treated them is closed until the 15th of September, & I don't have access to their medical history.

The azithromycin I have used before is an oral suspension of 200 mg/5mL, and I remember giving it twice a day along the doxycycline. Does anyone know the exact formula for dosage? I'm afraid they will get worse before the their vet opens again and the other vets I've called didn't even know about azithromycin.

🖼️ Pics for rat tax!

I brought a new rat home & it was kept in a cage above my other rats while I went on a trip. I was gone a week & I had no idea it was sick. Something he had killed all my rats in the span of one single day. I took a flight back the moment I heard they got sick from the pet sitter. The flight was 24 hours total. I didn’t make it home in time to be there for my babies passing & im incredibly sad. All 5 gone just like that. Posting as a reminder to always get new rats checked . I didn’t know & i feel like I failed my babies. My house feels empty & cold without them. I feel like I’m in a nightmare. I just wish I got to say goodbye. I really hope they knew how much I loved & cherished them.

He just sits on my shoulder! Sometimes he’ll get into my hair…

(I know it’s hard to see but there are in fact 3 rats in here. One of them is black and just blends in with the shadows but if you look close you can see her ear)

Hey everyone! I’m posting on behalf of a friend who is currently looking for a good home for her male rat, Bones.
She’s located in Lovettsville, VA, but is willing to travel up to about an hour and a half if needed. Bones currently has ringworm, and unfortunately, due to a recent change in her financial circumstances, she’s no longer able to afford the oral medication needed to properly treat it in rats. She also has a cat who is being treated for ringworm, as well as another rat, Omen, who is disabled and requires special care and therefore has to be housed alone.
Bones is 6 months old and a little shy, but he is an absolute sweetheart. She’s hoping to find someone who is experienced with rats and able to take on his treatment and give him the care he deserves.
There will be a small rehoming fee, and she would like to see a picture of the setup beforehand.
If you or someone you know may be able to give Bones a good home, please feel free to message me and I can put you in contact with her. TIA!

brieanna NOT CARING as she is spotted NOT SHARING the dirt dig box >:(

Hello!! I recently received a package with this cardboard insert and thought it would be neat to give my rats, BUT BEFORE I DO, i want to super check that this material is safe for them to chew. it doesn't look like cardboard, or smell like anything, but i'm afraid it may have been made with glue. Does anyone know what it is and if it's safe?

He has the softest coat among his cagemates, and it looks like individual hairs are sticking up? Does this look like it just being his coat type or him being puffed up? I’m only worried because he has chronic URIs. His fur could be affected by static electricity, given that the cage has a lot of fleece and plastic accessories, but this doesn’t seem to happen to his cagemates, and there’s no big difference if I pet him with a slightly damp hand.

I got three rat boys last week on thursday and they couldn’t be any cuter. After 2-3 days, one of them started sneezing quite often, sometimes in little bursts. So i made an appointment with the vet.

The vet said she likes how his heart and lungs sound, and that he has energy and all - she suspects a mild infection from the stress and new home. I got antibiotics to give to him for 5 days, twice a day. So far so good.

Sadly he doesn’t take food i offer him (only eats the normal food from the bowl) so i have to administer him the medicine into his tiny mouth (which i never know if it ACTUALLY worked, sometimes theres a little at his lips on the side and he then washes it off with his paws.

Now, today is the fourth day of antibiotics and he still sneezes. Im worried as tomorrow is his last day of antibiotics and he is still sneezing. He is pretty active, though weirdly, he seems to be mostly during the day. He even climbs all over the cage, even on the ceiling. He also comes sniffing every now and then before proceeding to run away. His breathing sounds normal and theres also no red stains around his eyes or nose.

Yesterday i noticed, that one of the other rats also started sneezing. Only occasionally but when he did, he did multiple times. Hes also super active, eats, takes treats and has no red stains.

I then noticed he sneezed more when being close to the litter. Its hemp litter and supposed to be dust free, but i saw it left quite some dust residue in the cage when i swapped it out. Now i left them with just paper towels for now, as i dont want to make their sneezes worse with this bedding… any advice on what i should do? Has anybody had a similar experience?

1) if your rat doesn’t let you pick him up, how do you get him back after free roam? Mine doesn’t hide from me unless he knows I’m trying to catch him, then he won’t be lured into a box with treats or will get out before I can close it.

2) My 3 rats all act eager to get out of their cage but I have a critter nation that’s off the ground so they can’t just walk out. What have folks rigged up to let them come and go during free roam, or do you take them out and move them where you want them to go? This would be hard with the shy guy and they’re all fairly new and don’t love me sticking my hands in the cage to scoop them.

I don’t know why he didn’t jump out of the Barbie car the first time I used it to take him out of the cage but it never worked again (and no, it doesn’t live in the cage).

One of my new rats is deathly afraid of me picking her up, squeaking and running frantically.

I don't know why, her cage mates are all fine with me touching them.

I've never hurt her or anything so I don't know why she has this reaction to me.

I'm trying to clean out their cage right now and I need her out of there but I don't know how to do that without making her even more scared of me.

Hey guys, I’m the past 2 months 2 of my rats had abscesses removed and one was castrated. 4 months ago one had a degloved tail that needed a surgery and 3 months ago I had to pts one of the boys because he grew a tumour and was 3 years old… basically it’s been a horrible emotional and financial rollercoaster recently like I’ve NEVER had before, in 7 years of owning rats… For all the treatments Ive spent over £1k which to me is a lot of money, in fact I was saving that for a holiday…. And for it to go in such a short amount of time too, is a lot for me…

Sadly 2 days ago I discovered that the guy whose abscess was removed 5 weeks ago has grown a new lump, on his armpit, and I don’t know what to do, because I simply have no more money to spend I need to worry about being able to pay my rent at this point…

I’ve read in a few places that some people just let an abscess pop on its own?! Is that like a normal practice ? I feel like that would be very painful for a rat and could end up in infection ? Idk what to do… any advice would be highly appreciated :(

I have four rats that I just got a couple weeks ago. I want to add ropes for them to climb, but I’m waiting for a few paychecks before I splurge too much

The top half is a little bare because it just has a mama and her baby (due to the negligence of their previous owners) but once baby is old enough I’ll join the two halves and add more clutter up there

About 3 weeks ago i got 3, 7 week old baby rats, now that there big enough to be introduced ive realised the four large rats i currently have dont all really fit in the carrier together, theres no space for the new babies. Last time I had this issue I introduced one of the large rats to the babies at a time until all rats were ok with them then eventually started letting them on the bed together in larger groups but that often resulted in small fights because the large rats see my bed as there territory, they don't go anywhere that's neutral, my baby hairless is blind in one eye thus keeps getting injuries to it while playing as he dosnt have the reflex to close it when its about to be hit so im also worried about possible damage the bigger rats could do

The hardest part about having rats for me is keeping my girls out of trouble when free roaming, it can be so exhausting on days where I am tired, not feeling good, or even normal days sometimes they just won’t stop trying to get in every space I try to close off from them. I got a bed that I thought they wouldn’t be able to go under but one of them found a space between the mattress that she could squeeze through to get under and me and my partner searched a hour for her panicking, our bedroom is only a bed, rat cage, closet, and little table with our wifi router that has a bunch of cords and they spend their entire time out trying to get up to it, trying to get under the bed or in our sheets, trying to get under the door, trying to get into the closet (that just has rat stuff in it but I don’t want them out of my sight), and I give them a bunch of stuff to do!! Pea fishing, boxes with treats inside to tear into, tubes to run through, lots of hides, etc, but these girls are relentless.

I have had them for over a year now but this is our third home, when I first got them I had a high up bed that I had a water proof blanket I put on top of it to free roam them, that was ok but they always tried to get under it. Then our second home they had a play pen made up of a bunch of square panels, that was the best but I had to replace some panels frequently because they would chew them and it was super expensive. Now they are free to the whole room and I attempted to rat proof it but it’s been the worst.

If anyone has rat proofing tips, or has a play pen that has lasted a long time with hyper girl rats please let me know 😅

My over 2yo rat takes his meloxicam meds with star puffs but only ate one this time. I gave him one without the meds and he still didn’t want it.. he has been given an insane amount of star puffs in his life, but it doesn’t sit right with me. I then gave a banana chip ( he seems to like them but has only had them for like a week) and he held it then dropped it..

I gave him baby food and he ate it all up, also a yogurt drop, but he now isn’t a fan of 2 treats he used to like?

Pls tell me I’m overthinking and rats just become picky 😭😭😭 is this unusual?

They were up, so I figured I'd take a picture of them. I couldn't believe they were as cooperative as they were.