(no subject)
To Hannah:
Oof- different sex pair? Ouch- not to critisize! But you will have 6-24 baby rats in about a month (no doubt about it, sadly.) Which isnt a problem if you wanted a colony- hell- it saves on buying them from a petstore where they come sick and probably mean. But at -that- point you will need a second cage. HOWEVER-! I have a savior for you! I just made my own cage for about 30 bucks! Its so simple to, you've GOT to do this, I will never buy a store bought freakin 40 dollar cage again!
Look~
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441777796&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302026350&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023695&bmUID=1140106502499
This item is sold at Petsmart for 12 bucks, but only for 10 dollars at Walmart. Thats where I bought mine.
I bought two boxes of them- thats 16 pannels. I yanked them all apart with wire cutters (super easy to do), and bought a bag of wire ties. I also bought a plastic tub. I took the panels..wiretied them together one at a time, made a cage, stuck it in the tub. Here is what it cost me, dimensions and pictures:
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/126/cage6hn.jpg
Thats the whole thing. Big tub, I know. But hey- no pee splatter!
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4113/cage22cb.jpg
Close up of the slide up door. I really like it!
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/3558/cage39aw.jpg
2 Packages of panels- $20
1 package of wire ties (used all of them, too) $2.75
Plastic tub- $6.50
Total: About 30 bucks. However..this cage is only really big enough for 2-4 rats- 4 pushing it big time. If you could spend just 20 bucks more for two more boxes of panels (16 more panels) you could make it massive. Or you could make two cages, one for males and one for females. Or you could use wireties and wire cutters to extend the cage you have and make a second one. The options are endless.
Checkout goosemoose.com or ratsahoy.com for lots of advice on care for rats. Dont be surpised though, they are extremely anal. Alot of what is said there I think it over the line and a little crazy, and I take their advice and mix it with my own. But I do know rats need lots of toys, space, and outside time. They also need fresh food, like fruit/veggies/rices and pastas (dry)/ cereals are good, etc. If you have females, a wodent wheel http://martinscages.com/products/accessories/exercise.htm is a good investment. All of my females use mine, I have the wodent wheel senior and it works perfectly size wise. Rats can use wheels with bars because their tail can go through as they are running and can hurt themselves pretty bad..so these are great. And mines really lasted. Martinscages.com has a lot of cool toys and ideas.
You have about 20-30 days depending on when the doe goes into heat to figure out a second cage situation. Males will harm the babies, as they are territorial, and although they are big squishy cuties, they just dont understand really...and babies should be weaned and seperated by sex at 5 weeks- to prevent further pregnancies. It can get out of control really fast. There are enough rats out there in aquariums with no love and terrible care being used as feeders, theres no reason to bring more of them into this world. This is a lesson it took myself a long time to learn. I respect and care for my rats a lot more now than I did when I was younger (we took a LOT of rats back to petstores..accidental pregnancy to petstores..let some loose in the barn if they were mean..etc.)
I do however, after saying all that, think it IS a good idea to raise your own babies if you do plan to have rats for the long run- as long as you have two large cages, and plenty of time and love to give. Babies that are hand raised are almost garenteed to be sweet and loving good pets- which is a must if you have two small ones in your house. You dont want any bites, and rats are great pets even for little kids. So its important to have well socialized animals. A friend here, Holly, gave me two female rats she picked up from another lady in her apartment complex, and one of them was pregnant, so I now have babies too- which is why I built that cage. They were in a nice warm aquarium for the first week, and now they are in a fun cage for when their eyes open and they are ready to play. Happy (my doe) was actually a great candidate for babies and I was really lucky. We named her HAppy for a reason, and shes made ti super easy to play with her babies and to be a part of them. Also, luckily she only had a litter of 7 with no stillborns and they are all healthy and strong! I plan on keeping one or two of the females, Holly will come take the three boys (since she does boy rats and I do girls) and that will just leave me with 2-3 to find homes for. I dont think it will be too hard, I hope. I dont want to deal with two cages.
Also- if you dont want babies, its probably too late. Theres no reason to build the cage and seperate them now- you will end up with unhappy and probably aggressive rats. Rats should be kept in same sex pairs, or atleast in pairs in your case- so leave the buck with the doe until her belly looks like she swollowed an orage. Then seperate- she will start attacking him and could possible end in the death of one of them at that time anyway- as she needs to be alone to give birth. You boy will be unhappy living alone for 5 weeks, so make sure you give him lots of attention- and just remind him that his boys will be coming to live with him as soon as they are old enough. Same with momma.
Hopefully some of this info will help you with taking care of rats! They can be great pets, but do require a lot of care! Remember, the care amount increases as your numbers do- so please keep that in mind when breeding (not that you have a choice in the number of a litter.)
Here are pictures of my babies most recently:
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0590fq.jpg
From left to right. On the far left, this little girl has no facial markings. But if you notice, her stripe covers most of her back. Can you see the white on her sides? The next girl over has a really pretty bald white face, I wish Id gotten a better pic of it. The next girl is all black, with a white head spot. The last girl, is a black berk, with a spot on her belly.
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0606al.jpg
The cutest boy! <3
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0614ls.jpg
Another cutest boy! <3 His tan sister (pictured in first photo) looks a lot like him.
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0620up.jpg
This is the last cutest boy! <3 His sister with a headspot (pictured in first photo) looks exactly like him. They are twins basically.
Well thats all the babies! Now to some of my other babies!
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0632ha.jpg
First is Chi. Shes the house favorite. From her doofy dumbo ears to her white belly spot, shes the baby of our house.
http://img313.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0649yy.jpg
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0659bp.jpg
These two are of Blueberry, whom I talk about constantly. Shes our most friendly, and has been a part of our family for about two years.
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0665ri.jpg
And thats nekkid eevee, sister from a nother mother to Chi. Bought them together from a petstore.
http://img427.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00067ec.jpg
http://img382.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00078kn.jpg
That is happy herself. Mother to the babies above. These pictures of were of her belly, when we realised she was pregnant.
Happy was given to my by a friend along with Lulu and Hushy. Here are pictures of them from their previous mommy:
Lulu
http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newgirls00080pb.jpg
Hushy:
http://img474.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newgirls00042rn.jpg
That covers all of my rats (Blueberry, Chi, Eve, Lulu, Hushy, Happy + her babies) except for one! My old mummy of an old lady who refuses to be yanked out of her snuggle bed to be made a model out of! Butterfly, or Buttflies/Buttzilla who is edging on over three years old. Ive had her since birth, almost lost her once. ( I gave her to a cousin who I thought I could trust. She got tired of her, and gave her back to the petstore for the feeder bin without telling me. As luck would have it, I went to the petstore that day,a nd was amazed to find such a friendly black hooded female rat in the tank..when holding her, I got suspicious and realised suddenly that it was My rat! I called my cousin and she said that she had been there no longer than an hour ago dropping her and her sister off, because she just didnt want the rats anymore. So I paid to get my rats back, and although Exie - Buttzillas sister passed away about a year ago, Ive have Buttflies ever since, and was obviously meant to <3 )
Those are my rats, I dont plan on getting anymore, infact I plan on homing these babies! But thats my story!
Anyway, now that Im done with my Rats 101 class, lol. Life has been hectic. Babies, needing a new car, monkey needs spayed/declawed, work being busy..mostly its just worrying about money. Im trying so hard to save, have been saving for two months and only have about 1000 to show for it, which Im dissapointed in- I expceted josh to be buying a new car at the end of this month and it looks now like it will be the end of march or maybe even april depending. My car is working fine, so I really need to calm down about it and just do what I can. Im just frustrated. We dont do fun things that cost money like eating out and seeing movies- which is GOOD, saving IS good, but Its a little depressing to know that every night I will come home..do laundry..clean rats..eat dinner..play on the computer..watch tv..do the rest of my chores..and go to bed. And thats every day. Ill do it tonight. Ill do it tomorrow. Its not bad, Im just not used to it. I am adjusting though. Sometimes I just feel like I wish I was still a kid. Im tired of cleaning up throw up (my damn cats), cleaning rat cages, doing laundry, vacuuming, dishes, folding laundry, dusting, cleaning the bathroom/kitchen, taking out trash, cleaning the cat box, sweeping the floor. God, im tired of all of it and Ive just started! lol. Ill get over it though, I dont have a choice.
Otherwise things are good..got 45 stems of tulips for free! First they messed up joshes order..and made it cost 75 dollars for tons more tulips then he meant to get..and made him spend a small fortune on getting them here on V-day. Well they didnt come! So I called and raised hell, told them I wanted my money back, that I didnt want the flowers a day late..not really expecting any help! Well they apologized, gave us our money back and I still got the flowers for free! Woohoo! I have so many, I have a vase at home and at work. I love free flowers! lol
My birthday is coming up, and all Ive asked for is the new Harvest Moon game coming out in March 28th! Check out natsume.com to see, it looks so cool @.@ Im such a dork.
Anyway, thats all thats up with me, pretty boring actually, if you dont count the babies! They are whats fun in my life right now n.n
Oof- different sex pair? Ouch- not to critisize! But you will have 6-24 baby rats in about a month (no doubt about it, sadly.) Which isnt a problem if you wanted a colony- hell- it saves on buying them from a petstore where they come sick and probably mean. But at -that- point you will need a second cage. HOWEVER-! I have a savior for you! I just made my own cage for about 30 bucks! Its so simple to, you've GOT to do this, I will never buy a store bought freakin 40 dollar cage again!
Look~
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441777796&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302026350&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023695&bmUID=1140106502499
This item is sold at Petsmart for 12 bucks, but only for 10 dollars at Walmart. Thats where I bought mine.
I bought two boxes of them- thats 16 pannels. I yanked them all apart with wire cutters (super easy to do), and bought a bag of wire ties. I also bought a plastic tub. I took the panels..wiretied them together one at a time, made a cage, stuck it in the tub. Here is what it cost me, dimensions and pictures:
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/126/cage6hn.jpg
Thats the whole thing. Big tub, I know. But hey- no pee splatter!
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/4113/cage22cb.jpg
Close up of the slide up door. I really like it!
http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/3558/cage39aw.jpg
2 Packages of panels- $20
1 package of wire ties (used all of them, too) $2.75
Plastic tub- $6.50
Total: About 30 bucks. However..this cage is only really big enough for 2-4 rats- 4 pushing it big time. If you could spend just 20 bucks more for two more boxes of panels (16 more panels) you could make it massive. Or you could make two cages, one for males and one for females. Or you could use wireties and wire cutters to extend the cage you have and make a second one. The options are endless.
Checkout goosemoose.com or ratsahoy.com for lots of advice on care for rats. Dont be surpised though, they are extremely anal. Alot of what is said there I think it over the line and a little crazy, and I take their advice and mix it with my own. But I do know rats need lots of toys, space, and outside time. They also need fresh food, like fruit/veggies/rices and pastas (dry)/ cereals are good, etc. If you have females, a wodent wheel http://martinscages.com/products/accessories/exercise.htm is a good investment. All of my females use mine, I have the wodent wheel senior and it works perfectly size wise. Rats can use wheels with bars because their tail can go through as they are running and can hurt themselves pretty bad..so these are great. And mines really lasted. Martinscages.com has a lot of cool toys and ideas.
You have about 20-30 days depending on when the doe goes into heat to figure out a second cage situation. Males will harm the babies, as they are territorial, and although they are big squishy cuties, they just dont understand really...and babies should be weaned and seperated by sex at 5 weeks- to prevent further pregnancies. It can get out of control really fast. There are enough rats out there in aquariums with no love and terrible care being used as feeders, theres no reason to bring more of them into this world. This is a lesson it took myself a long time to learn. I respect and care for my rats a lot more now than I did when I was younger (we took a LOT of rats back to petstores..accidental pregnancy to petstores..let some loose in the barn if they were mean..etc.)
I do however, after saying all that, think it IS a good idea to raise your own babies if you do plan to have rats for the long run- as long as you have two large cages, and plenty of time and love to give. Babies that are hand raised are almost garenteed to be sweet and loving good pets- which is a must if you have two small ones in your house. You dont want any bites, and rats are great pets even for little kids. So its important to have well socialized animals. A friend here, Holly, gave me two female rats she picked up from another lady in her apartment complex, and one of them was pregnant, so I now have babies too- which is why I built that cage. They were in a nice warm aquarium for the first week, and now they are in a fun cage for when their eyes open and they are ready to play. Happy (my doe) was actually a great candidate for babies and I was really lucky. We named her HAppy for a reason, and shes made ti super easy to play with her babies and to be a part of them. Also, luckily she only had a litter of 7 with no stillborns and they are all healthy and strong! I plan on keeping one or two of the females, Holly will come take the three boys (since she does boy rats and I do girls) and that will just leave me with 2-3 to find homes for. I dont think it will be too hard, I hope. I dont want to deal with two cages.
Also- if you dont want babies, its probably too late. Theres no reason to build the cage and seperate them now- you will end up with unhappy and probably aggressive rats. Rats should be kept in same sex pairs, or atleast in pairs in your case- so leave the buck with the doe until her belly looks like she swollowed an orage. Then seperate- she will start attacking him and could possible end in the death of one of them at that time anyway- as she needs to be alone to give birth. You boy will be unhappy living alone for 5 weeks, so make sure you give him lots of attention- and just remind him that his boys will be coming to live with him as soon as they are old enough. Same with momma.
Hopefully some of this info will help you with taking care of rats! They can be great pets, but do require a lot of care! Remember, the care amount increases as your numbers do- so please keep that in mind when breeding (not that you have a choice in the number of a litter.)
Here are pictures of my babies most recently:
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0590fq.jpg
From left to right. On the far left, this little girl has no facial markings. But if you notice, her stripe covers most of her back. Can you see the white on her sides? The next girl over has a really pretty bald white face, I wish Id gotten a better pic of it. The next girl is all black, with a white head spot. The last girl, is a black berk, with a spot on her belly.
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0606al.jpg
The cutest boy! <3
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0614ls.jpg
Another cutest boy! <3 His tan sister (pictured in first photo) looks a lot like him.
http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0620up.jpg
This is the last cutest boy! <3 His sister with a headspot (pictured in first photo) looks exactly like him. They are twins basically.
Well thats all the babies! Now to some of my other babies!
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0632ha.jpg
First is Chi. Shes the house favorite. From her doofy dumbo ears to her white belly spot, shes the baby of our house.
http://img313.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0649yy.jpg
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0659bp.jpg
These two are of Blueberry, whom I talk about constantly. Shes our most friendly, and has been a part of our family for about two years.
http://img475.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture0665ri.jpg
And thats nekkid eevee, sister from a nother mother to Chi. Bought them together from a petstore.
http://img427.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00067ec.jpg
http://img382.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img00078kn.jpg
That is happy herself. Mother to the babies above. These pictures of were of her belly, when we realised she was pregnant.
Happy was given to my by a friend along with Lulu and Hushy. Here are pictures of them from their previous mommy:
Lulu
http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newgirls00080pb.jpg
Hushy:
http://img474.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newgirls00042rn.jpg
That covers all of my rats (Blueberry, Chi, Eve, Lulu, Hushy, Happy + her babies) except for one! My old mummy of an old lady who refuses to be yanked out of her snuggle bed to be made a model out of! Butterfly, or Buttflies/Buttzilla who is edging on over three years old. Ive had her since birth, almost lost her once. ( I gave her to a cousin who I thought I could trust. She got tired of her, and gave her back to the petstore for the feeder bin without telling me. As luck would have it, I went to the petstore that day,a nd was amazed to find such a friendly black hooded female rat in the tank..when holding her, I got suspicious and realised suddenly that it was My rat! I called my cousin and she said that she had been there no longer than an hour ago dropping her and her sister off, because she just didnt want the rats anymore. So I paid to get my rats back, and although Exie - Buttzillas sister passed away about a year ago, Ive have Buttflies ever since, and was obviously meant to <3 )
Those are my rats, I dont plan on getting anymore, infact I plan on homing these babies! But thats my story!
Anyway, now that Im done with my Rats 101 class, lol. Life has been hectic. Babies, needing a new car, monkey needs spayed/declawed, work being busy..mostly its just worrying about money. Im trying so hard to save, have been saving for two months and only have about 1000 to show for it, which Im dissapointed in- I expceted josh to be buying a new car at the end of this month and it looks now like it will be the end of march or maybe even april depending. My car is working fine, so I really need to calm down about it and just do what I can. Im just frustrated. We dont do fun things that cost money like eating out and seeing movies- which is GOOD, saving IS good, but Its a little depressing to know that every night I will come home..do laundry..clean rats..eat dinner..play on the computer..watch tv..do the rest of my chores..and go to bed. And thats every day. Ill do it tonight. Ill do it tomorrow. Its not bad, Im just not used to it. I am adjusting though. Sometimes I just feel like I wish I was still a kid. Im tired of cleaning up throw up (my damn cats), cleaning rat cages, doing laundry, vacuuming, dishes, folding laundry, dusting, cleaning the bathroom/kitchen, taking out trash, cleaning the cat box, sweeping the floor. God, im tired of all of it and Ive just started! lol. Ill get over it though, I dont have a choice.
Otherwise things are good..got 45 stems of tulips for free! First they messed up joshes order..and made it cost 75 dollars for tons more tulips then he meant to get..and made him spend a small fortune on getting them here on V-day. Well they didnt come! So I called and raised hell, told them I wanted my money back, that I didnt want the flowers a day late..not really expecting any help! Well they apologized, gave us our money back and I still got the flowers for free! Woohoo! I have so many, I have a vase at home and at work. I love free flowers! lol
My birthday is coming up, and all Ive asked for is the new Harvest Moon game coming out in March 28th! Check out natsume.com to see, it looks so cool @.@ Im such a dork.
Anyway, thats all thats up with me, pretty boring actually, if you dont count the babies! They are whats fun in my life right now n.n