Awww, rats!

[mzdolittle]

Playtime. A bunch of pics.

[mzdolittle]

more photos

[Llamalady]

Aww too cute!

[~corrina~]

Oh my goodness, they are so addorible i didnt know you had ratties.
Its kinda weird cause i have 2 black n white boys and 1 half blue female and a brown one too.
In that one pic with the brownines, is that just 1 ratty just duplacate or 3.
I find the brownies alot more calm than all.
I just love dumbos!






Playtime. A bunch of pics.

[Bemm4]

Is Winston a patchwork rattie? All of your ratties are cute. Archie looks just like my Bentley.

[jippy]

After seeing those i would surely like to have some for me too :)

[mzdolittle]

I have 4 agouti (brown) boys and one girl...all siblings. Winston and Lola are both patchworks. They are siblings, too.

[~corrina~]

wow, nice to know there are some fellow rat lovers out there lol.
Do you have them in a regular cage or did you build one?
I want to build one and found some great idias for a 2 leavel 3 story each cage someday :D.
did you fix any of them?

[mzdolittle]

I have 5 rat cages. Three of them are single story. I have ferret litter pans and hammocks and baskets hanging in them. There are also pvc pipes, wooden structures and ones made from legos. One cage is a Martins 4 level cage. It has wire levels, but I have plastic canvas on them. I have a wodent wheel, hammocks, pvc pipe, boxes, etc. in it. My other cage is a five story Coast cage. It has the same kinds of things in it, but it has a solid wheel that's open.

[~corrina~]

Oh wow dang you muist have alot of room for that.
all fancyfied lol.
How did you get them to stay still?

[mzdolittle]

Corrina, I live by myself except for the critters so I have plenty of room for the cages. As far as getting them to be still, I have an extra bed and I put all kinds of things for them to play with on there. They won't jump off the bed so they can't get away from my camera. I just put it on the "sport" setting and snap away. I get lucky and get some good shots. I also get a lot of tails and ears and feet.

[~corrina~]

Lol well that explains it.
living by yourself sounds like a good idea, noone to have to pick up after and yell at lol.
Except your babies but you can put them away if they bug you lol.
I keep getting that , it bugs me so bad.
My camera is so slow though so its hard to cautch good ones.
What kinda diet are your kids on?

[mzdolittle]

I feed them a homemade mix of Total cereal, Kashi puffed cereal, dry oatmeal, banana chips, whole wheat pasta and brown rice. Sometimes I put split green peas, dried cranberries or broken ramen noodles in it. Every now and then I will throw a handful of cockatiel seed without peppers in with it. I give them harlan teklad blocks, too. (the vegetable formula) They also get whatever veggies and fruits I am feeding to my birds. Sometimes I give them babyfood out of a jar. I give them shelled pumpkin seeds when I am training them (tricks and agility). For treats they get butterscotch or peanut butter chips, (cheaper than yogies) pieces of rice cakes or occasionally, a mini-marshmallow. Pecans and walnuts are also favorite treats. What do you feed yours?

[~corrina~]

Wow well my list isnt quite as long but lol.
I feed them
Spinich.
Romain lettace.
canned cat food .
or dry.
Baby food.
Mainly ones with dha in them.
They really like the rolled whole wheat n oats with apples in it.
Also the veggie mix no corn.
They really like the chicken stars with veggies.
Bird feed no corn (it causes tumors in male rats)
They love sunflower seeds.
I also get the rat and mouse mix from walmart.
but pick out all the corn and alfalfa and give them the goodies.
They get organic yogurt which is really good for them.
They get chocolate chips as treats.
On top of all that they get baytril every day.
I was told it will help fight off resp infections.
Also prevent my boys from going paralyzed,
like my blue did, for when they get older.
They dont get all that everyday but its mixed about a week apart.

[~corrina~]

Its good to see that other people take good care of their animals.
Some just dont think they need as much.

[mzdolittle]

Baytril is a good antibiotic for myco and other respiratory infections but I don't know if I would give it to them every day. Ratties can develop a resistance to it then it won't be effective when they need it. There are other things you can use as a preventative that are effective and, as a bonus, are cheaper and more readily available.

I have had rats for over 15 years and for the past 4 or 5 years I have been alternating adding organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother) and GSE to their water and I haven't had nearly the problems I used to have with myco or other health problems including mammary tumors or abscesses. I have even had a few rats live to their 4th birthday and several make it it past 3 since I started this. My rat vet is fascinated. I learned about this on other sites. It might be worth reading up on.

[~corrina~]

well i was told bout the bayatril by a rat rescue that helped me with my blue poor blue he went paralyzed in his hind a known affect in male rats, i do understand the getting use to it hmm i dunno.