The Rat Room

One of the most common behaviour questions I get is how to make my rat love me more.
It’s simple, stick the little guy down your shirt. How to prepare for this… you’ll need to put on a t-shirt, then a sweatshirt, you’ll need a couple of hours of free time so settle down with a good book, movie or even reading the Rat Room.
Put your little guy or guys in between the two shirts and let them sit there and squirm for some time. They will eventually enjoy being in there. Rats love dark cozy spots and they will soon relate your natural body scent as well as your energy to a good place. Do this several times a day for over a week. You’ll see the rats will soon come running to you when they sense you come near the cage. This trick works on babies as well as older rats. Be warned though… it usually creates shirt divers. What’s a shirt diver? A rat that upon seeing shirt immediately dives in.

You might at some point or another find your rat in a peculiar position, frozen on the spot. Some rats will do this when gripped with fear or even extreme stress. Snapping them out of it is not easy and not necessary either. I will leave my rat alone when he does this, it take a few minutes, usually no more than 5 for them to regain their composure. It may seem like it’s taking a long time but it really hasn’t. In order to avoid your rat becoming so fearful would be to interact with him more, take him out of his cage, lots more out time, expose him to new things often all the while holding on to him to reassure that everything will be fine. And don’t forget to do the down the shirt trick. Works like a charm.

I’ve done a lot of research in the hope of stopping mammary tumours. Although almost always benign, the mammary tumour can definitely end up sucking the life out of the rat. At best a rat with a mammary tumour can live a few months, at worst it can grow so fast within days.
I’ve tried all kinds of supplement with absolutely no success, with Mycoplex and shark cartilage.
What did work is a spay. Spaying your rat removes the source of estrogen which in turn decreases the risk of a growth. I’ve had 29 females spayed. From the 29 only two went on to develop a mammary tumour. One of the two already had one when I adopted her from the SPCA. Kate had a mammary tumour removal and a spay at the same time. Unfortunately she and her sister were fairly ill and both also developed inguinal masses.
Out of the 29, a few had their spays later in life which proves that a spay at any age is highly beneficial.
Some might argue that a spay is invasive but with a good exotic vet, surgery risks are very minimal. The recovery of a spay is much faster than a recovery of a tumour. Tumours weakens the immune system and leaves the rat generally unwell, surgery at this point although very doable is still harder on a rat than a spay on a healthy girl.
I will always have my females spayed. Mammary tumours are not something you want to deal with.

In a colony there is always a chain of command. The alpha, usually the big male will rule the roost. Some are fierce and a bully while others are forceful yet gentle. I’ve seen all kinds of alpha from neurotic to very gentle.
One alpha was Tripp. He took care of his buddies and would butt in if he figured it was time too. The other rats respected him and the colony lived very happily with him as their leader. The time came when I needed to intro Tripp’s group with 3 older rats. Chase, a young neutered neurotic rat was having a hard time accepting the new buddies. He especially didn’t like old man Lex. One one occasion, during an intro Chase had cornered Lex into a box. Lex had nowhere to go and Chase was slowly approaching him, mouth open… along comes Tripp. Tripp pushes Chase aside and goes to lie down next to Lex. Chase immediately realizes that Tripp was telling him that Lex was an ok guy and welcome into their colony. Intros went smoothly because Tripp was definitely the good alpha.

I’m attempting to intro two big colonies. One that is 13 adult rats with 11 younger rats. The 13 are Julia, Noodle, Sara, Fleur, Minou that are all 18 months old. Jet, Jude, Jack, AnnaBanana, Sheela, Blue, Bunny, Roxanne they are all 15 months old. The group of 11 are Echo, Rocher, Matou, Darcy, Bug, Fox, Bronco, Pony, Sawyer, Benjamin and Desmond, they are all 5 months old.
Things are going as to be expected… keep in mind, all my females are spayed so no babies here.
I’m really hoping they become friends, even though they will probably never live together… this will allow them to have 2 to 3 hours of out time daily which is very important to rats.
Wish us luck!

Rats are from the order Rodentia but that doesn’t mean you can put them all together to play.
In fact, rats are known to become very territorial and instinctual when faced with a different and smaller species. Rats can attack and cause severe damage if not death to other species like hamsters, mice, degus…
I’ve heard a few horror stories with people wanting their rats to play with their other pocket pets.
Not just small animals, but also birds, cats and dogs should be supervised when around rats. There are dogs that would love nothing more than to bite down on a rat and make him/her his lunch.
Don’t force an unnatural friendship between rats and bunnies, rats and guinea pigs, rats and chinchilla, rats and ferrets… the results could be disastrous.

Please keep your pet rats happy and healthy with their own kind. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

What’s the harm in buying a rat from that pet store?
Most rats in pet stores come from rat mills or worse yet, bred in a back room.
Rat mills produce rats by the thousands. These rats are housed in small containers in overcrowded conditions. Moms are bred back to back which ends up producing unhealthy babies. When you buy from a pet store with stock from a rat mill, you are most certainly buying a sick and unsocial rat.
A pet store that breeds their own also keeps their stock in unfavorable conditions. They usually have their rats in with mixed genders, rats are constantly inbreeding and not socialized either.

Keep in mind, when you buy from a pet store, you are filling a need which sends the message to the pet store that they need to acquire or produce more stock thus creating more unhealthy rats.
It is hard to not buy that sad little face in that pet store tank but he will be replaced by a dozen more sad little faces. Most of which will end up as live reptile food… a most horrific end to their young lives.

Send out a message to these pet stores selling animals for profit. Try not to purchase supplies from a rat-selling petstore. Support the shops without animals. Stop the demand… end the supply.

Rats have always had a terrible reputation. Not only are they considered vermin, but they are also used in lab experiments.
When in fact, rats are wonderful, intelligent, sweet and loving little creatures. But with their less than desirable history, these small furry animals are plagued with diseases and illnesses. Society doesn’t have a problem with using them for experimentation but they won’t take the time to find out what can be done to cure them of their short lifespan.
The state of their lives is due to society: a society driven by greed, impulse and curiosity.
We can’t just blame the laboratories for the state of our rats. But the pet stores as well. Some, sadly most pet stores keep rats in worst conditions. How can rats thrive or become healthy when they are subjected at such an early age to toxic bedding, dirty water and cramped housing. How can the female rats produce healthy babies when she is constantly in a pregnant state and her babies are taken away at 3 weeks of age. Where does socializing fit in to all this? Rats learn from rats.
Then we have home breeding, breeding for fun or accidental litters. There should be so much consideration before even thinking of breeding your rat.
Where does this rat come from?
Is he healthy?
What is carried in his genes?
Does he have a good pedigree?
What about his temperament.
Why do I want to breed this particular rat?
Am I filling a need?
Will bringing more rats into the world benefit anyone or anything?
Then there’s the birthing process: do you have a vet that is extremely rat savvy? Does the vet know of your intentions and is willing to help?
There could be a number of things that can go wrong with the birthing process, are you ready for that?
Breeding your pet rat should not be an experiment, it should be done with careful consideration. Breeding pet store rats or worse yet, shelter rats will not help in the long process of creating a healthier stronger and more docile animal.
Please be careful, please think about it… breeding is not a game.