I'm just curious

[_ratowner]

I was curious about a few things. I know that everyone cares for their animals differently. I just wanted to see all the different answers I might be able to get. Feel free to answer as many or as little questions as you would like.

How many rats do you have? What are their names? How old are they? How long have you owned rats for?

Around what time do you feed your rats? What food do you give your rats? How much?

How often do you clean your rats food dish and water? Everyday? Every other day? How often do you clean their litter? What do you use for litter? What do you use for bedding?

How often do you clean their cage? How often do you surface clean? How often do you deep clean? What do you use/do what you deep clean?

How often do you take your rats out? For how long? What do they do while they are out? Do you play with them or do they do their own thing while you do your own thing? How is there cage set up? (Add a photo if you would like)

Are your rats litter trained? Does it matter? Do your rats know any tricks? Would you be considered a bad rat parent if you didn't train your rats?

These questions are not asked for advice for me, I am just wondering what each individual does when caring for their rats. I am not judging anyone, I am just curious.

Also, how do you get good photos of pet rats? Mine always seem to come out blurry.

Thank you. All replies are appreciated.

 

[Kye]

I only really want to answer like.. Two of your questions as I am too lazy to do more . 6 ratties girls are : Iris, Venus, Zirna, and Mazu.. My two boys are Milo and Tobi !

 

[Kye]

Also try to get them while they are asleep or eating. Or you can just spam photos and see if any came out good XD

 

[_ratowner]

boost

 

[jorats]

I don't have rats anymore but when I did, I always had big colonies of about 10. Mixed sexes, females always spayed. I've had rats for over 15 years and have rescued over 300.
I fed my rats in the mornings and at night with veggies in between. I fed Oxbow regal rat, I limited their blocks because keeping rats slim is keeping them healthy. I gave them mixed veggies like kale, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, arugula, carrots mid day.
Food dishes and water dishes washed every day. You really don't want bacteria built up.
I cleaned their litter boxes every day and throughout the day, I would pick up loose poops and drop them in the litter pan. I'd say my gang was 80% litter trained. For litter I used Yesterdays News, a recycled pelleted cat litter. For bedding, I used freece and newspaper.
I did a deep cage clean once a week, using a bit of dish soap and vinegar but every day, twice a day I cleaned up the wet spots and left over foods.
My rats always came out in the mornings, usually for about 2 hours at a time and this was everyday except Fridays.
I sat with them and I was their jungle gym. I would build them cardboard castles, I would also hide treats around too, I had a ball that dispensed cereal for them. They had lots of cozy places to lie down or hide.
As for photos, I waited till they got tired. lol

 

[Mel_V]

Three boys, Ren Gary and Fry. They eat oxbow and live in a very big bird cage with tons of toys and bins, I rinse their bowls every other day and fill their water bottles every day. There is a bowl at the top level for Fry bc the others pick on him when he eats from the bottom bowl. They get veggies every day at pm and oxbow at am so they always have food. Every morning I clean up the uneaten veggies and fruits scattered everywhere. The love the huge kaytee comfort wheel and Cheerios scattered around the cage and chilling on the couch with me being lazy fluffs. I use Healthy Pet Critter Care natural paper bedding it’s really the only one that works without horrible chemicals in it besides the 50 dollar bags of clean and cozy which is three times more expensive and the same size they also won’t touch strawberries. Odd lol. I clean their cage every two days by emptying the bedding and toilet paper from the bins, wipe it all down ( bars only once a month ) with natural baby wipes them let it air dry then refill the bedding and wipe down the wheel as well

 

[Mel_V]

Ren at the back Fry at the front

 

[Mel_V]

And here’s the cage

 

[Nadia]

I was meaning to post a thread related to this so I’m sorry I’ll just highjack this one for a few moments. What is best to do, leave the pellets available all day and feed them their veggies and fruit etc once a day (which is what I do at the moment), or literally do as I do with my dogs, make food available 2 or 3 times a day but between those periods no food ?

Sorry for highjacking your thread ratowner

 

[jorats]

I was meaning to post a thread related to this so I’m sorry I’ll just highjack this one for a few moments. What is best to do, leave the pellets available all day and feed them their veggies and fruit etc once a day (which is what I do at the moment), or literally do as I do with my dogs, make food available 2 or 3 times a day but between those periods no food ?

Sorry for highjacking your thread ratowner

I used to free feed, have blocks available all day long but then I started to limit them. I try to keep my rats slim and it worked best for me to give them some in the mornings and some at night. For veggies, I would give them once a day and remove anything left after 20 minutes.

 

[_ratowner]

Feel free to “highjack” my thread. I post them not only for me but for others too if they need it.

 

[ViciousCurse]

I have a rather large colony of eight male rats. *deep breath* Their names are Chuchule, Plachu, Chulatt, Peter, Owen, Lucifer, Arthur, and Trico. Chuchule doesn’t respond to Chuchule, he’ only responds to Grumpy. Same with Plachu, but his nickname is Ni (pronounced like knee). Chulatt just likes to be called Lil’ Chu. All of my rats are named after some form of media. The first three were named after the mice in Voltron. Peter and Owen are named after Chris Pratt’s characters Peter Quill and Owen Grady. Lucifer is named after the TV show Lucifer. He’s fittingly a little black rat with spunk. Arthur is named after Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2. And Trico is named after Trico in The Last Guardian. I felt the need to explain the names since I have one named Lucifer. The first three will turn two in summer, Owen and Peter just turned one last December, and the last three were born a couple of months ago. I’ve had rats for three years. Owen and Peter are my first rescues. They were free on Craigslist and I had to grab them before… Yeah. I was looking to add new rats into my colony before Grumpy and his brothers passed away, and the only rescues I could find were well over 100 miles away, so I decided on babies. I do keep a lookout on rats in need of homes, though.

I feed my rats in the morning and I night. However, throughout the day they’ll get leftovers and treats. Generally this will be veggies such as carrots, kale, and some pea pods. I give mine a wide variety of food. They get a seed mixture, along with two types of rat blocks (Oxbow and Kaytee are the two brands), Cheerios, and corn flakes. I spread this out between three large bowls on various levels, and then a handful here and there in their favorite stashing spots.

I clean their food bowls daily. Thanks to SQ, I’ve started setting out water bowls as well, and those are cleaned daily. Water Bottles not as frequently, about every three days. I clean their litter once a week. I use Exquisicat Multicat recycled paper bedding. Unscented. As for bedding, I use fleece.

I surface clean their cage daily. Moving stray poos to their litterboxes. As for taking out the fleece and cleaning hides or replacing cardboard boxes, that’s about once a week. I deep clean once a month. I use Dawn dish soap for deep cleaning. I’m not comfortable using bleach, even if it’s extremely diluted, around my rats. Vinegar just makes me sneeze way too much.

My rats come out AT LEAST once a day for supervised play time. They come out anywhere from four to five times a day for about ten to thirty minutes. This is watching a TV show together or something. When it comes to supervised play time, I’m content to just sit on the floor and watch them. Sounds creepy, I know. I have a DCN set up, but I’m the works of redoing the cage. I may post a picture tomorrow after I get their pea diving toy set up.

I litter train my rats. I don’t know that I’d say it really matters aside from cleanliness. My rats don’t know any tricks, unfortunately. I’d like to do it, but I’m not really a trick trainer. I teach them their names and that’s about it. I wouldn’t consider anyone a bad rat owner if they didn’t train their rats, but I’m biased, so.



As for photos, I bribe them with food. Or if I accidentally wake one up and he’s just staring at me, I’ll quickly steal a picture of him. I can upload one I got of Grumpy.

 

[ViciousCurse]

This is Chuchule after accidentally waking him up. Gotta be my favorite picture of him.

EDIT: I know he's fat. I've been trying to get him to slim down.

 

[Dena]

Omg these pics of people's rats! I'm OBSESSED with my rats. I take probably a couple pics a day. I even have a whole album on my phone, with about 500 pics in it, and that's not all the ones I have.

I clean every 4-7 days, depending on how icky they get. Deep clean with dawn dish soap and pressure wash, then blow it dry with leaf blower and let sit in the sun (yeah, redneck, I know), spot clean daily with pure and clean baby wipes. Free feed oxbow all day. I fill bowl up in the morning after cuddles, then clean and refill bottles if necessary. I have 4 males, and 3 females. Boys are cookie, taco, brother, and skittle. Girls are macaroni, cream, and Eva. Had rats for 2 years now. They play at night for an hour. Veggies and fruits and seeds throughout the day. Uhhh I think that's it.

 

[ViciousCurse]

Omg these pics of people's rats! I'm OBSESSED with my rats. I take probably a couple pics a day. I even have a whole album on my phone, with about 500 pics in it, and that's not all the ones I have.

I'm pushing 1000 on my album Most of them are blurry or unfocused and I should delete them, but pictures of my babies who've passed are on there, so I've been procrastinating a bit lol!

 

[Dena]

first pic is macaroni, next two are my heart rat, pepper (rip), next is cookie, then Eva and macaroni, with creams butt, then taco, brother, and cookie. I'll need to get one of skittle and a better one of cream.

 

[ViciousCurse]

They are so cute! The names make the cuteness factor skyrocket!

 

[Dena]

They are super spoiled!

 

[ViciousCurse]

I love when rats know they're spoiled too. I got one that knows he's got me wrapped around his tail.

 

[_ratowner]

What do you do with your rats when you go on vacation and can't take them with you? Do you leave them with a friend?

EDIT: I am not looking for advice for me personally for this topic, I am just curious as to what other rat owners do in this situation.