Oh, Rats! 😆

We've had a few changes in our life in the past few weeks. We moved to a new apartment, sold our home AANNNDDDD adopted 2 cute rat! They're both boys - Nicodemus & Justin. We weren't expecting to get them until we were moved in & could get them a cage but they needed to be picked up 5 days after we moved in so we had to house them in our 20 gallon long tank for about a week. My real life best friend, Nicole, bought us a cage for them as a house warming gift so they're now in their rat mansion! I've been dying to share some pics with all of you! Here we go! (I'm sorry the pics are so big. I tried to make them smaller & they wouldn't show up.)




Last edited on 2017-05-17 at 09:29:36 by 🌻 Valzed 🌹

Aww, yay! Rats are so much fun. When I was in high school I volunteered at an animal shelter and one day they got a family of rats in - a mama and 4 little babies. I wanted to adopt them so badly! But my mom said 5 rats would be way too much work, so I had to settle for enjoying their cuteness while at the shelter. 

Your mom might have been right - these two are plenty mischievous! I'm not sure we could handle a family of 5. lol!

Awww..... I have 8 rats myself lol.  Feel free to play me if you ever have questions.  I also have some groups (one medical) I'm a part of as well.  They're loads of fun but they can be a pain too.  Word of caution, once mine started free ranging I couldn't contain them anymore lol.  They roam the whole house when I'm home now.  But I have a few chewers and have lost some electronics due to this.  But having them follow me around is pretty cute and they love the freedom.

8? Wow! You are the rat whisperer! Thank you, ChesireKitty - I just may bug.... er, I mean message you with questions. I bet they do look cute following you around! We're still settling into our new place so free roaming is probably a ways off for us. I do love taking them out & having them sit in my chest/lap though. They're so much fun to interact with!

Super cute! =D

Cute! Congratulations! We have two little girls who are quite a handful! If you ever want to talk about them, PM me :D 



@CheshireKitty, You have eight? How cool!! I bet they are amazing! :D

They are awesome.  I started with two girls, then ended up adopting 4 boys from the humane society.  And later picked up two more girls.  Unfortunately one of the boys ended up being really aggressive, but I'm looking into getting him nuetered to help calm him down.

@PurpleMagic - I bet 2 girls are a handle. The lady we adopted out boys from said girls are harder for new rat owners because they're more independent & have more attitude. lol!

@ChesireKitty - I would have more if we were more experienced with them. I love how smart they are & how cute. Unless a person has seen a male rats um... equipment it might be hard to imagine get a rat neutered but with our boys I can see that it would be possible. 

We used to have three female rats, Sassy, Jenna, and Fiona. Sassy was actually the sweetheart out of the group, and would stay curled up on my shoulder while I did house chores. Jenna and Fiona were aggressive so we ended up rehoming them to a more experienced rat owner. Sassy we kept of course, and she passed away in 2004, from a tumor. But, she was pretty old by then. I can't find a picture of her on this computer, but she was a black and white piebald. 

LOVE!!!!!! I just ordered some "compressed coconut husk fiber" to build my little girl a dig box!! I can't wait for it to arrive. She needs more activity in her life.

Also, my rat, Leela, wasn't socialized, unfortunately, but I'm still able to let her run around with basic supervision in controlled areas. No squeaking (haha) under the pantry door or going in the laundry room behind the washer/dryer or in crowded closets, but otherwise she just runs along the wall and explores the travel cages and then I encourage her back into her hutch with some shreds of cheese.

Last edited on 2017-05-29 at 18:14:02 by Ðemure

Did you name them after Secret of NIMH characters? :D

Also, they're adorable, and I love rats very much! We used to have quite a few, though we haven't been in a stable enough living situation for several years to have them again. Once we are, I know we'll wind up with more. They're very smart and make wonderful, affectionate pets! ♥

Cute ratties!!

I have (currently) 11, I think? I have 4 males and 7 females. I recently just lost my favorite female to a ruptured uterus  :(   Swore I would never take a rat to the vet because they are "just rats" but she went to the vet and unfortunately nothing could be done. RIP Pepper

Sorry, don't mean to be a downer because rats are AWESOME! They are very smart, easy to care for and very trainable. I got into rats a few years ago when I worked at a feed store that sold rats as snake food and/or pets. I meant to only get 3 females that I had watched grow up into the lovely young ratties that they were. But there was an older male that was very sweet and mellow. He was certainly going to become snake food as he was past the "cute" pet stage for the average humanoid. So I ended up getting the 3 females and 1 male. Which started me on the trail of breeding rats.

I am also interested in color genetics so I like to tinker with pairings of my rats to try to educate myself more because, least in my short experience, sometimes their color inheritance seems sporadic. But I am learning  :) !

People are certainly brave to allow their rats free range of the house! Doesn't that create a bit of a mess?

Aww I love them! I currently have three rats. Vixen, Dixon, and Molly. We thought Vixen was a girl but then it changed lol. I planned on breeding Molly to Dixon, but they wouldn't breed. Oh well. Maybe she wasn't in heat.

@Sib - I'm sorry to hear about Sassy. I'm glad you were able to rehome Jenna & Fiona. I reading more about our rats I've read that females seem to be more aggressive then males. I was surprised to learn that. Normally males are more aggressive in the animal world.

@With our boys coming from a simulated lab environment we realized that they probably weren't really socialized. I don't see much cuddling & petting happening in that type of place. They also don't always now what to do with normal rat stuff. Me made them a dig box... they wouldn't touch it and sat there looking at it. They do dig a bit in their bedding though.

@Only the Wind - Yes! We did name them after characters from The Secret of NIMH!! I'm sorry your living arrangements haven't been too good. I hope things get better for you soon. If there's anything I can do to help just let me know.

@Nyx - I'm sorry to hear about Pepper. It's so hard to lose a furry friend. 11 rats? Oh, my! how do you do it? There's 3 of us - all adults - taking care of just the rat boys. I'm glad you saved the older male rat. Do you sell your babies? I'd love to see little baby rats! Yeah... I'm not sure about letting our boys free roam. They're so unpredictable.

@Star Shine - Vixen was just surprise, huh? lol! I have no clue about breeding so I hope you can figure out why Molly & Dixon aren't um.... being "romantic" with each other.