Getting Ratties!

[wickedrodent]

Mischief and Magic are so cute too!

I think I am going with Jasper and Jinx, I agree: Jasper for the fawn and Jinx for the agouti.. Plus you can make cutsie nicknames for both (Jaz and Jinxie)- I love doing that!

Ill have to save the names Dimitri, Donovan, Magic and Mischief for other ratties in the future. She is actually bringing 6 of them for me to choose from.. 3 fawns, the agouti, and 2 hairless. I would LOVE to adopt them all..

[Piggersrule]

Welcome to the world of being owned by ratties. I have 13 myself. I had to have Hyde pts a couple weeks ago, not fun. I had my one male Mowgli neutered about 2 weeks ago, he will be living with my girls eventually. Ratties are awesome pets and I am sure you will enjoy them.

[YANGLiCiOUS]

I just got 2 Albino rats yesterday myself as well.
I use a very tall Bird cage for them and they loves it. No chances of breaking out since the gaps are narrow

[LadyBelle]

After seeing your pictures I fell in love with that cage and how easy it looked to clean. I found one on amazon that I plan to buy here when I get the animal room all set up. Depending on how the top is I might be able to also connect the origional pet store cage on top for some more interest. I hate reaching in that small door to try and clean the cage, so those wide doors look great.

[wickedrodent]

If you want to buy it, Ferret Supplies, Ferret Cages, Ferret Food - Ferret.com has it at the cheapest price anywhere!

[Rattie Mom]

Awe, they are lovely boys. And the FN cages are quite nice. It's great that you are baby proofing it, as the opens are pretty big. One of my close rattie friends also has an FN cage, but has grown males in it. You might plan to leave the baby proofing up until your boys are at least 4 months old. Just to be safe. There is a risk of them getting their heads caught between the wire, even if their bodies are too big to get through.

Have you ordered your lab blocks yet? We buy the #2014. The do not have too much protein, which is good. We use the blocks, along with our own variation of the Suebees mix for their staple dry diet. Our ratties get fresh veggies and fruit each night for dinner too.

We use fleece in our cages too. I line the levels with plastic carpet runner and cover that with fleece. Some ratties will pull up the fleece, and some will even chew a bit. But for the most part, it works great. Here is a pic of my largest cage. It comes from Quality Cage in Portland, OR. It's a bit bigger than the FN (36x20x60). But it gives you an idea of how well the fleece works and also the toys and such we provide for our ratties.



I bet you are so excited about your boys. Make sure to post pics!

[wickedrodent]

Only 2 days 7 hours 13 minutes until I get them! Woot! (Yes, I have been counting down like from the time I realized exactly when they were coming.)

We might end up just leaving the babyproofing period.. I really don't like the look of it very much, but if it means keeping them safe I am more than willing to leave it..

We haven't ordered food yet, mainly becuase I keep going back and forth about which one I want to buy. I think I am just going to wait and order the oxbow (shouldn't be much longer) since I have to order the new pig food soon anyway. Until then she is bringing some Harlan with her and I am making up my own suebees variation mix as well as low protein dog food. Its been hard finding some of the stuff to go into the mix.. Im going to have to go out and try to find more today- any ideas of where to look?

Thanks for the picture, I have been sewing the fleece like mad (hand sewing, ugh) to get it ready.. I bought 2 large blankets, cut them in half which makes two sets of bottom liners. Then I have 2 pieces of fleece (another color) that I cut to size as shelf liners. The bottom ones flip underneath but the small ones don't. I have to sew on little ties.. -sigh- Its taking forever, but I hope it will work. I still need to go to the store to get towels to put underneath.. Might do that today as well.

[Rattie Mom]

Wow, you are sewing? I am terrible at that. But I have managed to figure out how to use the machine enough to muddle through hammocks. My ratties love their hammies.

My rats HATE the Oxbow Regal Rat. Many other rattie owners I know, have had the same experiences with it. It's very nutrious and good for them....but they will either throw it out of the cage in protest, or leave it in the bottom of the bowl. Mine like the Harlan blocks WAY more.

When I first started with ratties, I had trouble getting them to eat the blocks. So we went with the Nurtro's Natural LITE dog food. My rats LOVE that. It's not as good as the blocks or Oxbow...but works as a staple and has 14% protein as well. So an option. But if you can get your ratties to eat the blocks...great. That's good if you can start your new little ones on something simliar to what they are already used to at the begining. Better on their tiny tummies.

Almost everything for their dry mix, I pick up from the bulk foods section of the store. I don't know if there are Fred Meyers out your way. But any store that has a good selection bulk food section will work. We get our triticale, rolled barley flakes, rolled rye flakes, rolled oats, dried pasta from the bins. I also use Chex cereal (Rice, Corn and wheat) in our mix....and this is the perfect time of year to get it. It's on sale for Christmas time. We also add cheerios and either wheaties or total. I like to add some roasted, unsalted soynuts and a small amount of dried fruits (the Just Tomatoes brand can be found on the web and has not added sugar).

For treats (yes, they are not the most healthy...but certainly not as bad for them as yogies) we buy the bulk foods animal cookies flavored with honey. All I have to do is shake the bag and I have little faces with big eyes and out stretched arms at the front of the cage. Treats go a long way for training, getting them used to coming to their name when called, and we always tuck our ratties back in after playtime.....with a little cookie.

[wickedrodent]

TRYING to sew, haha. Its horribly uneven and ugly looking but it will work. I really really need to get a little sewing machine or see if I can get the one we have to work.

Hm, I do hope they like the Regal Rat. I might just get one little bag to try out to begin with, just in case. Actually, thats the exact dog food I am going to be using; we already feed our dog that!

We are going to leave in a couple of ours to go rattie shopping. Yay for an early payday.

So list time:

-- Carefresh (for rattie and piggies litterboxes)
-- Towels (for ratties cage under fleece)
-- Suebees stuff (might have to try a few different places)
-- Container to make a dig box (would using long stem rice in it be ok?)
-- Spill proof 'pond' dish.
-- More toys and baskets to make levels (dollar store, woopie)

I think that is it.. Hm. Seems like I am forgetting something.

[Rattie Mom]

I personally wouldn't use rice, dry beans or anything like that. They are very dangerous to ratties. And they will probably try to eat them. We actually use carefresh in our digging boxes (and yesterday's news in the litter boxes). Aspen shavings are good too (of course Pine and Cedar are bad, as you probably already know).

Rats LOVE to go "pea fishing"...though you might not want to put it in their cage....because they do like to knock things over too. ;-)

Have you already purchased water bottles and food dishes? We use the large bird cage dishes that attach to the side of the cage. They can't tip them over.

Rats don't generally like those roll about balls....but mine LOVE them as a sleeping nook in their cage. We just hang them off the side.

[wickedrodent]

Oh, ok no rice. How about shreaded paper (plain with no ink) or newspaper? I could add left over fleece strips too. Carefresh is just so darn expensive!

Im looking for a shallow and VERY heavy bowl and some rocks to put water in on the main level of the cage. I don't mind if they splash some out since It will be on fleece, but I will definatly make it spill proof!

Yup, I have these awesome no-spill dishes. I use the same ones for the pigs and if they can't dump them, I doubt the rats will be able to dump them. My girls uses to make SUCH a mess with their pellets before I got them. I have a water bottle too, a few actually.. just one in the cage for the time being though.

Im using an old hamster run around ball.. Its small, and pink (haha) but it should be ok until they get older..

Most recent pics (please excuse the bare 2nd levels, Im sewing ties on):

Bottom- The white thing is the litterbox.. Jingle balls, rope ladder, food dish, waterbottle, plub tree branch for chewing. The 'pond' and digging box would go in the back righthand corner. Oh, and the pink thing (poor boys will have to live with that color) is a hideything.. Was something my sheets came in.. haha.




Top- Pretty bare.. Im planning on cutting my PVC to go in the back and reach over into the blue house.


We do seem to be going back and forth to eachothers threads.

[Rattie Mom]

that's great. We seem to be helping each other then.

I am replying from work...so I'm unable to view your pics. I will look at them later from home though. I'd love to see how your cage is set up.

The thing about bowls of water in rattie cages: 1. you don't want them getting wet, unless you are there to help them dry off. In the summer time, that's ok. But ratties can get cold very easily (they are not as cold hardy as other animals). So they shouldn't be getting wet unattended. Of course "pea fishing" is a great out of cage time activity. 2. Water bowls for drinking, although some folks do it....might end up being a pain for you too. Ratties LOVE to hoard their food. But something else that my females love (I have a male that does it too), is to pull their blankets over the food bowl as if to hide it. My girls do this with their dinner bowls too...nothing more "lovely" than a blankie soaked with soy yogurt or oat milk.

An idea for your digging box that is fun, is that Eco bedding. It comes in a box and looks like shredded squiggly grocery bag material. They have a ball rummaging though that stuff and it's not too expensive. A little goes a long way.

You'll find that your ratties will want to sleep on the highest level possible. I always end up putting their favorite sleeping box on that level...and they will be happy as little clams.

[Rattie Mom]

Just had a chance to look at your cage. You are well on your way . You might want to take out the little "cat toy balls"....the rats will chew those into pieces they could choke on (though they probably will just leave the sharp pieces to step on later ). And if there is a bell in those, you'll want to make sure they can't get to that either. My husband put a golf ball in our rat cage once. Within 10 minutes, they had chewed it in half. Rats could chew through concrete if you let them. :-/

Ratties love to have hidey boxes. 12 pack pop boxes, large tissue boxes, shoe boxes all work great. Especially babies...they will zoom from level to level and hide and wrestle in the boxes. Not to mention, they like to sleep in them too.

I'm lucky, because my husband is a pipe layer, so we have tons of pvc pipe. The corner pieces with and extra entrance is fun to race about in, and they are flat on the bottom, so they won't roll around.

You may want to think about getting the ratties a wheel (wodent wheel for safety)...but boys aren't as interested in them as girls usually. My girls run in them for hours.

Oh and you will find it really easy to train them to use the litter box. they are much like cats that if you pick up the stray poo's and put them in the box, they start to get the idea. Boys can sometimes take a while longer to train, and it can be helpful to put a box on each of the main levels, for easier access too.

Sorry for all the suggestions. Just love to help new rattie owners..

[wickedrodent]

I appreciate all the suggestions .

Got the stuff to make suebees mix last night.. Mixed it today.. Its A LOT! Nice though, I still need to add the uncooked pasta and dog food. Im debating between actually putting the dog food in the mix or not.

I take the cat balls out and just use them during floortime so I can make sure to grab it if they start destruction zone. haha.

Boxes.. good idea, I tried to find some at my grandmothers work but she forgot to look. I will have to start keeping tissueboxes.. We don't drink soda, so none of those.. Maybe our neighbors have some they wouldn't mind giving away.

1 day, 1 hr, and 30 mins until I get the ratties!

[Rattie Mom]

yeah, we keep our lab blocks and dog food separate from the suebee's type mix. That way I can regulate how much they get of each.

We mix our suebee's mix into a storage tub with a lid (well, we have quite a few more ratties ). But it does last quite a while...so you will be happy you have made a lot.

It's funny how quickly you can gather boxes to use. And they do like to peel and shred them to. So I have to replace the cardboard boxes each time I clean. My husband and I are constantly saying things like "oh hey, this will make a good rattie box".

[wickedrodent]

They are here!!!!

Jasper totally fits his name. He is fawn with dark red eyes, almost black. He nibbles and licks, no biting.. but completly reminds me of a book character- also named Jasper. He is very adventerous.

Jinxie is a lot more shy. He is currently sleeping in my hoodie pocket.

Im uploading the few photos I just took, but I don't want to overwhelm them with loads of flashes on their first day here.

[pigsforlife]

THEY ARE SO CUTE!

CONGRATULATIONS! *Big Hug*

[Rattie Mom]

Oh darn. I can't see the pics from my work pc (company web security ). But I'll be sure to check them from home tonight.

So happy to hear your boys are home and settling in. YAY!

[Ly&Pigs]

Very glad to hear your new boys are now with you and settling in. I bet they are so adorable. If your ratties don't like the Oxbow Regal, let me know and I can buy it from you as my girls love it. They won't hardly touch the Harlan blocks anymore but my boys love the Harlan blocks. For now I am back to the Nutro for the girls.

Piggers, It breaks my heart to hear you had to put Hyde to sleep. I know it was probably for his best interest though. I think I loved him as much as you.

I had one rat I had to rehome a couple days ago because he was getting way too agressive with my Popeye and physically hurting him. That was the last one I took in, Horatio. I still have 6. 3 boys and 3 girls.

I've been experimenting the last two times with different ingredients in my Suebee's type mix. I hadn't thought to try chex cereals though. I will try that one next time. I did find some low fat granola type cereal. The rats seem to love it.

[HowietheGreat]

Wicked you stink, my two guinea pigs are already named Jasper and Jinx you thief!!!!!!!!! (Okay so I am joking about calling you a stink-my boyfriend and I call each other that all the time but those are their names and have been for over a year.) Think perhaps you remember hearing them and subconciously recalled??? There is a thread somewhere on here announacing their arrival and what I named them. That is too funny. Maybe your rats can be my guineas "alter ego's."