Need info on rats

[Brittney]

Alright. So a guy I guess you could say I am seeing got a couple of rats a few weeks ago. He treats them like children and cares for them, but he is following the advice of the pet store which I know isn't the greatest advice out there. I'm trying to help him out and do a bit of research on my part, but I'm getting stuck. I know there are rat folks out there that could help me out.

He had 2 but one ended up fighting with the other and he took it to the vet because it got a toe bitten off and they found it had a URI. Sadly it did not make it. I went over to just hang out since he was a little down in the dumps and he had bought another one. I asked if he had the new one separated from the other and he said no, that it was in there with the first.

Do you have to quarantine rats also?

It keeps sneezing when I'm there but he says she never does it when it's just him. Maybe she's sensitive to my body spray or something? I don't know.

They are also in a pretty decent size cage I guess. It is 2' long X 1' wide X 2' tall. He replaced the shelves with either kiln-dried pine or poplar.

He's feeding them Mazuri rat food and that Nutriphase stuff which is all seeds and treats. I told him to maybe just use the Mazuri and ditch the treats?

I'm trying to help, but obviously neither of us knows anything about them really

So some more info would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[mishalaa]

Yea, rats should be quarantined for three weeks, preferably at someone else's house. This is to ensure they don't have any illnesses, though if he got them from the same pet store, I'd wager it doesn't really matter.

It could be sensitive or it could be sneezy - does it sound raspy or do you see any redness around the eyes and nose?

Ditch the wood shelves - go to a hard plastic or metal. Rats pee on everything, sanitizing a wood shelf is near impossible at the rate they "go."

Ditch the treat filled stuff as well.

 

[Brittney]

.

does it sound raspy or do you see any redness around the eyes and nose?

No, it doesn't sound raspy and there is no redness, but it's a black rat, so I don't know. It just sneezes when it walks on me and it has a wet nose.

Are they supposed to have wet noses?

 

[beanjelly]

I've got four rats, currently. I wouldn't say that they have wet noses...but their noses are so tiny that I'm not sure how you would describe them--whether it is wet or dry.

www.goosemoose.com is a fantastic rat forum filled with lots of knowledgeable people.

Lab blocks, especially Harlan Tekland, are recommended by many rat people for food. You can buy it from Wee Companions. You can supplement it with fresh foods and veggies as well.

Here's a list of foods that are OK and not OK to feed to rats: http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm There are a lot of different lists out there; this is just the first one I dug up.

Here's a "cage calculator" so you can enter your cage dimensions and see if it is big enough for the rats: http://www.ratsrule.com/cagecalc.html

Hope this helps!

 

[menagerie]

Are they both female? If not you will have babies. When she sneezes is it wet? Wet sneezes are not good and she will need to be put on antibiotics. A combination of baytril and doxicycline is a good place to start with antibiotics. If there is no improvement in 3 days, switch to something else.

At Wee Companions, we feed all the rats Harlan Teklad. It's not available in stores but you can get it sent to you for $1.00 per lb plus shipping. Shoot Fenella an email at [email protected]. Mazuri is a decent food, but in my experience the rats don't really like it that much.

Check out the link to goosemoose that BeanJelly posted.

 

[Brittney]

They are both young females. And they aren't wet that I know of. She just sneezes when she is around me, the other doesn't.

 

[Ash]

One of the rats may be more sensitive to a lotion or the deoderant or soap you use, or even the laundry detergent, especially if she doesn't sneeze at other times.