Somehow inherited a RAT FAMILY any pointers?

[ETC]

My friend used to have a snake and had a breeding pair of rats she wanted to get rid of.
She told me that she had a female, a male and five juvenile babies.
Well, when I got them, yes there was a female, a male, five juvenile babies, and 8 newborns. YIKES

So, here are pictures of the whole family, as everyone was living together when I got them. I have now separated the male with the male juveniles for now. Any pointers? suggestions?

The female is adorable, she looks like a sealpoint siamese kitten! The male is a hooded rat but his hood is a pale silvery BEIGE colour and he has that pattern all through his body too.

I think I am going to keep the mother and babies and then keep a baby female when they are weaned, but the others will be given away in pairs. I so hope that whoever buys these sweet things will not use them for snake food! I didn't realize how cute and sociable rats are!

 

[3CsMommy]

There are a couple of rat rescues in/around Ontario. I'd Google to see if one of them can help you with homing to make sure they don't go as live snake food. As a former snake owner, obviously snakes have to eat, but with a few notable exceptions, it's best for all parties if their food can't fight back. The best way to ensure that is an adoption fee that's higher than the cost per animal in a pet store and by screening potential homes, asking for references, etc. A rescue can at the very least guide you through that, and looking at their adoption paperwork can give you an idea of what questions to ask potential homes for these babies.

 

[viciousalice]

they are adorable! I wish I lived closer, They are just darling.
Great job seperating boys and girls, rats breed early so it is best for even the little baby rats to be separated from one another.

As far as adopting out, I agree with 3CsMommy, try to find a rescue, and make sure you screen potential homes!

If you are interested I can direct you to a fantastic rat forum in pm, I go to them for pretty much all of my ratty questions and concerns, just like this will be where all of my chin q's and c's will be. Good luck with them they are darling.

 

[tunes]

Those rats are adorable. Everybody knows I'm a long time rat fan.

This isn't your first rat ownership though, if I remember right. You used to breed rats when you were on CnQ. Rats and hedgies wasn't it? You were selling rats to pet stores I think. IMO, owning rats is like falling off a bike. You never forget how to care for them. If you need a refresher, head over to Goosemoose and do a little quick reading to make sure you haven't forgotten the basics.

 

[ETC]

HI there, no I never bred rats before. I had been given a trio of rats about 4 years ago, and they were a male and 2 females from someone I knew who closed their pet store. I owned them for just a couple of weeks and gave them to a friend of mine who owns a pet store (but not a rodent store she had a bird store). She gave the babies away in same sex pairs. We both realized that there were too many unwanted rats out there and should not be breeding.

From what you said I had been breeding rats and selling the babies to a pet store, so I just wanted to clarify that I have never had a litter of baby rats EVER. So, I asked for advice. I have been reading a lot online, and thought I would ask on here.

Years ago, when the pet store closed I was going to keep the two females for my daughter but she was too young at the time and showed no interest....so no I didn't end up keeping them. Now my daughter is 11 and we are keeping the female as a pet after she weans the new babies. (we will keep a female baby to keep with her)
So, no, I don't know much about rats, thus I asked for advice.

As far as hedgies go, I did breed those, but only two litters and did not continue. My two females went to a schoolteacher friend of mine. They are still together, and thriving. This was a few years ago.

 

[RDZCRanch]

We both realized that there were too many unwanted rats out there and should not be breeding.

So you were thinking of breeding rats from a pet store? I'm glad you decided it was a bad idea, but since you own/breed chinchillas I'd think you would know better than to even WANT to breed pet store animals.

I just got four rats after not having any for almost 10 years. They are awesome loving guys and rats are great pets. You didn't really ask any questions to be answered either? I'm not sure what you want suggestions or pointers on? What to feed them? Bedding? Cage? Chances are the person you got them from knows diddly squat about rat husbandry and just had them for breeding for snake food, so anything they told you is probably wrong. Can you give a breakdown of their care now and we can point you in the right direction?

 

[menagerie]

I have now separated the male with the male juveniles for now. Any pointers? suggestions?

Are the juvenile girls still with the mom? If they are, I would keep an eye on them and make sure they are not trying to nurse. The babies need to be nursing at this point. There is a good possibility that there will be another litter as she was with the male when she delivered. Rats can get pregnant again within the first 24 hours of giving birth.

Get them off the pine bedding it causes respiratory problems and raises liver enzymes in small animals. A good choice would be Carefresh or some other kind of recycled paper. You can give the mom paper towels to make a nest for the babies. You should be supplementing her diet. She will need good quality food and added protein, since this is at least her second litter and she is probably pregnant again. Nutrition could also explain why the juveniles are on the small side.

Goosemoose/Rats Rule is a great site for information on all things rat.

Your first post made it sound like you'd never had rats before.

I didn't realize how cute and sociable rats are!

HI there, no I never bred rats before. I had been given a trio of rats about 4 years ago, and they were a male and 2 females from someone I knew who closed their pet store. I owned them for just a couple of weeks and gave them to a friend of mine who owns a pet store (but not a rodent store she had a bird store). She gave the babies away in same sex pairs. We both realized that there were too many unwanted rats out there and should not be breeding.

I remember back on CnQ when you got those rats, as I had commented on the thread and advised you not to breed. At that point you assured me it wouldn't be a problem because you had a friend who owned a pet store and finding homes for them was not going to be an issue. So I can see where Peggy's assumption that you had bred rats for a pet store originated.

 

[ETC]

Thank you for all your responses.
Way back a few years ago when I got the trio, they were in a trio when I got them. I guess things were misconstrued if I said that finding homes for the babies wasn't a problem. The owner of the bird store I gave them to had assured me that she had homes for same sex pairs, and she did so. Thanks for clarifying, and now I can see where Peggy assumed differently.
I never had even one litter of rats EVER, so I didn't know how colonies worked. The comment about removing the baby girls is much appreciated!

As far as not knowing that rats could be so sociable, I had only owned them a few years ago for about a week (or two) and I had never seen families interact before. This time I have a mom, dad, older babies and newborn babies. That is what I meant about sociable. They all seemed to get along fine, I would have thought that other generations would be killing the babies, and the males would not get along.

When I said, "we both realized that breeding wasn't a good thing" a few years ago, I meant it. The trio came to me as a trio. When I brought them to my friend at the bird store we separated the females from the male right away. She then GAVE AWAY the rats ONLY to people who bought the proper cage set up, as we didn't want them to go for snake food. If someone bought a cage, they wouldn't be spending money on a cage only to feed the rat to a reptile or snake.

Thanks for letting me know to get them off pine. I have carefresh that I had put in their hidey house and baby nest and I will use that alone.

The person I got them from said that leaving the baby girls in together with the Mom would be fine, I never thought about the nursing, thanks, I will separate them.

THANK YOU so much everyone! Your comments and suggestions are much appreciated.


As far as food goes, they came with a generic hamster food. Any suggestions on good rat food? Anything special for mama rat with the nursing babies?

 

[menagerie]

The person I got them from said that leaving the baby girls in together with the Mom would be fine, I never thought about the nursing, thanks, I will separate them.

They may not be an issue, just keep an eye on them to see what is going on.

As far as food goes, they came with a generic hamster food. Any suggestions on good rat food? Anything special for mama rat with the nursing babies?

Generic hamster food is crap. We feed Harlan lab blocks, I don't know if you can find them in Canada. An alternate rat block is Mazuri. Some people make their own mix based on Suebee's mix. I'm not a huge fan of the Suebee's mix, but it's better than the hamster food. You can supplement with 2nd and 3rd generation baby foods, the kinds with meat and veggies. They like yogurt, baked yams, avocados, scrambled eggs, cooked chicken (they can even have the bones), a variety of fresh fruit and veggies, cooked rice and pasta. You can feed rats just about anything healthy that you would eat yourself.

I often make a mix of cooked rice, scrambled eggs, peas, avocado, banana, grapes, broccoli and spring salad mix and hand it out to the rats. They love it. I substitute fruit and veggies based on what I have on hand. My rats eat a basic diet of rat blocks supplemented with fresh food.

 

[3CsMommy]

I use a food mix based on the SueBee's mix for my non-chinchillas, though not at those proportions. The majority of it is a vegetarian or low calorie dog kibble like Solid Gold or Dick Van Patten's 'mature' formula. (Forget the name; been a while since I bought it.) The rest follows her suggestions for healthy grain and fruit/vegetable inclusions, only at 1/3 the serving.

 

[ETC]

Thank you so much everyone, I am searching online right now the different names you mentioned. I assumed the generic hamster food was "crap". Even the rat food they sell at our mall looked like "crap". I never heard of Harlan lab blocks, and will ask if they can order it in.
Just as a clarification I DO NOT breed rats, DO NOT breed hedgies, and have not even had any kits born this year for my chinchillas as I had separated the girls with girls and boys with boys up until recently when I purchased a few bonded pairs from a reputable breeder.
I am helping a friend with many of her chinchillas to rehome right now, and am concentrating on that.
These rats were an impulse buy. I had intended to get two same sex rats as a pet for my daughter, and came across this family of rats. The mother looked so cute, like a siamese kitten, and of course she could not be separated from her litter. I had asked if I could purchase the mother after she weaned the babies and was told NO, they were being sold as a family. She said there were SIX two month olds, and when I went there there were FIVE, it broke my heart that they had already fed one to their alligator, so I came home with them all. Then I separated the one boy two month old with the father, and kept all the girls together.
It doesn't look like the 2 month old girls (four of them) are still suckling from Mom, should I still remove them? They are all in one corner of the huge cage I had made for them. The mom is on top of the babies in another corner.
Thanks everyone!

 

[menagerie]

If they are 2 months old, you could be facing more litters. They actually look to be much younger to me about 4 - 5 weeks but that could be due to poor nutrition. Are the juvenile boys testicles extremely prominent? Can you post a photo? Start counting 24 days from the time you separated them from the males (typical gestation is from 21 - 26 days).

If the girls are not bothering the mom or the babies, you can keep them all in the same cage. You are unlikely to find Harlan in stores, it has to be ordered in bulk ($1,000 minimum order) from the manufacturer. But there are other Canadian rat owners and goosemoose, they should be able to give you information on good food choices in Canada.

 

[ETC]

EEK I hope not, there are four juvenile girls and one juvenile boy and then of course DAD. That would be a LOT of litters.
I am actually trying to find homes for pairs of girls, I guess I will tell anyone that gets the girls that there is that possibility.
I will take a pic of the one boy 2 month old......hope he is younger.
Thanks so much menagerie for all the helpful advice.

 

[ETC]

I have access to Oxbow REGAL RAT and Harlan Teklad....from flowertown! I am so happy to have found both, but....
which would be better?

 

[menagerie]

I have access to Oxbow REGAL RAT and Harlan Teklad....from flowertown! I am so happy to have found both, but....
which would be better?

I would go with the Harlan Teklad. May rats are not interested in Regal Rat. I've never had a rat turn down Harlan.