So I know I need a lab block and fresh food for my rats main diet but I was wondering if I could use left over hamster treats for my rat as treat like millet, dog food, Gerber puffs, dogs treats, oat spray, dried insects and dried pasta... my hamster passed and I have a ton of left over treats and wasn’t sure if they were safe for my ratty buddy. Thanx!!

Where do I find the rules?

I hope cross-posting is okay, as I can’t see my poll on the other sub forum. Also, the more opinions the better!

I’ve had them for 3 weeks now and I just can’t settle on names. Here’s some background to help with choices and explain their origins:

• One baby is the half-brother of my boy Mercury, whose father is another rat of mine, Mars. He and Merc are brothers from the same mother.

• One of my other rats (unrelated to them) is named York, named after the protagonist character Francis York Morgan from the game awesome game Deadly Premonition.

• My husband and I love the show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and our favourite characters are Mac and Charlie (despite Charlie’s poor treatment of ratties).

Any votes/comments would be so deeply appreciated as I’m so so stuck.

I’d like to start name training them and then trick training them so they need names ASAP. So, here are the options we’re considering:

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I could really use some advice, I tried to do some research but I'm still not sure what's going on. I have 2 female rats and one of them has started biting in the last couple months. She has always been the nippier rat but she never bit hard, now she actually hurts me. She only bites when they are free roaming, she will just come up and bite toes or my face. They were rescued from a bad situation in which the breeder didn't know what they were doing and so they were traumatized and probably dont have good genes but she has always been a very sweet rat! They are both one year old.

We have two 1.5-year old male rats and are trying to introduce a new 8-month old male rat. We've been using the neutral territory method but the new rat is terrified of the other two and refuses to interact with them. He starts awful fights with them and has caused the others to bleed. He'd been alone for about three months before we got him and is getting thin and scratching himself from stress.

Our approach seems to be just making him increasingly terrified and unwilling to interact peaceably. What do you suggest we try next?

My rats are making some odd sounds, one of them more so than the others. I had rats in the past, but I don't remember them making sounds like this. Of note is that two days ago, I let them bathe in a tub and they swam a little bit. Could that have caused some nasal blockage? Is this a sign of something wrong? I'm not in a good financial situation to pay expensive vet bills..

https://reddit.com/link/dhdr7s/video/flvxtsm5ics31/player

So I don't do this often, because it terrifies me but: sometimes while I'm holding one of our boys, who will hopefully be living in the same cage as our other boy, the one we've had longer will stick his arms through his cage and try to grab the newer one. One time he got away from me a little bit and it looked like maybe the older one was scratching him or something, but I couldn't really tell because I was scared and trying to get them separated since there was some squeaking going on. We haven't tried letting them share a play area together yet, but I'm terrified that their just not going to get along, and hoping maybe he's just SO excited he needs to pull his new friend in or just really wants to sniff him or something.

Anyway, I guess what I'm getting at is: is it normal for them to reach through and grab other rats and should I be worried?

I'm a very new rat parent. When I first got my boys I did my best to set up their home how I thought they'd like it, but over the past couple weeks they've done their own redecorating and taught me so much about how a home should actually look. For example:

1. Stairs are an abomination. If you see them in a home, consider them an insult and climb the walls.
2. Never put anything in a corner. Everything belongs in the middle of the room.
3. Blankets go on the floor. Put them on the floor.

What has everyone else learned from their rats?

I got two male rats yesterday. I drove an hour and a half to a rescue to get them, I didn't know which ones I was going to get. The first rat I was handed started bruxing and boggling right away. He never even squirmed and then promptly fell asleep in my arms. My partner held the other rat who obviously did not enjoy being held, he squirmed a lot but tolerated it.

The rescue lady told us that these rats had been previously well loved but had been surrendered because something happened to the family's house and I felt that these were the ones for us.

I have had four female rats from PetSmart together in highschool without a hitch. I started handling them right away and was never scared of them.

When I was on my way home, the lady told me that she got their story wrong. They had been surrendered and she doesnt remember when or why. They had been rescued from her after that and surrendered after two months from a different family. So that makes 2 families these rats have been through plus her rescue and us.

They are at least two years old.

I picked them up to put them in the cage when I got home and they were fine with it.

My partner put his hand in the cage last night and the shyer rat gave him a warning bite, didnt draw blood but you could tell that he was not a happy rat and it wasn't a curious bite.

I offered a bit of yogurt on a spoon to the same rat that previously "bit". He bit it without even sniffing first and then showed no interest, backed into the corner, and was very tense. I told him he was a good boy and slowly closed the door and left him alone.

I stop by the cage often and chat to them and they dont mind it, they seem relaxed.

I asked the rescue lady for advice and she told me to move the igloo and just grab them but now that I have an idea of what they might have been through I am a little afraid of being bitten by a giant male rat.

I know it's important to be confident when handling them and I do love them and want more than anything to give them a happy home to spend the rest of their days in, but I don't think I would have picked them if I had known their real backstory. I have two very young children and I didnt want to have to work with possibly traumatized rats. Should I give them more time or do what the rescue lady told me to do and move the igloo and just grab them?

Thanks for reading all of this if you've gotten this far. Please help! I just want them to be happy and able to properly bond with us with minimal bites!

First time rat owner long time lover. I currently have 2 male rats, turning 1 year old this Saturday, with a single level critter nation cage. "Coincidentally" I am picking up 2 more young boys this weekend as well as the add-on level for the critter nation so I will have a full double level. Both pairs of rats are from the same breeder that I have followed and trust for healthy happy rats. I just have a couple of questions regarding quarantine and introductions that I'd like peoples' opinions on.

Do I need to quarantine them realistically? If so, if I block the entrance to the add on level, can I quarantine the new boys on the top level with the older boys below them (or vice versa)? Or should I keep them in separate cages/rooms entirely for safety? I do have an extra smaller cage if that is necessary. Any tips on introductions after the quarantine period would also be greatly appreciated as I've never done introductions with 2 sets of rats before. :)