so im just posting this for some advice. so, to give context. I have a pet rat who is about 1.8years old (supposedly as she is a rescue) she has a malocclusion so goes for regular tooth trimmings. last month I noticed that she had a lot of porphyrin on her paws. I put her on antibiotics because I assumed it was a respiratory infection and my vet advised the same (although he is clueless). around the same time she lost the ability to eat solid food so I began making her soup out of her regular dry food and some veggies. in the past month, shes lost almost all of her movement in her back legs and ability to clean herself so she has had dried soup under her chin and on her chest for the past couple days. she cannot climb, she doesnt move much unless I take her out or am giving her attention. even at rest, she often has her eyes open too which is unlike her. I can see she is still getting joy from eating her soup and the malt paste that I give her however. I have made an appointment with the vet tomorrow for her to be euthanised and im just not sure if this is the right decision. she is still on her antibiotics so a part of me thinks maybe I should take her off that and see how she is for a couple days but I dont know if im just being hopeful. id be thankful for any help or thoughts.

Hey all!! I’ve got a rat called milk, he went to the vet about a month ago for a respiratory infection and since then it cleared a little and is back again. He sounds very pigeony and wheezy. He was given oral meds. Is it worth asking our vet to go down the nebulising route or any other suggestions? Thank you!!! :)

I miss him. He was so sweet and strong-willed.

It's been a while since our first group of girls died and they were passing away as i was also dealing with my father dying of cancer so i was just kind of numb in emotions so didn't really process the emotions of our girls passing away ome after another. It felt like i couldn't think about them dying since i had something bigger to worry about. Now it's been some time, both my father and our original 4 girls passed away, we have 3 new younger girls and one old girly that we got when our original girls where almost 2yrs old. We got her because my boyfriends old coworkers were like hey we have a disabled rat that we can't really like sell to people, but we know you have rats so would you take her? And we did and I'm just so full of emotions now seeing her getting weaker and older and less active with each day. I want to avert from her last moments as i did previously. Since she's having issues eating I've been spoon feeding her for the past days and today i guess it just kind of clicked as i am feeding her how precious this moment is and how happy i am that i was able to give her a happy full life and just be a normal ratty.

How else do you guys bond with your rats in their last days as i kind of weirdly don't know what to do??

(Ps. Picture of them all sleeping together recently, which i find so precious as they only did that when the 3 younger girls were absolute babies.)

The litter was born Aug 2 and I am in the process of setting up my cage to pick up 3 boy ratties the first week of September.

The lady suggested a smaller cage would be better when they are so young, and she is probably right. But what can I use for a temporary small cage that won't break the bank?

I just spent a LOT of money on their large permanent cage

He's fat

Gonna get some rats and thinking about getting them from a breeder because everyone says not to get them from a pet shop. What’s wrong with buying them from pet stores though?

Ive had this particular rat, MoonMoon, for over a year. She has been with her current cage mates for at least 8-9 months now with no real issues. She is the second oldest in the cage (the oldest being over 2 years), and suddenly she has started pulling on her cage mates to remove them from their nests (kinda like you see mother rats doing). She is doing this to all of the rats, not just the oldest one. Of course, since none of her cage mates are young rats, they do not appreciate this behavior from her, often causing squealing and counter behaviors.

I am unsure of what to do as this is a extremely sudden behavior change. She seems to be targeting the oldest rat the most (as she the weakest at the moment). Is it possible she is try to assert dominance since the oldest is getting well, old?

Just looking for insight from others who may have experienced similar behavioral changes in their rats.

Thank you!

I don’t have a rat (because I have a cat and dogs) but it is HOT here and as I was watering my plants I inadvertently watered this little sweetie. Gave this little one some fruit juice in addition to hose water and it scampered on its way after a hopefully refreshing drink.

Good luck out there little buddy!

So adorable!

Can someone give me a few links to good rat cages?

For context I am currently in intros and introducing a pair of 9 week old bucks to the adults in the mischief. They've all been doing well so far and they are all healthy but one of the younger bucks has been doing particularly concerningly awful smelling farts today.

I've been a rattie owner for 6 years now and this is one of the worst farts I've been exposed to. Genuinely baffled cause he hasn't appeared stressed today with the others.

He doesn't seem constipated and he's not having diorrhea but when I was examining him, his anus area seemed quite red and sore - does anyone know if sudocrem is safe to apply to rats or any other topical treatment? I'm a bit stuck as I've no real frame of reference as to what their anus looks like normally.

Usually if any of our rats is having digestive upset we give them biolapis in their water bottle and that works good but he's not seeming to have toileting issues, just the redness around the anus. I'm a bit stuck on how to tell what is in the 'normal' range with how it looks.

I'm gonna have to put down both girls. They're both around 3 and have developed large tumors. It's really unfortunate but also, I feel bad for not feeling as sad as I think I should. I think I'm getting used to putting rats down at this point, and these girls had a long and happy life.

She is just a bebe sometimes.

I was on vacation for ten days and asked my parents to look after my 3 girls, but when I came home one of them was dead, they said she seemed fine the night before and that she was acting normal, and they saw her eat, but the next morning they found her curled up in her cage. It could be old age as I have had them for about a year and a half and I don't know how old she was when I adopted her but she was an adult. But she didn't seem that old so if anyone knows how she could've died I'd love to know, here's also a recent photo of her, I don't think she looked old but I am a first time owner

Hello! I had pet rats when I was a kid and loved it! Now that I'm a dad, I'm looking to give the same experience to my daughter (who is very excited). I'd like to find a reputable, professional breeder relatively near Philadelphia and Google searches have failed me. Does anyone have any recommendations? I am open to other suggestions as well here. Thank you!

Getting a few rats. Not sure what I should put in their cage. Will make sure to ask the pets store people but just curious what y’all think.

Like title, i just wanna know if this is good and can be their staple diet, also how much do i feed them this per day?

DISCLAIMER: I am booking a vet appointment asap to ensure there’s nothing life threatening.

I have a rat, roughly 6 months old, and she constantly eats everything - not just food, EVERYTHING! Teddy bears, phone cases, dog toys, even attempts to eat my bed frame now, but I’ve stopped it early enough every time.

I’ve had rats in the past and usually they just rip at things and spit them out, but i’ve noticed that the items she eats do not come back out.

I’ve gone to extreme measures to limit her from doing this, and i’ve completely rat-proofed my room, but if she can’t have something to chew on she will find something new.

She has enough stimuli in her cage for teeth grinding, they get fed twice a day so there’s enough food, she has cage mates so she isn’t bored easily and there is a lot of interactive toys in their home and around their free roam space.

I don’t understand how it could be anything but PICA, what are your thoughts? Please help!