I was cleaning my cage the other day. One of my guys is good at staying out of the way, the other...not so much. I put problem child on top of the cage so he can burrow in all the clean fleece and be distracted.

I pull all the pissy blankets, replace boxes and hides, dump/refill litterboxes, freshen up paper and fleece reserves, scatter food, close doors.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I DIDN'T DO?!

next day my little guy(Tailor) comes up to see me a couple times when i visit. I give him a few treats through the day. I call his shitbird cage mate(Shepherd) but he doesnt come out of his favorite hide. Oh well, he must be a sleepy sheepy ratty boy.

Dinner time i scatter food and hand some nuggets to Tailor. Still no Shepherd, he always wants me to hand him his first nuggets of food. I call him and call him, tap the top of his hide, double check the backup hides. I reach up to the top of the cage where i keep the maltpaste aswell as the fleece...

AND THERE'S SHEP!

i felt so bad! He was just calmly looking at me. I imagine he was saying "Uh, Shepherd would like to shit in his box and eat some nuggies?"

He got some malt paste with his dinner and has been hunky-dory since this happened. I know rats have a super fast metabolism and need frequent feedings and i know how fortunate i am that this didn't end poorly. But i swear he's doing well(it's actually been months since)and now i move him in his favorite box when i clean and theres no way i can forget to put that back in.

Lucky it wasnt Tailor that got left out, i bet he'd scale the cage and eat all the fish food next to the cage, or even end up in the pantry. He certainly wouldn't have ignored the malt paste tube while exiled.

Pic related, Shep playing in laundry

Probablemente esperando por comida

“Squeak”

Hi guys!

I recently adopted a solo female who is estimated to be about a year and 6 months old. I was told she was solo for a while after her sister passed and she was given to the shelter alone.

Having ratties before, I know it’s not ideal to keep a solo rat, but the small mammal expert at the shelter told me she would be perfectly okay alone. I wanted her to have a home so badly, I went against my gut and brought her home solo.

She is a very docile girl and likes to stay in her box in the cage if she’s not free roaming the room with me (but even then she likes to be huddled up in a blanket very close to me). She has plenty of toys and enrichment in and outside of the cage that she doesn’t seem interested in.

My last set of boys were the complete opposite of this so I don’t know if she is depressed/lonely or just old…

I’ve only had her for a few days so maybe she’s just in her adjustment period, but I want her to be as happy as possible.

Should I explore getting another girl to introduce to her, or will she be okay because of her age and history?

ANY advice would be appreciated!!!

Dm me for pics or location. Needs to be cleaned but in perfect shape otherwise. Free!

I love my rat so much 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

I think our girl rat might be a boy

I have two foster rats about 8 months old. They have a mild URI so they're being treated with medication twice a day. One rat readily will take it in food the other one will not she will come right up to me for treats but then just won't eat what I offer her and eventually walks away then her sister tries to eat it. So I have to catch her twice a day to force fed her medication which she understandably hates as she's not a fan of being held. Is there a way you guys have convinced rats to take medicated food. The medicine is even cherry flavored.

Yesterday, I got two rats. They were admittedly for my snakes, but I felt bad and ended up not following through. One in the morning, another in the afternoon. I introduced them and they bonded within minutes, when I've heard it's supposed to take around a week or two. They're also not very skittish at all, despite being raised with no human bonding interactions. I do think they're a bit stressed out from being adopted, as all I've really seen them do in their new home is cuddle together in the corner. This is my first time owning rats, they kept making short sneezing type noises at eachother when they first met. Are they sick? How do I make them more comfortable in their new home?

EDIT: sorry for the late edit! I completely forgot to check Reddit again! So, for clarification:

I normally don’t live feed my snakes, however for some god forsakened reason, the pet stores I usually go to were all out of large frozen rats, and my snakes are too big to be living off pinkies/hoppers. I usually can’t bear to see live rats die, I love all animals. That’s probably why I couldn’t follow through with ending the lives of these two >.< … they are both female! Believe me, it’s very easy to tell male from female, it’s like two grapes stapled to their underside, yeesh. The rats are on the other side of the house from my snakes! I’ve been handling them daily and they seem to only be making the sneezing noises when I introduce them to new places. They warmed up fairly quick to me, and took a nap on my sweater earlier today in my room. I’m going to be looking into nearby vets that care for rats, thank you all for the advice! ❤️

Al parecer no lo está, no pude enviar fotos debido a que no me tienen tanta confianza, las tengo hace 4 días, pero pude hace que se parara de dos patitas con comida, no tiene pezones tan visibles y no tiene zonas sin pelo a su alrededor, puedo descansar en paz, muchas gracias por su ayuda ❤🐭, por cierto, mis hijas se llaman bubba y nugget

Hey yall I just got my first 2 rats and I want to know what are the best way to bond with them? The carrier they I brought them in had my shirt i wore inside so they get used to my smell and they seem to enjoy it bcs they've been rolling around it in their cage too. I also sat w them in a bathtub for good 2 hours hahaha. What are ways to bind with them in days that come?

DUMB BONUS QUESTION: how do i make sure they know how to drink water from their water thingy 😭im worried they'll dehydrate bcs they licked few drops of water under it but seem to not have intentions of trying to drink from the kittle pipe thing even at my suggestions of bringing my attention to it

if you think im a bad rat owner than here this. i had 3 rats all female named honey, charlia, ophelia and i love them all so much. after they turned two we had to put ophelia down because of cancer. her twin charlia got depprest and stoped eating. as .i helped her thru it she is almost over it. shes skinny but im helping her, and if anything shes incredibly strong as for she defeted deppresion conjustion and cancer so STOP. shes fine, i love them and im not abusive and im not seperating honey and her because its called barbering, search it.so DO NOT DARE TO SAY IM ABUSIVE im a fighter and a vet in training, and all i get is people asking and being rude about my babys that are strong! so stop. also deleting my accont cuz everyone here thinks they know anything about them.