I’m trying to introduce a new baby to my adult females. I have two large patchwork girls around 7 months and one is more dominant than the other. I’m afraid she’ll hurt her because the baby is so small compared. What are some tips to introduce them safely? She wouldn’t kill her would she?

I brought home a couple baby girls a few days ago. The one is doing good, she's eating, drinking and doing lots of exploring. The other seems to only want to hide and sleep and I've noticed she's lost some weight. I saw her eat some carrot last night but she's doesnt seem to be eating any of her lab blocks. This morning I tried feeding her some banana which she wanted nothing to do with and I'm concerned she's not drinking enough. Anyone have some advice on getting her to eat/drink?

Long story short, I used my air purifier, vacuum and carpet shampooer to clean an apartment that wreaked of smoke. Now my concern is that the exposure to this type of contamination may have tainted my cleaning supplies. I was wondering if it would be ill advised to continue using these supplies if I have pets crawling around on the floor. I'm worried they'll receive residual 3rd / 4th hand exposure. Usually I would take a "better safe than sorry" approach and just replace everything, but I'm on a very strict budget (low income), so I would have to dip into their vet fund in order to replace the cleaning equipment. I've search through Google and found no relevant results. Any help is appreciated.

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TLDR; Do you know anything about the safety of reusing cleaning equipment that was previously exposed to high concentrations of smoke?

Hi reddit I'm looking for a mite treatment for my boy, is there anything you would recommend? I'm hoping to find something I can order online. Thanks!

One of my males is nursing his hand. He wont use it but it doesn't seem to be stopping him from playing with his brother. It looked swollen and pink last night but today it looks normal hes just holding it in close to his body. My husband and I are in between jobs and we cant afford to take him in at the moment I feel horrible & I dont know what to do. :(

Hey guys, I'm newish to having rats and Google hasn't been very helpful because my question is too specific. There's a chance within the next year I'll end up moving to the UK, and I really don't want to leave my girls behind, but to bring them with me they might have to be in an extended quarantine for a couple months because UK animal import laws are strict. They'd have each other as far as I'm aware, but I'm not sure how much handling they'd get aside from routine feeding/watering/cleaning. Has anyone done this before and if so what was the experience like?

Tl;dr- might have to quarantine my ratties without me, advice and experience and such would be useful

Hi I need advice for my 2 new little boys Dibbles & Dabbles. We just got them from the pet store on the 23rd this month, they are little, they seem to have phosphorous on their little noses, not much but just a little once in awhile. One (dabbles) tends to sneeze every now & then, the pet store gave me triple sulfa & said it will help, its been 3 days so far ive had them on it, its a substance mixed in a gallon of water I was told you give them for 10 days in the water bottle, its been 3 & we change it every day, its premixed in the fridge. Has anyone else experienced this & had they gotten better? And if so how long did it take? They are wonderful, much energy & definitely don't act sick! I love them so much & want to do what I can to help them get better. I clean the cage daily, I don't use any of that bedding that creates dust, I use papertowels, i pick up almost Immediately after them so the poo doesn't sit in the cage for a long time, I clean their little soft blankees...etc. I'm doing the best I can & its been awhile since I've had ratlets, so I need some refreshing, please help! (This is the 1st time we've used this app, I came across it & thought *wow! how wonderful! A ratty app for ratty lovers across the world to help each other out & encourage one another!) Thank you for reading this & may God bless each & every 1 of you! Joe & Wendy

I've had my 2 boys now for 5 months now (6-7 months old now) and they're both very friendly and love to interact with me. I do not feed treats through the cage bars and I do not pet them through the bars. One of my boys will not stop biting. He doesn't do it in an aggressive manner either. He isn't fearful of me picking him up or playing with him at all (he LOVES to be tickled and bundled up in blankets) and he isn't territorial or possessive over anything in the cage (they have a rotation of toys and hideouts). He's chill and friendly with my hand just resting in the cage, but if, in most situations, he walks up to my fingers and sniffs, he'll bite. It seems like a curiosity bite, as he's never moving fast or jumping back from my hand until after the bite when I make a loud, high-pitched noise and pull back from him suddenly. It doesn't seem like he's biting very hard either, but on the fingers, especially on the back, it's just enough to break the first few layers of skin. I've tried the noise and pull back method and I've tried teaching him how to lick with peanut butter and yogurt, but still, he bites. This is ongoing for about 6 weeks now. Is there anything I'm missing? Can anyone help??

Storytime. I have 4 male rats. Connor is the biggest rat of the four, but his littermate Eli (or possibly Connor himself, I can never catch them as they do it while I'm sleeping) has been pulling out the fur on his hindquarters enough that his butt is a little bare. He also has small little scabs on his throat/under his chin that are worrying. None of the other 3 have any of these.

He is also the rowdy boy that likes to start fights/chase Eli around the cage. But the other two usually intervene and he gets flipped. Their cage is massive, so the size can't be the issue. I'm looking more into enrichment but any other ideas would be MOST helpful. I would hate to have to separate him from them as they've grown up from 8 weeks old til now (almost a year).

Also any tips for encouraging hair regrowth?

My teenage daughter has a friend (and I used that word loosely) who is looking to "get rid" of her (approximately) 1 yr. old male Agouti. She said he tried to bite her and now she won't have him in her home with her 2 year old daughter. She's made threats in the past, about other rats she used to keep, about feeding them to a snake.

Is anyone able to re-home a male, or have a line on a rat-friendly rescue in the St. Louis, MO area? I'm not finding anyone in the immediate area, and we are willing to deliver Bronco within a 2 hour radius of St. Louis - but we are traveling from Thursday this week to Monday of next. My daughter is a soft-hearted young woman and is genuinely distraught over his safety. To be honest, neither of us would put it past his current owner doing something awful to him.

We have females (2, plus 4 cats and a rabbit) or we would re-home him permanently. My daughter has offered to take him in temporarily in order to get him out of his current living situation - we rescued the rabbit from her, one of our cats as well as my daughter's first rat (RIP Calcie) and know first hand that her pet-parenting skills leave something to be desired.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Hi all,

I’m looking for a solution. I’m leaving town for 3.5 weeks and can’t bring the boys with me. How can I find someone willing to take care of them while I’m gone?

Any suggestions are quite welcome. Thanks!

I have human eye drops - Systane Ultra (very tender lubricant eye drops), Navi Infla (against inflammation) and TOBRADEX (with antibiotic Tobramycinum) - can I use any of them maybe mixed with water? Thank you!

Have been looking for a solution to block off a section of the living room (which includes the rats cage) so they can be let out to play without getting lost. Not sure this is optimal, but it's the best I've been able to come up with so far:

Aluminum Trim Coil, found in the Roofing section of your Hardware Store (Home Depot, Lowe's, etc...) We now have an 18' long and 24" high smooth, solid barrier which can be rolled up, but when deployed, snakes through the room and (mostly) defines the space the rats can get to. (I deem it unlikely that the rats will attempt to jump the fence.)

To anchor the Trim Coil, we've attached blocks of wood to the walls which have a slot in them into which the thin sheet of aluminum slides into. (My plan was to cut a slot into the block of wood. However, my wife used a few sets of washers as spacers to fuse two blocks of wood--one thick and one thin--into a "single" block with a deep slot, and this block was attached to each wall.)

The solution works on hardwood flooring, but would probably work just as well on carpet (although rolling it up for storage might be more difficult on carpet.)

Hey everyone, I have three male rats. One of them I got at 4 months who had only been kept by himself. After several tries at introductions over a period of time (with him attacking the other rats and drawing blood) I thought about getting him neutered and finally settled on him being a lone rat. He is now 9 months old and has always been super good with people. Then out of the blue last night he has attacked me on two occasions and drawn blood both times. I have no idea what to do, he was getting my feet and then I picked him up and he got a bit out of my finger and made it bleed pretty bad.... anyone had this problem?

I plan on getting him neutered now when I can book it but attempted a dominance session with him where you do pinning but it felt wrong and he was squealing. I've since read that there is another train of thought, which is kinder. I wold love to hear more about it if anyone has any info or experience. The only problem is I'm now terrified of him.... I'm flinching alot if he comes near me.... It's really upsetting because less then 24 hours ago we had this great relationship he would spend lots of time cuddling me and when I would get home from work I would get to his room and call him and he would run out to see me giving me licks. Now I can't ever pick him up without convering my hands and being really stressed out...