Frodo Baggins!!! **pics**

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by tikeyas_mom
umm.. i am not sure if I would feel safe shipping her, i mean she has been thourgh alot of stress lately ...

poor thing

It was a joke.

[trayi52]

Wow, isn't it a shame our pregnanices can't be that short? But noooo, we have to go through 40 weeks of feeling fat and bloated. Of course, if it was shorter, I wonder how many children we would end up with?

I think I would want to get her a pair of guys, anything I should look for when getting them, to make sure they are healty? And what size cage, and what kind of food, and bedding?

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by trayi52
Wow, isn't it a shame our pregnanices can't be that short? But noooo, we have to go through 40 weeks of feeling fat and bloated. Of course, if it was shorter, I wonder how many children we would end up with?

I think I would want to get her a pair of guys, anything I should look for when getting them, to make sure they are healty? And what size cage, and what kind of food, and bedding?

I hear you on that one! But imagine, a shorter pregnancy but the drawback is having 14 babies at one time!

Well I would suggest going to a breeder or a rescue center if you can locate one in your area. Unlike petshops, breeders breed for health and temperament, and so you are almost quaranteed a sweet, well adjusted baby who won't suffer from Myco outbreaks, tumours etc. Petshop breeders breed for quantity, not quality.

Rescue centers are great too, but I usually do not reccommend these to first timers, as rats can have many problems which causes huge vet bills etc. If the person is indeed experieced, I would reccomend a rescue, but in most circumstances it's just not a good match. But there are a TON of great rats in rescue, without problems, I just prefer the ones with issues with health or temperament to be adopted by something more experienced. See if maybe they have ex breeder rats, or something like that.

When you go to pick out a rat let the rat come to you. If it goes and hides, it's skittish and most likely will stay that way, however a lot of rats do come around quite nicely with daily socialization. But, here's the thing, they could fear bite and then the owner gts scared and does not handle them, and that's where the problems begin. So chose one that shows interest in your hand. Let him sniff it, and then gently try to pick him up. They may like human companionship but not all like to be held. After awhile they should get used to being picked up. If you get a rat from a breeder, they will all likely be used to being held. I hold my babies since birth, so they are as tame as tame can be.

Look for health signs such as poor coat condition (the coat feels course and not soft), poryphorin staining around the eyes or mouth, sneezing, congestion/wheezing, eye squinting (may be a sign of photosensitivity, which is a sign of illness), scabs, wounds, scratches, eye ulcers etc. If you look through the coat and see you see specks, chances are the rat has mites/lice. Sometimes older male rats have a lot of buck grease and it sloths off, so try not to confuse chunks of dry skin with mites. If your baby doesn't show any of these signs then he/she may be healthy.

Just to let you know though, that rats can harbor viruses and bacteria that shows no symptoms when you bring them home, and then a week later they have a serious congestion problems etc. These are things you need to be aware of if you chose to get a rat...................will continue in another post so I don't lose this one to a frozen comp.

[luckies4me]

As far as cages, the bigger the better is always the rule with me. You can look at www.Martinscages.com and you should find some excellent cage setups there. They are a little spendy but are great cages, however you do need to have room to clean them. I have an R695 and it's terrible trying to fit one into my tub. For bedding you should use either Carefresh, Yesterday's News, or aspen. You could even house them in a 40 gallon tank if you'd like, but it's a lot harder to clean and lug around, they don't get as much air circulation and it's a little harder to hang items such as hammocks etc. Make sure that any wire cage you get has wire spacing no larger than 1/2 inch, to protect their feet. 1/4 inch is even better.

Here is my website link. On this page you can see some of the cages I use here for my rats, and I will attach another pic as well.

http://www15.brinkster.com/luckies4me/About_Us.html

Scroll all the way down to the bottom. Sorry bout the ads but I am fixing that shortly.

And on this page, you can find out more about what to feed.

http://www15.brinkster.com/luckies4me/feeding.html

I hope this info helps you. And hey if you are curious to see how baby rats develope look at this page I am in the process of making.

http://www15.brinkster.com/luckies4me/babies.html

Hopefully one day soon I will be done with the site! Hey if you click on home, it's snowing there.

[luckies4me]

Oh and here is another pic of one of my other cages, so you get an idea. Only bigger boys can fit into this cage though. I love this cage. It's SO easy to clean, literally about five minutes without disinfecting. And it looks cute!

[trayi52]

Thanks Cass, I am going to go check out those pages. Say it is snowing there, must be nice, I wish we could at least have a white Christmas. Thanks for all the info, I will probably end up playing with it more than Lin does. LOL, I do want one that is tame and healthy, and I can cuddle.

[wolfsoul]

This totally sucks. I think that you should call the petshop and MAKE them pay for her spaying or say you will sue them lol. They TOLD me, assured me, that it was a boy. Therefore, I blame THEM for any distress lol.

I don't believe she would be pregnant; I suppose it's possible, but she was young when I got her; only 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. It does happen though...

[tikeyas_mom]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
This totally sucks. I think that you should call the petshop and MAKE them pay for her spaying or say you will sue them lol. They TOLD me, assured me, that it was a boy. Therefore, I blame THEM for any distress lol.

I don't believe she would be pregnant; I suppose it's possible, but she was young when I got her; only 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. It does happen though...

you should call them jordan, you bought her for me lol. I am scared of scary store managers lol.

[wolfsoul]

Ok, I'll call them in a while and b*tch at them lol.

[tikeyas_mom]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
Ok, I'll call them in a while and b*tch at them lol.

good lol. I dought they will pay for any neutering or spaying to be done . they will probably just offer your money back .

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
This totally sucks. I think that you should call the petshop and MAKE them pay for her spaying or say you will sue them lol. They TOLD me, assured me, that it was a boy. Therefore, I blame THEM for any distress lol.

I don't believe she would be pregnant; I suppose it's possible, but she was young when I got her; only 4 - 4 1/2 weeks. It does happen though...

It was YOUR responsibility to know how to sex the rats before you bring them home. You know not to rely on petshops, they don't know anything. It's not their responsibility to pay for a spay or neuter either, it's the owners.

How long have you had her? She looks around 2 months old, therefor is very much old enough to be pregnant.

[wolfsoul]

Originally posted by luckies4me
It was YOUR responsibility to know how to sex the rats before you bring them home. You know not to rely on petshops, they don't know anything. It's not their responsibility to pay for a spay or neuter either, it's the owners.

How long have you had her? She looks around 2 months old, therefor is very much old enough to be pregnant.

I did look at it, and told them that it looks like a girl (though I was sure the day before they all had testicles)... I didn't only rely on the manager; I asked the breeder, and he told me that they were all males. So I came home, looked at the sexing pics on the internet, still, it looked like a male without his testicles descended. I still think it could be a possibility.

I got the rat last Tuesday...

[luckies4me]

Does the rat have nipples? If so, it's a doe, if not, then well it should be male, unless it has no penis.........

[luckies4me]

I just took these pics of my old lady Wrinkles to give you all an idea on whether it's a boy or a girl. Wrinkles is a girl, so if Jynelle's rat looks like this, then it's a doe. Hope this helps.







And yes, she's hairless.

[trayi52]

I just have to butt in and say how cute lady Wrinkles is, she is so cute with all those wrinkles, you know what she looks like a little armadillo, how cute!!!!! This Picture:


So cute!!!
Tray