Any rat owners???

[Aspen and Misty]

I was wondering if anyone has taught there rats tricks? If so how did you acomplish it??

Thanx a bunch,
Ash

[Desert Arabian]

Good question.... the only "tricks" my rats do is come when their name is called. And they only do that when they feel like it. But most of the time they come, because they know I probably have treats or something for them. I wish my rats were potty trained.

[jenluckenbach]

When I was in school, a LONG time ago, we were to teach a rat a trick. So I got a white rat, named Ivan, and taught him to push a lever for food. The secret is repetion and reward. It takes time and patience, but rats are very smart. Just be consistant, and the more time you can spend doing it the better.
P.S. Ivan turned out to be the smartest rat in the class!!:D

[lv4dogs]

It is simalar to teaching a dog. When I was younger I had more time & my rats knew many tricks, now they only know a few. Tricks I have tought some of my rats to do: sit pretty, come, shake, give kisses, lay down, crawl, walk on hind legs, push a ball, jump up & roll over. Short training sessions, lots of patience and lots of praise. It is easier to teach tricks to rat when the trick comes naturally. Like the rats that love to lick is easier to teach kiss and some like to stand on the back legs which makes walking & sit pretty easier to teach. Also most females are more active and easier to teach active tricks to as they want to have something to do. Most males are just lap rats and love to cuddle. In the past my rats cages were always left open and I was lucky as 95% of the time my rats just went back in the cage to potty, now that I close the cages when I am not there some do potty out of the cage but not a lot, luckily it is easy to clean.

[slleipnir]

When I was in school, a LONG time ago, we were to teach a rat a trick. So I got a white rat, named Ivan, and taught him to push a lever for food. The secret is repetion and reward. It takes time and patience, but rats are very smart. Just be consistant, and the more time you can spend doing it the better. '
We saw a show on that in psychology - interesting!

[Desert Arabian]

This may sound kind of funny..... but I was thinking about growing some grass for my rats. I was going to fill a 12x12 pan with soil and grass seeds etc for winter. They love to nibble and play in the grass, and I figured since they can't in the winter- I'd make them a little grass "playpen." What do you think?

Ha- Ha, the more I read this the more silly it sounds. :p :rolleyes:

[jenluckenbach]

But if they like grass it is not silly. I think it's kind of a cute idea.

[Desert Arabian]

Here.. look at this picture. It's Skittles.

[Aspen and Misty]

My rats have a plant in there cage. And they dig and LOVE to throw the dirt EVERYWHERE! LOL. They just love there lant thye eat and stuff. When I hopefully build them there bigger cage they are going to have a taller plant with a big pot they can dig in cause they love it so much. I have thougth about growing grass for there cage in this cat box I have but I never did. I think it is a good idea.

My rats don't really know anything.Al they know is up (step onto my hand) down (come down from my shoulder or head) come and now they know come out (come out from my shirt, there house, under Teddy, pretty muhc from w/e they are under) Now I'm just trying to think of ways I can teach them sit stand there names and stuff. I don't know. We will try!

Ash

[luckies4me]

All 40 something of my rats are trained! Well at least litter trained. Some of the tricks my rats know: basketball, agility courses (like ones for dogs), rescuing a doll from a building, jumping rope, catch, etc. Rats are very easy to train! For more info on training, check out these websites. I am also the founder of the Rat Fanciers Association of Oregon, and we will have a website up shortly with training ideas and tips. We are planning our first show in February of 2003! We still need people to help oraganize so if anyone lives in Oregon or Washington and wants to lend a helping hand email me. Oh yes, the links, lol!


Rat Fan Club (http://www.goosemoose.com/rfc/index.php) they will give you all sort of tips for training your rats.
Desert Sands Rattery (http://www.geocities.com/therodentry/training.html) lots of info to help get training off to a good startagility training (http://www.neratsociety.co.uk/images/Agility/agility_training.htm)

There are many clubs online you can join that are dedicated to rats. Yahoo has plenty!

Rats are easy to litter train also. I use a combination of aspen pellets and carefresh (make sure if you use Carefresh you stick it in the freezer for a day to kill mites- has been known to carry mites) and stick this in a litter box. If you have a Martins Cage the litter box should fit fine. If you have a smaller cage you can use a Kleenex box and cut the hole a little bigger. Just keep on scooping the poops up and putting them inside the box, doing this several times a day keeping the rest of the cage clean. It will take them a few days to catch on. Some rats will only urinate or deficate in the box, doing the other bathroom chore somewhere else in the cage. In other words, one can poop in the box but prefers to pee in the cage. Do NOT use glavanized wire for bucks. Thier urine corodes the iron away and can lead to zinc poisoning!


Grass is a grat idea! My rats have a "digging" box. They have one full of grass and soil and another one with toilet paper shreds. They love it. Make sure you use gardeners soil. Do not use the soil from your backyard as this harbors nasty parasites you do not want your rat to have. And make sure if you use a plant it is ratty safe.
;)

[luckies4me]

Oh yes, Aspen and Misty, do you have pics? I would love to see!:)

[luckies4me]

Here is a pic of one of my kittens. He is a hairless dumbo carrier buck named Dimples.:D


Let me know if the pic is too big and I will take it out, actually maybe I can do this.
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/Dimples.JPG
Hope this works!

Ok I am going to add some more pics ok! http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/banditbigboy.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/banditbody.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/black_double_rex.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/blackcat.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/cassandra013.jpg

since yahoo does not allow remote linking you need to copy and paste the urls into your browser. Highlight the url by pressing the left mouse key, right click the highlighted area, chose copy. Go to your browser window and left click it, this will highlight the area. Then right click it and chose paste. The url should now be in there. Press go and you can see the pics. This was written just in case anyone does not know how to c and p.

[luckies4me]

More pics. I love to show off my ratty friends! See what happens when you become a breeder, hehe. You end up with tons of rats, and I'm not even done yet!:p

http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/my_animals_023.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/mousiesside.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/my_animals_033.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/pirateballtwo.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/piratedown.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/piratekittywhat.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/playtime.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/threedays.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/luckies4me/top.JPG

[Aspen and Misty]

O you sounds just like me! LOL. When my friends come over the first thing I do is drag them to my room and make then see my rats. Usually threw the galss because they are like eww rats LOL. I just love my baby girls! I am going ot attempt training them and I'm going to join those groups you posted about! Thanx a bunch. O yes here is a picture of both of them.

Melony (Grey hood) and Hope (Black hood)

[Aspen and Misty]

Melony....

[Aspen and Misty]

Hope....

[Aspen and Misty]

Do you sell your rats? Cause I am considering getting a few more because I am moving with my dad and we are building a bigger cage for my girls it will be 2 story and HUGE (big enough for 2 or 3 guinie pigs) and I really love my rattie girls so I wanna add to them but I definitly want to get them from a breeder. I forget where you live though I will have to check. Probly to far away I never get lucky enough to find someone close :rolleyes: . I really want a dumbo, I think they are so cute! O btw I couldn't access your pictures :( . Please remodify them cause I wanna see your rats! All of them LOL.

Ok I couldn resist! I just love this picture!!! Its of Melony and my dog Teddy!

[luckies4me]

WOW! Your girls have very nice hoods, show quality hoods it looks like!:)


Did you happen to look at my pics? hehe. Your ratties are very cute. Now Your "grey" girl looks like a chocolate to me. Do you have any pictures of her fur close up? In rat colors, grey is called blue. If you have a blue hooded you should feel lucky. People LOVE blue hoodeds! Blues are hard to come by in most towns but in other areas are common. If she is truly a blue there are a lot of people out there who would be jealous. Anyways though, in the picture she looks to be chocolate though. Shoot, if you had a chocolate I would be jealous!

You can see what a grey or "blue" rat is by looking at my pic of Baby and Blue, the two dumbo girls. But I am digging their hoods though. They sure are cuties.:D

[luckies4me]

OMG! Am I lame or what? I totally forgot that yahoo does not allow remote linking to their websites. I will re edit the post and only include the urls, which can be copied and pasted into your browser....I think. If that doesn't work let me know and I will email them to you or upload them to ImageStation or something like that.


I swear Melony is a chocolate!

Anyways, yes I sell my rats. I also ship. You can access Oh Rats! Rattery by clicking on my profile and then clicking homepage and it will take you right there. The site is in the process of being moved to another server and being jazzed up a bit but all the adoption info and prices are listed. If you are interested in something unique I will have a tailess and hairless litter in a few months. And of course, plenty of dumbos!


Ok I fixed it and just left the urls there. So just copy and paste and hopefully that will work and you can see all my rat furries!

[Aspen and Misty]

Melony's hood is grey. I don't know what is concidered a chocolate, but I would say she is grey, or I mean blue. My two girls are pet store rats and thats where my parents want my to purchese my next rats but I really want a Dumbo and all my pet store sells are Hooded. Yes my girls are show quility. The pet store that I bought them from breed two full breed hooded parents together and then they have babies. So they at least a pur-bred. Although Melony has spots on the side of her hood. Our pet store is weird about rats. I mean, I went in told them I wanted to buy a rat as a pet and they asked me so many questions and then let me see the parents and the babie. It was really neat. I really want to go to a reat show sometime but I don't know where they are held and if thre are any in PA. BTW. I wanted to coment on your adoption information page on your website, I love that you amke people either buy 2 rats, alreayd own one of the same sex or not let them buy one at all! I was looking around your webiste. You did a great job on it!

Ash

[Aspen and Misty]

Do Dumbo's get to be larger then normal rats and if they do will they pick on my hooded rats?

[Desert Arabian]

I have been looking everywhere for a dumbo rat and I can't find one anywhere- breeder wise. All the breeders near my location either were out f dumbos or they were charging over $350.00 for them. I am not kidding! Key word OVER! They wanted about 70.00 alone for the rat, plus over 100.00 for shipping. And most of these breeders were only about 250 miles away. Oh well- WAY to expensive for me. I could see if it were a dog or something. That's just my opinon- NO OFFENSE!

[luckies4me]

" Yes my girls are show quility. The pet store that I bought them from breed two full breed hooded parents together and then they have babies. So they at least a pur-bred. Although Melony has spots on the side of her hood. "


I meant that their hoods are show quality hoods. It takes a lot of things for a "rat" to be show quality. Comming from a petstore I would say no. There are many things that go into a show quality rat. Being pedigreed does not quarantee your rat will be show quality and bring home a ribbon. Your rats hoods are very nice though. The spots on the side of her hood is a pattern referred to as variegated.


In order for any rat to place in a show there are a lot of factors the judge has to consider. Is the tail base round or square? Are the eyes bulgy? Are the ears symmetrical to the eyes. Are the nails clipped? Has the rat had a bath? How is the skin of the rat? Are a dumbos ears round or tubular?

As you can see there are a lot of things to consider when judging.


Also there is no such thing as a purebred rat. There is just simply genetics, dominant or recessive. There is no way of knowing the parents were full blooded hoodeds. A hooded can be a hooded even if one of it's parents was a berkshire and the berkshire carried hooded. Ok, now I am going to go into genetics a little bit but it will be good that you know.

Ok the genetics for hooded is hh, therfor it is a recessive trait. And here is the definition of a show quality hooded rat, this just applies to the markings though:
"Hood to be even and cover head, throat, chest and shoulders. Hood to continue in a saddle that follows the spine all the way out on the tail. The saddle to be even, unbroken and circa 2 cm wide going as far out as possible on the tail. The white markings to be clean and without tinges and spots."
If you bred a hooded with a hooded you will get all hoodeds, unless they both carry another recessive gene of the same type. For instance, if they both carried dumbo you would get 25% dumbo and the rest would be top eared.

If you bred an hh rat to an hh rat you would get all hh, hooded. In order to get any hoodeds both parents must have the h gene. If you bred an HH rat (a self-solid color, no white) to a hh, you would get all selfs. If a berkshire was bred to a hooded, the babies would carry the H gene. You could mate the brother and sister together and get hoodeds. Or youcan mate one of the h babies to an hh and get hoodeds also. Either way both parents need to carry an h. Do you understand. I get too into this stuff. Sorry, lol!:rolleyes:


So there is no purebred rat though. If you bred a dominant gene carrying rat to another, you will still have that gene show and they are still that type of rat. For instance, the petstore by my house did not take a litter of dumbo babies because both parents were not dumbo. One parent carried and the other displayed. The dumbo babies were as much dumbos as babies from two dumbo parents. If you have the trait most of the time it can be passed on.

There you go, your genetics tutorial for the day!:p

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by Aspen and Misty
Do Dumbo's get to be larger then normal rats and if they do will they pick on my hooded rats?

Ear set has nothing to do with how big a rat willget. Just because it is a dumbo does not mean it is any different than your rat, it just ahd dumbo ears. Although some people believe dumbos can be more passive. People thin this way simply because the dumbos look cuter! Dumbos can be mean just like top ears can and believe me, I have seen plenty of angry neurotic dumbos!


Weight for each rat is based on how they are fed and their background. Inbred rats are usually smaller. Some breeder rats can be huge because their is always new blood circulating. Of course bucks do get larger than does and I woud strongly suggest getting another female. Breeding is a complicated time consuming business, and at least the basic knowledge of genetics must be known. But I trust you are smart enough to know not to get a male.;)

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by YellowLabLover
I have been looking everywhere for a dumbo rat and I can't find one anywhere- breeder wise. All the breeders near my location either were out f dumbos or they were charging over $350.00 for them. I am not kidding! Key word OVER! They wanted about 70.00 alone for the rat, plus over 100.00 for shipping. And most of these breeders were only about 250 miles away. Oh well- WAY to expensive for me. I could see if it were a dog or something. That's just my opinon- NO OFFENSE!


$70 dollars is way too much to pay for any rat! The highest I go up is $50 dollars, and that is for a pedigreed tailess show quality buck. My prices are usually between $15 and $25 depending on coat type, ear set, and color. The shipping is right though. It is very expensive to ship a rat and usually people seeking only pets will not do this. And I totally agree with you. The shipping option is usually for breeders who wish to purchase stock of a new type, such as tailess or velveteen or a new color. I am having rats shipped to me from Austraila at the end of the year. That is all the info I can give, hehe.

Anyways, shipping is indeed expensive. It is usually $20 for the crate, anwhere between $15 and $30 for a health certificate and then the cost of the rat and the fee for the airline. It costs more to fly pets in a pressure controled unit also. Not to mention the gas money to drive to the vet, the petstore for the crate and the airport. Now can you see why it cost so much? :)

[Aspen and Misty]

Originally posted by luckies4me
There you go, your genetics tutorial for the day!:p

I never knew that! I always figured it was like dogs. Ya know ya breed a hooded rat to a hooded rat and ya get all hooded babies. Gee shows how much I know. But now I know, so I won't make that mistake again. And yup that all made sense. Seems I did learn something today, even though I didn't go to school. LOL.

i knew about the hoods though. I have been looking for shows in the PA area so that I can take them to them but I don't think there are any. I printed out the show quilifications for hooded rats a motnh or so ago and I have it in my room. I was told that Dumbo's always got larger then other rats because of there genes. So that is why I asked. I knew that there ear set was diffrent but I was also told they got larger then most normal rats and that you couldn't keep them with "normal" sized rats. That what I ment. I have been looking at alot of rats websites ever since I got my girls and have been interested in the diffrent breeds ever since.

Thanx for all the information!

Ash

[luckies4me]

Your welcome! I have an eyelash in my eye, darnet! OUCH!:mad: