50+ rats OH MY hehe

[king2005]

I hate to ask, but how and why are you putting him to sleep?

Because I keep finding more problems with him & they are getting worse (hes in his own cage now). He was malnurished when I got him & infested with lice. His fur is still thinning & now he has white crusty stuff on his fur. His skin is all wrong (rough kinda like his tail) & its turning an odd colour (yellowish brown)).

His breathing is horrible, I thought he was sneezing casue I had the wrong shavings. But now he's still sneezing, but I can hear his breathing (raspy & hard to explain, I'm positive he has that UR issue, as my first Rat had it when i got him, except Grissim is getting worse really fast). But when he does sneeze now stuff comes out! I was told thats really bad & that his lungs are infected/damaged

Hes also gotten REALLY agressive (towards me & the other rats) the past week & seems to be a little off (confused I think). I don't believe in prolonging an animals suffering when they are highly imbreed, as more & more problems will keep popping up (I'm not putting a critter through that again). Its in the rats best intrest to be PTS

[My Peanuts]

Why not take him to a vet and see what they say first? Are you taking him to the vet to be PTS?

[king2005]

Why not take him to a vet and see what they say first? Are you taking him to the vet to be PTS?

As I said, I DO NOT aprove of imbreed animals like this. Its wrong & sick!

[k9krazee]

As I said, I DO NOT aprove of imbreed animals like this. Its wrong & sick!

So you won't be taking him to the vet? How will he be PTS?

[king2005]

So you won't be taking him to the vet? How will he be PTS?

Where did I say I wasn't taking him to the vets to be PTS?
Isn't there only 1 way to put an animal to sleep? reason its called PTS

I don't put feeders to sleep, I kill feeders.

[k9krazee]

Oh, well you never answered the original question...just said that you don't approve of inbred animals, so I was under the impression he was not going to see a vet. Sorry.

[My Peanuts]

This is so sad. Inbred or not it's still an animal with feelings. He deserves vet care. If the vet said he was in pain and there is no hope then fine, put him to sleep, but it seems no action has been taken. If I found out one of my animals was inbred the wrong way (there are good ways to inbreed rats I've been told) the only thing I would do is keep him/her from mating. I treat my animals like family and it sounds like this rat is getting treated as an object. It's sad.

[My Peanuts]

I don't put feeders to sleep, I kill feeders.

Can you clarify this a bit? Does this mean if one of the babies was sick you'd treat it different than if it was a pet? Pets get put to sleep and feeders just get killed? If so that is one of the worst things I have heard in a while. They are animals regardless if they are food or not. They deserve respect.

[luckies4me]

Why have you NOT taken him to the vet? I'm sorry but this has me steamed! How sad for this poor rat. You are just letting him suffer! He's probably sneezing stuff out because you have avoided getting him the proper vet care. Just because he is inbred (it's not that bad with rats if you would listen and do research. Ask many of the top breeders. A lot of the traits we have are set through inbreeding/linebreeding) does not mean this poor guy has to have his tombstone chizzled already. You are very irresponsible. Just so you know it's very common for male rats to have an orangish color to their skin. It's caused by the protein the skin creates, and males just happen to have more than females. If they have too much protein in their diet it gets worse. It can also be caused from having a dirty cage. Also, if I was that rat and had such a horrible life living in that house I'd probably be a bit aggressive too. Just a thought. Maybe you should take care of your animals.

[king2005]

Can you clarify this a bit? Does this mean if one of the babies was sick you'd treat it different than if it was a pet? Pets get put to sleep and feeders just get killed? If so that is one of the worst things I have heard in a while. They are animals regardless if they are food or not. They deserve respect.

PTS is death by a vet, as in the animal is given a shot to put it to sleep & then a shot to kill it in its sleep.

You cannot PTS a feeder as the toxins in its body will go into the animal feeding on it (very bad!), there for it is killed. Cows, chicken, pigs, deer are all killed.. pets are PTS...