new rat :(

[petsbestern]

Awww that's sad! I like rats. They are really cute. The only thing is their tail scares me! I can't believe your mom would do such a thing, but then again, you shouldn't have brought a pet without asking.

[monkeyluver]

I'm so sorry to all of you for these horrible experiences.

When I was growing up my father had a capuchin. He bought her after my mom died and she was a wonderful comfort to us all. Then when she was 7 and I was 10 he married "her." He thought of us as his daughters but "she" hated Lillian (our capuchin). One week my dad went on a buisness trip she refused to let me feed her or take her out or even clean her cage! She nearly died and when my dad got back he divorced "her."

Lillian is still alive today and is my dad's total companion. I must admit I'm jealous of her!

-Rachel

[CathyBogart]

This thread has been really hard to read. I'm glad to say I don't have any horror stories to add....I can't even imagine what goes through some people's heads. I could NEVER EVER forgive anyone who intentionally caused harm to my animals, either our of animosity or neglect. There is no excuse.

The only thing I have to add to the discussion really is this: Don't judge people who breed rats for food harshly until you know the whole story. I have known several people who only discovered the wonders of rat keeping through breeding for snake food, and they all take excellent care of their rats.

One in particular comes to mind....He has two males and four females. Each female has two or three litters per year. That is more litters than is ideal, but it works out very well for him and his ratties, and since he bought them he has come to love them dearly.

It certainly sounds to me that Kingrattus' ratties were very well taken care of, and they were obviously well loved.




ANNNNND....on the original topic....I dread what my parents would do if they ever foud out about my ratties.....Neither of them would hurt the ratties, but I don't want to give them up....

[luckies4me]

Yes you are right WolfChan. But I was going from the way it sounded. I am sorry but that is my opinion on feeders. I dislike it very much! Not to mention it is unhealthy for snakes....I don't even want to go into detail.


KingRattus:


I am sorry about your ratties. If you took care of them that is great! I hate feeder breeders who just neglect them so bad, it makes me sick. And as you know I breed fancy rats as pets so a lot of us breeders hate feeder breeders......that is just the way we are. I am glad you gave them good care.



As far as Dan, he didn't do anything on purpose, he was unknowledgable and with my bad pregnancy and everything I know why it happened but I have to forgive, especially because of the fact he is the father of my son. I can't hate him, that's not good for my son to see. Not to mention we still live together and are together. He would never intentionally hurt any animal. He's come a LONG way though let me tell you! He's pretty obscessed with his animals lol. Sometimes to the point it makes me sick..urrgh!


It sounds like your mother did though and I don't know why she would do that to you. It is sickening. Those were YOUR rats, and you obviously loved them so why would she do such a thing?? I don't understand parents these days. At least some were euthaized though and not killed viscously like my cats were. Perhaps if they were unsocial that was the best thing for them, to not breed more unsocial rats. Where did she dump them? Why did she dump your kitten on the highway? Do you know what happened to it? Did she throw it out a window or what? God that is cruel! If my mother did that I would never forgive her.


Again I am sorry about your ratties. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, but I do have to say that even if they were bred for feeders why would you breed them if they were unsocial? A lot of people take feeder rats home and breed them and sell their babies as pets, which really hurts the rat fancy because then there are tons of "pet" rats with horrible temperament problems etc. At LEAST you gave them love and care, a hell of a lot more than ANY feeder breeder I have seen! So Congrats to you on that! I am sure your babies were social though, so that's a good thing.



If Dan hurt any of my animals or starved them on prupose, I don't care if he was the preseident, yes I WOULD report him! But the fact was, he didn't do it on purpose, he did it on accident. It was a mstake and a very good life lesson, one that taught him responsibility for animals and humans at that!


I wish I would have known about Humane Societys and all that when I was younger. I would have reported my moms bf for killing our kittens and birds and everything but the fact is in California police and Animal Control could care less.


It took my moms SO many times just for the police to arrest Francisco for beating her, every time they would just leave us there with hi. We had to go into hiding at a womens shelter and after he put my mom in the hospital for beating her while she was pregnant and breaking her arm he was then finally put in jail, and it was for TWO days!

[kingrattus]

"Where did she dump them? Why did she dump your kitten on the highway? Do you know what happened to it? Did she throw it out a window or what?"
--------
She dumped the kitten near a trailor park... it took me 2yrs to findout where she dumped it & I learned of a friends friend who lived in that trailor park, & I asked her if anyone found a male black simese kitten unfixed with its litter box & a bag of food & dishes & she said YES!!! I said did he find a good home & she told me hes really fat now & hes a good cat... so I know for a fact that he's ok... which has releaved me & aloud me to get him off my mind of where he is & if hes ok...
-------
"why would you breed them if they were unsocial? A lot of people take feeder rats home and breed them and sell their babies as pets, which really hurts the rat fancy because then there are tons of "pet" rats with horrible temperament problems etc."
-------
I didn't sell the babies as pets, but the ones I did keep were raised only with Rattus, she was an awesome mom.

After birth I had a cage built into the main cage where the mother & babies could live (its hard feeding babies when the others r stealing the babies for their own) but I learned that the mother would go crazy if I put her in the seperet cage away from the rest. so the cage inside the main cage worked out great. but I had another cage where I would let the babies growup only with Rattus. But remember I breed them as my own personal feeders so the bad genes never got out into the population of good rats. & I never kept any babies from any of the rats except Rattus cause she was the only rat with good genes the rest were imbreed or I had no idea where they came from or how old they really were.

& I was never bitten by any of the rats I owned, & I owned alot of them. Not including when I play fight with Rat (Rattus' & Mike's baby girl), Rat was special to me because she looked just like her daddy. (Mike was my first rat & I had to put him to sleep 11 months after I got him, he fell horribly ill & the vets refused to help him. but the day I brought him to the vet to be put down 1/2 the staff ran out screaming & the vet wouldn't shut up for 1/2 an hour on how he could have been treated & it would be best if I let him die on his own & blah blah blah... I was crying my eyes out & told her to please put him out... I think she just enjoyed watching me ball my eyes out... My dog Max use to go to that vet but they pulled a BS stunt with him & that set my dad off because Max is his best buddy, so we had Max switched to his old old old vet which dad feels their r very good with him. Max was removed from that vet cause Max tried to Attack too many of their MALE vets & we felt it was causing too much stress on him & the 2ed vets were mostly female, but hes back at the guy's vet & now that hes older he knows the MALES arn't out to get him... Hes always had a gruge towards MALES for some reason, but its been quite useful... I learned that if dad was trying to boss me around or would give me my stuff back or if he was tring to get in to the house when I was trying to lock him out (playing of course)... all I had to yell was HELP MAX & scream, hehe & Max would come to the rescue, mostly by deep barking or bitting the thing I was trying to get away from dad... but I learned one lesson never ever yell max help when locking dad out oof the house... cause dad had a key once & hes a lot stronger then me so he was able to open the door enough to put his arm in & pretend to strangle me, well stupidly I yelled MAX HELP HELP AHHHHHHHH... Max came in full force & grabed dad's arm & pulled him through the door while I still had my weight on the door, & shook dad like a rag & forced dad on the floor, but besides that being cool & totaly scary at the same time, Max didn't leave one bite mark, only slobber & bruses. He didn't even break the skin, but damn were the bruses ever black, dad couldn't use his arm for 2 days cause of the inner tissue damage... But dad said it was a great test for Max... he now knows that no matter who is hurting me Max will be there (this was around the time I was being sexualy harrassed at school & had death threats from the same guy (who Max liked)... Max even took on a giant german S. who ran up to me & jumped on me, Max won of course, but Max didn't know that I was friends with that dog & the dog only wanted to give me a kiss (the german was loose, she broke her chain again)... But once Max saved a friend & I from an angry raccoon who wanted our food & no matter how much we tosses thing near it, it still came to close & max ripped through the camper & chased it up a tree after he jumped on it... the coon was ok at the end... it learned not to come near people after that, but we left some stuff at the bottom of the tree anyway, cause at the same time we felt bad for it cause max jumped on it...

gotta stop chatting... just got word friend is going into ladour AHHHHHH... it'll be a nother screaming baby,,, AHHHHHH

King

[kingrattus]

oh ya, my website is up again, I forgot it was down because Rob was switching his computer to linux, but its up & running well now


King

[luckies4me]

Oh KR I feel SO much better that your kitty found a home! Thank goodness!



A baby, hurray! Tell her congrats for me!

[aly]

Originally posted by WolfChan
This thread has been really hard to read. I'm glad to say I don't have any horror stories to add....I can't even imagine what goes through some people's heads. I could NEVER EVER forgive anyone who intentionally caused harm to my animals, either our of animosity or neglect. There is no excuse.

Same here

As for breeding for food, blah.. I could never have a pet snake just because of what they eat

[tikeyas_mom]

you dint sell your rats as pets? what did you sell them for food ?

[kingrattus]

I'm going to say this one last time. I breed for feeders & I DON'T HAVE A SNAKE... I swear I'm going to go insane... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee lalalalalalalalalala woop woop woop woop woop *Homer spinning around in circles on the floor* woop woop woop woop woop.... Homer: no tv, no beer, make homer something something. Marge: go crazy? Homer: Don't mind if I do!!! WOO WAAA WEEE GAHHH WAAAA BOO *WHACK*

King

[CathyBogart]

Originally posted by aly

As for breeding for food, blah.. I could never have a pet snake just because of what they eat

You're missing out....but I don't mind as long as you don't shun us herpers for our choice of pets. I hate it when people harass me because my pet is a predator....I mean, how is feeding my snake prekilled rodents any different from when I feed my dog ground up cattle?

(I'm not saying you did, I'm just getting defensive preemptively. ^-^)

[aly]

I'm not going to shun you for it. I know they need to eat. I just am so sensitive. I used to have garter snakes and I'd get nightmares when I had to feed them crickets. My ex boyfriend took them for me. That was in juinor high but I'm still the same way. I'm a wuss.

[aly]

Originally posted by kingrattus
I'm going to say this one last time. I breed for feeders & I DON'T HAVE A SNAKE... I swear I'm going to go insane... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee lalalalalalalalalala woop woop woop woop woop *Homer spinning around in circles on the floor* woop woop woop woop woop.... Homer: no tv, no beer, make homer something something. Marge: go crazy? Homer: Don't mind if I do!!! WOO WAAA WEEE GAHHH WAAAA BOO *WHACK*

King

Hmm I didn't say you had a snake. I was just making a statement.

[tikeyas_mom]

snakes are awsome creatures they are so cool. I always wanted a corn snake. I dont care what they eat, They are animals they have to eat to.

[luckies4me]

Originally posted by WolfChan


You're missing out....but I don't mind as long as you don't shun us herpers for our choice of pets. I hate it when people harass me because my pet is a predator....I mean, how is feeding my snake prekilled rodents any different from when I feed my dog ground up cattle?

(I'm not saying you did, I'm just getting defensive preemptively. ^-^)

Congrats to you for feeding prekilled! My brothers corn snake was ripped literally in HALF by his rats!


I adore snakes, and if I ever have one again it would probably be a mice eater, and would eat prekilled as well, but I LOVE all snakes! That's how I got into fancy rats anyway lol. In highschool, my teacher had a few California King Snakes and I loved them! I would carry them around during lunch and try to get people to know they are awesome pets. Now I had rats growing up as well, but it wasn't til this time that the feeders we bred really got to me. I took a lot home, sheesh I can actually remember really vividly my first beige rat lol! Such a cutie! That was before I ever saw dumbos too, and at 4 weeks who could resist! And well GGMR symdrome kicked in violently and I haven't been the same ever since lmao.