Which small critter for me?

[Genny]

sorry, but what does STO mean??? I've just been wondering

[IRescue452]

STO= short-tailed oppossum

Ratties need variety moreso than a staple food. I give mine a little cat food, lab blocks from petsupplies plus (but I really hate Kaytee brands), and a seed mix as their dry staple right now. The seed mix is really for my mice, but the rats like some. They also get leftovers from our own meals; chicken, pasta, veggies, eggs. Anything that doesn't have much in the way of sugar and isn't completely made of processed goo.

The lab blocks cost $1.20/lb and a lb lasts a while. My mice go through more than both rats. Its hard to really estimate the price of things because I put my own dried peas, oats, and non-sugared cereals into the mix.

The cage is a big parrot cage from a thrift store for $10. Only one door and the bottom lifts off. Nothing too complicated because I don't want them finding out how to free themselves.

I use kiln-dried pine as bedding. America's Choice brand from the horse supply store (enough at a time for a horse stall). It costs me $4 for 7 square feet. I almost bought the walmart brand once and it smelt extra piney for lack of better words. I put it back because after 5 minutes of holding the bag, my arms broke out in a rash. It turns out that sometimes the chips aren't dried properly and that can really be bad, so you do have to be careful. I prefer wood over carefresh for mice and rats though because I think carefresh is more likely to give them respiratory infection.

I only have an igloo, the wood perch bars, and a little hammock for accessories in their cage. Rats aren't prone to playing with toys. They are like cats: the more money you spend on it, the less they want it. They ignore the big rat-sized wheel I have for my mice to play on during out of cage time for mice. They flip the igloo over instead of sleeping in it. When out of their cage, I'm the toy. They love to climb on me. They also like to tunnel in my blankets. They chew on clothing and slippers and towels when I'm not paying enough attention to them.

The only other thing I have for them is a brick and a ceramic tile. The brick so they can where down their nails a little in the cage. The tile so on hot days I can put it in the freezer and give it to them cold to lay on. Rats don't do above 80F well.

As an initial investment for two rats, I probably only spent $35. The cage is what can break the bank though and I got that cheap. The last thing I bought was a plastic tub to set the cage in so they don't kick bedding out.

[Suki Wingy]

Make sure if you want a sociable pet to get them young or from someone who's raised them since they were small. There is a huge difference. My brother holds his since their eyes open and they all LOVE people. If they've been riding on your shoulder for an hour and you put them back in their cage and come back 5 minutes later they'll do anything they can to crawl back up your arm and sit with you. We had a couple of himi girls that figured out how to twist open the little circle thingy on the top of the terrarium and get out.

[Blackrose]

I'm going to look around to see who/what around here has rats availible. I won't be getting some for another couple of months so I'm in no rush. There is a rat rescue in Ohio that does transports to other states (Indiana included). That will be my main focus. There is a local feed depot (where I bought my ferrets) and they take wonderful care of their animals and if they have ratties, I'll look there. Petsmart doesn't handle their animals, so while they have Ratties on occasion, they would be wild things.

Ratties need variety moreso than a staple food. I give mine a little cat food, lab blocks from petsupplies plus (but I really hate Kaytee brands), and a seed mix as their dry staple right now.

I was given a good link for a homemade seed mix, so that is most likely what I'll use as the mixture. I looked at what Petsmart has availible again and not under rat foods ( ) they had the Katee Forti-Diet blocks, and this Mazuri block food. Unless Buckles carries any block foods, that will be what I'll have to choose from. Here is the Mazuri's ingredients:

Ingredients: dehulled soybean meal, ground corn, ground wheat, wheat middlings, soybean oil, cane molasses, fish meal, ground oats, porcine meat meal, dehydrated alfalfa meal, dried beet pulp, wheat germ, brewers dried yeast, calcium carbonate, salt, dried whey, dicalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium propionate (a preservative), ground soybean hulls, menadione dimethylpyrimidinol bisulfite (vitamin K), animal fat preserved with BHA, choline chloride, corn gluten meal, dried yucca shidigera extract, DL-methionine, cholecalciferol (vitamin D3), vitamin A acetate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, d-alpha tocopheryl acetate (natural source vitamin E), thiamin mononitrate, folic acid, nicotinic acid, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12), manganous oxide, zinc oxide, ferrous carbonate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate.

Guaranteed analysis: crude protein (min.) 23%, crude fat (min.) 6.5%, crude fiber (max.) 4%, ash (max.) 8%, vitamin E (min.) 25 IU/lb.

I know that the corn and the alfalfa meal isn't good.....but is everything else okay? I figured this brand would be the lesser of two evils as it has soybean meal as the first ingredient.

If not, would I be able to feed them that homemade seed mixture along with some high quality dog food (Innova Senior)?

[IRescue452]

That's about as good as it gets with lab blocks

[Christmas_Hamster]

I feed my rats and now my (fat) mouse mazuri and they are doing fine on it!

[Blackrose]

That's about as good as it gets with lab blocks

I feed my rats and now my (fat) mouse mazuri and they are doing fine on it!

Okay, thanks!