Got A Rat For A Christmas Present

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The vet will more than likely say she's better off without company until she's better. I'm half and half on that one, as in my experience separating rats with myco isn't necessary unless there's another bug at play as all rats carry myco anyway. It could be that stress has brought this on - nothing you've done wrong, don't worry, it's common, but it's something that might be exacerbated by being alone. I think I would get her checked out, if the vet feels it warrants antibios, go for it, then when she's over the worst, get her some friends then when it's safer.

What you might run into is a bit of vet ignorance on rats. It's not their fault, it's just that unless the vet has a particular interest in them and reads up himself, you'll find they don't have a lot of training in rat care. Our local head vet can't even sex them *lol* - ask Lisa about that, it was hilarious. Luckily there's another vet at our practice that is interested in them, so he let's me take in info I've got off the internet or breeders, and works with me on that, if you get me. Our head vet still insists there's no such thing as Baytril burns, despite him having given one of my rats one twice (at the time it was necessary evil if you get me, my rat was too ill for oral baytril to be quick enough acting). He bases his opinion on the fact that dogs don't get them. Needless to say now I know more about that, he owes me a tenner (I made a bet with him, he's conveniently forgotten!).

As for fruit and veg, slowly slowly is the way to go. Rats don't need masses of fruit and veg, and it is generally better to slowly accustom them to each type. When I got my first I thought more variety sounded best, but young rats need very little at all. Curly kale is fantastic for growing rats if you can get hold of it, as it's a good source of calcium. Edited to add: Pasta good! She can also have a small amount of tinned sardines/pilchards (mine love the type in tomato sauce). It's a nice smelly food for them so if she's a bit bunged and feeling rough, it might cheer her up.

How is she today? I've been wondering how she's doing.

Maya's doing good, she's still got the sneezing thing, but it hasn't got any worse. She's becomming more and more tame everyday i handle her though, i really love her to bits she is the sweetest little rat i have ever known .
So far she really loves the cooking apple and dried pasta the most- whats curly kale? I will try out the sardines/pilchards though, i never knew rats would eat fish!
I know what you mean about vets though, when we took our last hamster to the vet the vet wasn't even able to tell what gender she was- one vet thought she was male, the other thought she was a female (we thought she was a female). But the vet should hopefully be able to tell if she needs antibiotics- i don't think Maya is really bad, but her sneezing is still very noticeable. If she needs antibiotics i will hold off getting her any buddies until she's in the clear, but otherwise i will go looking for some rat friends for her ASAP .

 

[Erised]

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That's curly kale. Very commonly available in Holland though I have noticed it's harder to find in England. However, during the winter months (it's a so called "winter vegetable") you can often find it already cut up and bagged in Sainsburys or Tesco. It might be worth asking next time you're in one of the shops seeing as it's often sold out quickly (at least, around where I am).

 

[black angel]

I had a rat years ago with myco and was told not to introduce another rat. You dont know if any new rats may have any other disease and if it does then the myco infected rat has a higher chance of catching something else and then getting pneumonia.

My lone rat was well loved and got lots of attention, and she died when she was 18 months old.

 

[KathyM]

ALL rats, with the exception of lab rats, carry myco. There is no need to keep them alone, and most experts will advise you that the stress of living alone will actually make it more likely for that rat to suffer flareups. I'm sure your lone rat was very spoilt and happy (she sounds like she was lovely and very well looked after), but I'm afraid you've had bad advice there and it's not necessary at all.

 

[black angel]

So why did the three rats I had until a year ago all show no signs of it? They all lived to over 3 years.

The advice I had was from the 90's so opinions change. She was a hooded rat as well and called Rosie.

 

[black angel]

Just done a bit of reading on it, and they can carry it but not show it, which may explain why they never showed symptoms.
Still find it strange as two were sisters and the third - a hooded, wasnt related.
They must have come from better breeding stock.

 

[KathyM]

I think you're right that a lot of it comes down to breeding. A fair amount of it I believe comes down to socialisation too. I've had large "colonies" of rats here, up to 10 together, and only 4 out of 32 had myco flareups at any point. 3 of those were badly bred and poorly socialised before they came here. One of them had a sister who was more confident and never suffered the sniffles once, and yet she had it repeatedly and was nearly constantly on Baytril as a baby. Another had a brother who did show symptoms but because he was much more outgoing and confident, never had a full flareup. Myco is a horribledisease but I believe the more breeders that breed for temperament and health, and socialisa their rat kittens from birth, the less likely it is for them to get a flareup. I've only had one well bred rat suffer (and die) from a terrible respiratory infection, and he was one of our show rats, picked something up from one of the shows. At the time we worried it was solely myco but after a post mortem it showed he had something else virally going on which allowed the myco to take hold.

I'm so sorry about your girl.

 

[dgwebster]

We have only had the one rat receive it full blown and despite emergency vet call outs at the weekend to get fluids & anti-biotics injected and a stash of baytril, he still sadly passed away.

The rats we have had the most problems with are indeed the pet shop ones - breeder rats are always of a much higher quality, though some breeders do left to be desired for so you still have to be careful - after all, pet shop suppliers are breeders too. but they do it for the money, not for the love and to improve the line.

 

[KathyM]

How's she doing Tokis?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

How's she doing Tokis?

I cleaned out her cage today, i let her run around the kitchen floor for a bit but she preferred to stay near me as i cleaned out her cage . My car is kinda broken (its an accident waiting to happen so i'm busy getting it fixed right now, it should be ready soon though depending on how the repairs go etc) so i can't go out and get her a bigger cage or proper rat food as soon as i would like to.
I don't really want to go to my most local pet shop though as its not very good, the rodent food they sell is quite poor quality in general- but if the car takes more than a fortnight to repair then i'll go to my most local petshop as it'll be better than nothing. However the rat cages they sell are pitifully small, even smaller than the hamster cage i currently have so i'll just have to wait until i have my car ready so i can go to other places to look for decent sized rat cages (there's a pet/fish store in Yeovil called Watermarque that often sells really large rat cages) .
She's still got her sneezing problem, but it still seems to be the same, not getting any worse but not getting any better- i will take her to the vet as soon as i find some time.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Just a little update, but hopefully i'm going down to my lps today and i'm gonna check out their rat cages (which on average are very large) and rats and see if i can get a new cage today, and perhaps even another rat to keep Maya company. Maya's sneezing issue seems to have died down a bit, my car came back fixed the other day so i can see the vet, but i'm very hopeful as her sneezing isn't regular as it used to be (although still noticeable) .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ok, new rats and a new cage! A few days ago i picked up a new cage, but when we put it together we found that it was missing the roof ( ), so we had to go back and get it replaced. When we picked up the new cage (which we made sure had all the peices before we left the shop), i picked up a new rat. She is a little grey and white one, pretty much a baby still though (only 6-7 weeks old) and set her up an old hamster cage next to Maya's so they could see each other through the bars and get to know each other a bit;

But at the petshop i had also seen an adorable little brown and white female (same patterning to Maya's, just a light creamy brown colour instead of black)- i didn't get her at the time as i was uncertain about her, but after i left the shop i realised how much i wanted her so the next day i went back and bought her. Both her and the grey and white female come from the same litter, so they are both related even though their colouring is quite different.

The next day after that after i had spent hours setting up the cage, i decided to the introduce the rats. I had some vanilla essence which i put on each rat and let them run around in the front porch area, but they all decided to meet each other on me lol. There was no fighting, it was like they had known each other for ages and just hadn't seen each other in a while, so after a few minutes i put them all in the new cage.
They love the cage! Its 2 and a half foot long, 3ft high and 1 and a half foot wide- i used corn cob rat bedding on the bottom (its supposed to be very hygenic and doesn't cause allergies in rats) and put an assortment of carboard and wooden boxs in the cage for them to sleep in with tissue bedding, plus loads of toys and pipes and things and extra levels for them to explore etc...Anyhoo, here's the pics ;

New cage;

Rats meeting each other for the first time;

Rats plus lots of food and some water bottles added to cage;

Pic i took this morning of the new rats together (just woken up) in a box in the cage;

I just want to say thanks to everyone for all the help you have given me, i really appreiciate it and i am very thankful for all the time everyone has spent here helping me out !

 

[black angel]

Beautiful rats Tokis and its great they all hit it off so quickly. Love the cage as well

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Beautiful rats Tokis and its great they all hit it off so quickly. Love the cage as well

Thanks Black angel !
With naming them, i've called the little brown and white female "Sunny", but the little grey and white female i can't decide between two names- "Tocca" and "Toki", its really tough i can't decide ...
I was worried about them fighting at first as the two new arivals are like half the size of Maya, but Maya seems really good with them. I did initially try to go for some more mature females, but the only two that interested me at the shop both tried to bite me within about one moment of me picking them up! The new little and much younger females are much nicer though and aren't agressive at all (to me or each other) which is good .

 

[KathyM]

Oh flipping heck, this thread needs a warning on it, they're too gorgeous!

The grey and white girl is a banded husky rat, her grey will fade a bit over time, a bit like our boy Drebin (except Drebin isn't banded, he's full husky colouring, so his colour extends down his sides):

As a teeny baby...

When he first arrived with us....

Even more faded...

And your other new girly is a cinnamon hoody - not a common colour, and ever so pretty. We've only had one "proper" cinnamon here (a cinnamon capped dumbo), we've had a mock cinnamon too, but cinnamon is not as common.

That's Jesse, our old fella (RIP).