Rat play or foul play?

Question
QUESTION: When my 5 week old rat is playful and bouncy, we play chasey in her cage, and when im chasing her she rolls over on her back for about 5 seconds and lets me tickle her belly, but she nibbles at my fingers? is that normal for play?


Three New baby boys   ANSWER: Absolutely. I have three males the same age as your girl and these boys are nuts. They glide, float, run, climb the cage like they were Spider man, never walk, always run, race, chase each other....you should see the three of them wrestle each other!  All three get in a ball and wrestle, rolling around the cage like maniacs! When I get involved, I put my very washed clean hand in the cage and imagine, three baby rats all attacking your hand, sniffing, licking, biting, trying to drag my hand into their "cave".  Heck they try to eat my newly manicured nails!
Its a really funny feeling having three tiny rodents nibble on your fingers and hands. They are all super tame (hats off to a great breeder)  finally, when they get tired out during play time out of the cage (which consists of a huge cardboard play pen I sit in with them while they run around like man men) they do get tired like babies should, and they all three cuddle not IN their hidey house, but on top of it, all three in a pile with the rat on top wrapping his tail safely around the other two brothers as if he is keeping them all safe.

Long story longer, the answer is YES! What your baby is doing is all a part of being a rat pup.  Is she all alone or does she have a cage mate? I wasnt sure if you were new to rats or not but if you are and are not aware of this, rats are super social and need each other. NO matter how much we play with them, its not the same as having your own species to be with. As I described above, they sleep together in a piile, wrestle and chase each other and groom each other all the time too.

I have not had rat pups for years and just recently lost my two older boys which broke my heart. Bo was over 4 years old and Santana was closing in on turing 3 years old, so having rat pups here is a new beginning for me, I sure am rusty at it, nervous about everything myself and I am a rat care specialist!  LOL!

Here are the photos of my new boys, taken the other day. I just bought them last Sunday!


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Fuzzbuts   QUESTION: Thanks for that :D i got them from a pet shop, and the man that owns it breeds them himself, ones either got a cold or the start of Myco, and the others sneeze a little, mum wont pay for the vets though, any suggestions? like remedies? In the photo the champagne and agouti hooded are my boy and girl, their names are Kiwi(agout) and taz(cham) and the steel blue is my boyfriends :)

ANSWER: Cute.....but unless you want to see that baby girl have babies, you need to get them apart like, now.... rats reproduce at just 5 weeks of age.   I am assuming the the pet store forgot to tell you that or told you otherwise.  



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QUESTION: Yeah, i called him up the next day after i found that it looked a little sick, (they are seperated now) and im from australia and our rat breeders rats are about $30AU which is quite alot here, and i've had a lot of rats before (even though im 14) and i know they can reproduce at about 4 1/2 weeks im planning to start breeding in early sep my mum used to be a breeder so i know all what to do :) and i read that for a part of a staple food, some people use total cereal, whats a subsitute for an australian cereal?

Answer

No need to keep them apart. If they are indeed sick, they have exposed each other to the illness they may have anyhow.  Keeping them apart causes stress which will make them worse. Being stressed compromises the immune system.

As for total cereal: I cant answer this because I have no idea what types of cereals are available in the UK.  Total is simply a cereal that is 100% whole grain wheat. Just look for something like that.