House full of ratties!

Question
QUESTION: Hi Sandy,

It's me again, the lady with all the baby ratties that I want to keep.  I am feeling totally overwhelmed with their care.  You told me you had actually kept two litters from a rescue rat - You are truly amazing.  I'm doing my best so far.  The new cage came and is all set up.  

I've been observing the little rascals and thought if I could give two or four away it would help me so much.  So off to the pet shop I went with pictures of my sweeties.  A man came in asking for a pet rat and saw my pictures - offered to buy them all right now.  The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I said they were not for sale.  No one wanting a pet would buy them all.

Here's my question...The mommy rat Chloe still has nipples showing, even though she has weaned the babies over two or three weeks ago.  Please tell me it takes that long for them to return to normal!!  I separated her from the boys at 31 days after giving birth.

Thanks Sandy,  any words of encouragement would be much appreciated.  I don't know how I am going to care for all these furry guys!

Heidi

ANSWER: Hi Heidi

It was hard keeping all of them, I admit, but I feared a snake owner would fake me out and feed my beloved ratlets to their snake.

I had to keep them because I could not get that thought or image out of my head.

Once they got older it was easier. They didnt seem to scatter all over the place. They knew to come to me when called. I set up a play area for them that was secure so they could not scatter all over the place during time out of the cage.  I dont know if you read the ideas on my website but its on the page GETTING STARTED about how to construct a playpen simply using cardboard and the little brats cannot climb the cardboard! I would sit in it with them.  I would alternate times out....certain mischiefs came out in the morning, 1 cage at a time, and the other mischiefs came out at night. I used a double bowl cat dish for their food so they had a nice big dish to old their food. I kept two and three water bottles hanging up so if one did get empty, there was at least another one left just in case.  This is when I started to litter box train them with hopes it would save  time and money PLUS it was alot healthier for them to only have a litter box rather than dirty litter and to clean it, just dump the old litter out and put in new and thats that.  To keep the shelves clean, newspaper underneath plastic needle point canvas....simple,take out the old plastic that is dirty, put in the new.
Its easy to potty train them. Remove ALL LITTER from the floor and put it in the litter pan. Rats really do hate to just go on a flat surface and prefer to dig and bury their waste so eventually they will use the litter pan.  Making my own rat food with the recipes I have on my site saved tons of money and buying the rat blocks or regal rat over the net in bulk saved money too.  A HUGE bag of harlan teklad for $20 something bucks lasted months and months.

If you truly want to keep them, remember that right now they are hyper little monkey rats but they will eventually slow down. As long as they get to know you and are not shy they will be easy to handle.

I cant tell you what to do but just beware of snake owners out there. They flock when they see FREE rats or inexpensive rats.  If anything, ask an outrageous price, such as $15 per rat or whatever....and INSIST they are bought in pairs. No snake owner will want to pay $30 for snake food and a smart rat owner that wants rats will know what your up to and will know your priced high to weed out potential snake owners.  At least I know I have been able to spot someone that was looking to adopt out their rat pups but feared snake owners so they were asking $25 for a pair of same sex rats.  Once I would contact the person and they "felt me out" and knew I was not looking for food for my reptiles they let their guard down.  

I would not advertise on craigs list. If you want I can find a few sites where you can join a rat group that gives you a list of places that take rats and finds good homes for them.  I cant remember the names now but they are on the tip of my tongue.

Hang in there!!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Sandy,

You had written..."I would not advertise on craigs list. If you want I can find a few sites where you can join a rat group that gives you a list of places that take rats and finds good homes for them.  I cant remember the names now but they are on the tip of my tongue."....
Yes, if you know of any place that you trust please send me the name.

Thanks so much.

Heidi

Answer
I am so sorry it took so long to reach you.  I am on vacation and put in a request that I was going to leave for a few days to put my account on hold status but it didnt go through!  So I appologize.

As for finding homes, you can check here:


http://www.rmca.org/Rescue/