# Raising rats as pets



## euphorion (Sep 1, 2010)

It's been a while since i bothered to handle any of my rats let alone the babies as they are food producing animals. My current breeding stock all came from pet animals so they are quite friendly when without bubs. So, i'm thinking, what do i need to do to raise this lot of babies as pet animals? As in, i think i would like to offer the cuties with headspots as pet animals firstly, so want to make sure they grow up happy with people. How much handling should they get? Are there any particular techiniques i should use?


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## Vixen (Sep 1, 2010)

My first pet rat that I kept back, I handled him every day from when he first started growing fur. Anywhere between 10-20 mins, grew up to be the best rat i've ever had. I'd just hold him in my hands and stroke down his face and back, turned him over on his back every now and then etc and made sure he was comfortable with everything I did. 

Sadly he passed away before he even hit 2yo of a lung infection, a trip to the vet and antibiotics didn't help.  Haven't bothered raising any more as pets since then, it was too sad. I do want to get into breeding them for other people eventually though, and hand raising entire litters (as in handling every day).


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## euphorion (Sep 1, 2010)

Thanks Vixenbabe, good to know it can be done with only a short amount of time spent each day. I'll be starting that tomorrow!


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## Vixen (Sep 1, 2010)

I probably missed a few days here and there aswell, but I did try to handle him every day. =)


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## euphorion (Sep 1, 2010)

I'll try and get some pictures of them tomorrow, some of them are so cute! Never had headspots in my breeders before


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## Kristy_07 (Sep 1, 2010)

Shoo - I bred rats for ages. If the parents are friendly, the bubs should be too. Just handle a little everyday day so they're used to hands and fingers. Food treats encourage friendliness too. Really not much to it. They're naturally inquisitive social creatures  

If I was home, I'd be grabbing a couple!! Love headspots x


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## Scleropages (Sep 1, 2010)

I hardly handle any of my rats but none of them bite if I pick them up wile cleaning..any biters I had found themselfs inside the monitors years ago seemed to make the others less nippy


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## euphorion (Sep 1, 2010)

Kristy, i'm sure i'll have some fab ones by the time you get home, i'll be crossing the daughters (got three lovely blaze/headspot girls) back to dad to see what they produce. Also have their headstop brother who i can put to the headspot girls from another pair to keep some variety in the lines.

Scleropages - everytime, and i mean EVERYTIME i come within reach of one of the females (when she has babies) she will rip into me. i just dont risk getting bitten these days so i have no real idea of who is friendly and who isnt. i know these current breeders are all good pet animals as thats how i bought them and i handled them until they were old enough to start breeding. so they're friendly, so i'm guessing the bubs should be friendly too, and if i handle them then i will keep the lines pretty friendly. i suppose i will just start handling them properly again and do as you say, cull off any that get nippy. i just thought the females all got bitey when they had bubs because of the hormones and her protective instinct, correct me if i'm wrong here please!

im all excited about getting pics tomorrow, haven't been excited about my rats for a while.


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## Lonewolf (Sep 1, 2010)

Hehe rats are a little addictive too  Good luck with your pairings and i hope you get some lovely blazes!  As for making friendly bubs i have to agree with Kristy and VixenBabe


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## Flaviruthless (Sep 1, 2010)

I had two female rats; the first one absolutely hated me. The second one, which I still have, is so good that she will let me pick up her babies (last time she delivered I was holding a rat pup not even five minutes old - wiggly little jelly bean!). I try to handle mine every day, I start off with the babies by putting my hand in and just letting it hang in front of them - they'll try to have a bite (nothing hard at all) but quickly learn I'm not food. And head spots are so cool - I'm currently trialing my head spot female with my albino/ lavender male - should be good! Good luck with the babies


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## Kristy_07 (Sep 2, 2010)

Actually had this discussion on ARF not long ago - aggression in rats, even in mums, is as much genetic is it is learned behaviour. I was so lucky when breeding that I had two lovely lovely girls and even nicer boys - I could do whatever I wanted with the 4 of them and all the litters they had, and never once got bitten.

Sdaji has done a lot with breeding out aggression, even with his massive numbers of rats. If you have aggressive rats, try not to breed from them if you can. You will end up with rats that can be squeezed, squished, poked, etc and won't bite, and won't mind you touching their bubs from day one! 

It's something I'll be concentrating on from day one - rat bites are hell!!


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## euphorion (Sep 2, 2010)

Alright then! I'll be culling off the cranky pants  *not really something to be happy about, haha, but im sick and tired to have to dodge teeth flying at me from across the tub* thankfully i dont think i have any ratties like that now


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## icedmice (Sep 3, 2010)

Our rats usually do well in pet category because they are squishy friendly indoor rats.
Most live in the loungeroom so get direct contact with people all the time. 

I haven't had a great deal of experience raising rats (only two litters). But both times every rat turned out an adorable pet. 
My OH and I handle them as much as possible, sometimes I see Allan walking around with baby rats in his pocket. We make sure every interaction they have with a human is positive.
When they are in their playful "puppy stage - aka fuzzies" we tickle their tummies and turn them over making it into a game so they are used to a bit of rougher handling if a kid adopts them.

We've been fortunate choosing only the friendliest rats to breed from. We don't have any aggressive ones. I've never been bitten!!!
Been bitten my dominant male mice a few times. Thankfully that doesn't happen too often either.


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## daniel1234 (Sep 3, 2010)

Breeder I know told me that any biters were culled. Its true though, you can put your hand in and steal any number of babies and the rodents dont seem to mind. It was even said that they appreciate the loss because it's less work. When I have had breeders they were a little nippy if you stole babies but you could play with the adults who did not have litters. Rats are interesting, alot of mine have got out but they never went far. They were very interactive, climbing around their boxes, looking up at you curiously. Just got a litter of mice tonight, I can hear them squeaking, so will check them in the morning. thought mum looked round. These are recently aquired mice, wasnt sure if I wanted them for pets or food, but we havent eaten them yet.


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## xxlauraxx (Sep 3, 2010)

shooshoo said:


> It's been a while since i bothered to handle any of my rats let alone the babies as they are food producing animals. My current breeding stock all came from pet animals so they are quite friendly when without bubs. So, i'm thinking, what do i need to do to raise this lot of babies as pet animals? As in, i think i would like to offer the cuties with headspots as pet animals firstly, so want to make sure they grow up happy with people. How much handling should they get? Are there any particular techiniques i should use?



i have had lots and lots of rats as pets and not all of them are all has friendly and loving as each other but i have 5 pet rats at the moment but they are bald naked rats 4 are babies and 1 is a adult the mum u should defo handle them as much as u can to tame them down if there not that socialable if u hold them at least 3 times a day and let them out of there cage they will make great pets to enjoy playing with. how many do u have? thanks laura??


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## raaaa (Sep 3, 2010)

icedmice said:


> We don't have any aggressive ones. I've never been bitten!!!.



yeah i could have said that till six months ago. 15 years of having rats (well over 20) and never been bitten and ive adopted from feeder breeder situations and Rspca ect, and i get given the fuzzy turd as shes affectionately known most beatufull silk hooded i have ever seen from a girl at work first day i had her fine second day i had her fine third day i had her shes all curled up on my shoulder nusling my ear then CHOMP blood everywere then she sneses and goes back to sleep. i was unimpressed... but that was a one off ive never been bitten since and shed had a rough lot bred as feeder breeder rescued by aforementioned workmates daughter and kept alone in a 20cm x 10cm x 10cm tank for the first 4 months of her life.

but i digress handleing young is a definate good start but not esential my first rat (rosie) was given to me when i was 3 years old mum had rescued her from a friends breeding tub she was about two months old when we got her and we had her for 5 years best rat we ever had Rats are SMART they know who they can trust. but if you do have the time to handle them they will be better for it


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## euphorion (Sep 3, 2010)

hehe, im sitting with them all in my singlet right now, they are ADORABLE!


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## euphorion (Sep 3, 2010)




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## cris (Sep 3, 2010)

Nice rats, i had a pet rat for 2-3years(which is about all you get unless you are lucky), they are great pets apart from the life span and likely increased danger of goanna or snake bite.

When raising him i kept him on a table inside the house, they generally avoid jumping from heights, but no guarantees especially if they have a need to move.

Another down side is that they crap every few minutes an im not sure if you can train them to run off to the toilet. Does anyone know if you can do that? I know basic enclosure toilet training is pretty easy, but what about when you handle them?


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## euphorion (Sep 3, 2010)

they can hold on if they want to, i had a male that just wanted to mark me as his territory (lol) so constantly piddled on me :/ silly critter!

As for increased risk of reptile bites... i stupidly went to move some snakes after handling this lot but amazingly didnt get bitten, i didnt even realise until my partner walked into the room as said "uhh, werent you just cuddling rats??" woops!


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## mrkos (Sep 3, 2010)

i keep my rat keeping philosophy simple anyone of them that shows any type aggression or slips up in any situation including eating their young dies and goes to the freezer. call it cruel but none of my rats ever play up at all and my most difficult decisions these days are which ones to cull because they are all so bloody well behaved.


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## Kristy_07 (Sep 3, 2010)

That little agouti blaze is gorgeous ) So cute.

I agree with mrkos - as funny as it sounds, bad habits like aggression and eating young can be bred out of lines (and should be in my opinion ). Rat bites are not fun. I'd take a chomp from a 6ft python over a rat bite. Especially if it gets infection  Sorry, mate, but cull your female breeder and get some nicer lines going. 

cris - I had 4 breeders (I bred for pets back then, not for food), 2m 2f. I did rest them between litters, but also (accidentally) bred back-to-back litters a few times. Sometimes, I had litters of 2 or 3. The biggest litter I had was 23  (poor mum, but she managed okay by splitting them into two nests). I NEVER had any noticeable issue with myco, and they never went to the vet. My biggest boy (a blue hooded - Badger) died at around 4.5 years. My other male (who lived totally free-range in my bedroom after his mate had died and slept with me - gross?) and the two girls I had put to sleep when they were coming up to the age of 6 years. 

I can't work out why either 1) they lived so long, or 2) everyone else's rats die really quickly. 

I loved those little guys  Neither mums (or boys) ever bit me or shoed aggression - I always handled the litters from day 1 to sex and check health. Miss them


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## Bradchip (Sep 3, 2010)

Rats make fantastic pets...provided they've come from good parentage. I had them quite a long time ago, and if I was to ever do it again, I'd probably only go for male rats...they're lazier and make much better lap pets. The girls tend to be more skitty and psycho (not in all cases though).

These animals are definitely underrated pets too. Good for people that like dogs, but maybe don't have the space.

As Vixenbabe said...respiratory illness is a real problem in rats. When rats get a cold, or myco, it can be really really nasty.


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## raaaa (Sep 4, 2010)

Kristy_07 said:


> I can't work out why either 1) they lived so long, or 2) everyone else's rats die really quickly.
> 
> QUOTE]
> You were realy realy lucky!!! and there was probably some very solid breeding behind them the oldest rat i ever had was Rosie my first girl and we had her for 5 years not bad concidering she was destined for snake food. And i dont think its gross that he slept with you rosie used to escape a 6ft glass fishtank in the middle of the night to crawl into bed with me (she went missing for 3 days once and turned up in my mums bed nibbling her fingers wanting to play!!
> ...


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## raaaa (Sep 4, 2010)

Bradchip said:


> Rats make fantastic pets...provided they've come from good parentage. I had them quite a long time ago, and if I was to ever do it again, I'd probably only go for male rats...they're lazier and make much better lap pets. The girls tend to be more skitty and psycho (not in all cases though).
> 
> These animals are definitely underrated pets too. Good for people that like dogs, but maybe don't have the space.
> 
> As Vixenbabe said...respiratory illness is a real problem in rats. When rats get a cold, or myco, it can be really really nasty.



I dissagree with you on the sooky front all my girls wait at the cage door for me in the morning for a cuddle and all will quite happily just sit in your lap for hours on end it just comes down to the time you spend with them


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