Comments: 23
Drakmanka [2011-11-25 06:29:38 +0000 UTC]
They don't wanna be in the cage!
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-25 06:47:05 +0000 UTC]
lol ofcourse they dont, what rat wants to?
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-25 07:09:33 +0000 UTC]
With my rat Nugget I would let him play outside his cage for hours, then I would go get him and put him back in the cage, and he'd get all huffy with me, and try to open his cage door and then I'd just take him out again for like another hour, lol
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-11-25 07:11:06 +0000 UTC]
lol silly rat! My girls are always ready to go home, since it's been their 'happy place' since they came home with me, but as soon as they get done making sure no other rats have been snooping around they want back out.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-25 07:18:47 +0000 UTC]
Nugget lived with his sister's "husband" and two kids so I think he wanted alone time alot. I had a Rat House get up with boxes that he could go into when he was out. I would also have milk or chocolate milk out for him if he was thirsty, and snacks. Usually he would go into his favorite reclining chair, snuggle with greykitty, chase greykitty, wander around, climb up people's legs sitting on the couch to sit in their lap to get petted or he would go upstairs into my room and sleep in his blanket I had under the bed.
I would usually find him upstairs in my room. lol
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-11-26 04:12:36 +0000 UTC]
Aaaw, what a cute little fellow! I would never be able to let my rats out to roam loose, they would get into all sorts of mischief.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-26 04:39:12 +0000 UTC]
I dont let all my rats go whereever they want. But there are some that can because I know they have that certain personality that allows me to.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-11-26 07:39:16 +0000 UTC]
I had a rat who was *probably* like that. I didn't get to find out because he died when he was a little baby. A choking accident involving him chewing oh a piece of bedding. Poor little fellow suffered for hours and we couldn't help him.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-11-29 20:43:49 +0000 UTC]
He was around... 2 months old I think. It was cedar bedding, which I now know is the worst kind for rats. Sadly I didn't know that then. He was my first rat.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-29 22:54:13 +0000 UTC]
2 months old...and it was your first rat...? You know that's too young to have a rat right? They cant leave the mother until they are 3 months or about 4. Did you buy it from a pet store? Cause they shouldnt of sold it to you.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-11-30 07:08:26 +0000 UTC]
He was from a pet shop, and I suspect the breeder sold him to the shop as soon as he was weined. One of THOSE breeders. And yes, NOW I know that. He was such a little clingy boy, I think he bonded to me really fast because he needed his mother still, and I was his 'replacement' mother. It was really sad when he died, since he was so young. We tried taking him to a vet out of desperation, and he hung on the whole way there(the only vet open that sunday was almost an hour's drive away), and gave up when we put him in a shoebox so that any other animals in the waiting room wouldn't go nuts if a rat was in the vicinity. I think he was hanging on because I was holding him.
Now-a-days I use Carefresh bedding, which, in case your not familiar with the brand, is shredded cardboard specifically treated for small animals to live in. My two girls love it, they're always burrowing and making a mess(they have a coated wire cage, so when they shove it around the stuff flies everywhere on floor). That is, when they aren't begging me for food. I can't believe sometimes that those two are the same little rats who didn't know what to do with a carrot. (their breeder didn't give them dietary supplements like veggies or fruit. It took me about a week to get them to get the idea. Now they go nuts if they think I might have food. Hazel nuts are a huge hit.)
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-11-30 23:13:02 +0000 UTC]
They took him away before he was even weined. Rats will still nurse up to 4 1/2 months. I feel bad that they took him away at a very young age. The person should of waited longer.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-12-01 06:10:03 +0000 UTC]
I found out later on that the breeder they got him from doesn't even socialize them. I have a feeling its one of those companies that breed rats as feeders, but this shop sells them only as pets. Now, whenever I get rats from a pet shop, I get them from a local Petco, because they only take rats from local breeders, and some of their employees who own rats. The last time I got rats from there they were very healthy, and the woman who sold them to us at the checkout told us that she runs a rat rescue and gets in with the rats at the store once a day to keep them social.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-12-02 03:43:34 +0000 UTC]
The pet stores around here use to only sell rats as feeders and they only cost $3-6. Now they sell certain rats as pets, but they are $25, just because they were somewhat handled and came from a rat farm...which I think is completely overcharging and horrible to get them from a place like that. When I was little and they only had the feeder rats I would buy them for a pet, and they are probably even more better than the ones "handled". When I was like 6 the guy asked me if I had a snake and I said no. I told him it was going to be my pet and he just smiled and said the rat was lucky.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-12-03 07:15:12 +0000 UTC]
O.O $25?? thats... rediculous. If I were going to get a pet rat, I'd just buy it from the feeder bin. I've met a number of would-be feeder rats who had wonderful personalities, once they were socialized.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-12-03 07:20:11 +0000 UTC]
Whenever i bought a feeder rat they were pefectly fine being with people. It's stupid, just because they probably handled them once they call them "pet" rats and sell them for a high price. $25 is stupid, and I complained to a manager about it actually. She said thats what the Rat Farm asks for. I hated hearing Rat Farm >.>
A rabbit costs $25 and they live up to 12 years...a rat can live up to 2-4....why so much then!? stupid yet again.
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Drakmanka In reply to SailorUsagiChan [2011-12-03 23:22:05 +0000 UTC]
What are Rat Farms anyway? never heard of them before.
Yeah, that price is really, really, REALLY dumb. I'll bet they had a lot of adult rats in the pet rat section since no one would want to buy that expensive of a rat.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-12-04 00:05:23 +0000 UTC]
Ever heard of a Puppy Mill? Same thing, but with rats.
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SailorUsagiChan In reply to Drakmanka [2011-12-04 07:58:04 +0000 UTC]
yeah I hate knowing they have places like that.
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