need advice,new rat owner

[kailey lane]

hello all! so i rescued a pet rat from a friend of a friend,she was in a bad situation with horrible diet of cooked mac n cheese only and living in a small cage.i want to right by her.the only food i could find in short notice for her was reggie rat food,which i know is not good because she will pick out the fatty stuff but she was not being fed at the old house so i had to get something,and i want to switch to HT blocks asap,i was wondering what the best diet is,i know i should have HT lab blocks and ?? what else? ,do i make my own mix? i can do that if need be.do i feed just lab blocks and supplement with veggies and fruit or put lab block and a home-made mix?

also nugget is alone sadly ,she was alone for the full year the last people had her and i will be getting her a buddy asap,i know they want to be with other rats(in the next 2 weeks) ,should i keep them separated in different cages at first?

is it normal for nugget to sleep on the levels instead of her house? i have her nice home on the bottom floor but sometimes she just seems like she wants to sleep on the 3rd level on the bars which looks uncomfortable,i tryed putting a house up there too but she didnt want it,is this an odd thing to do? she does spend alot of time in her home also, she took all the fabric i covered the bars with and brought it down to her house lol.i know there is better ways to make her cage,as iv seen the cage photos thread on this site i hope to get my cage like that someday.

we got vary luck as nugget is vary outgoing and willing to climb all over us and does not bite,from what iv read on here some people have issues with those thing.also is it normal for her to sleep in a tiny little ball with her head under her front legs? she does this alot.my cage is kinda bare but much better than what she had before i saved her,she was living in a small bird cage and now had a cage that can hold 3 rats according to the calculator but id only keep 2 in there.

so about free range time,im not sure what to do about that,our house has base board heating so there is a heater along the wall in every room of the house except the bathroom,the heaters have large openings in them and she could fit in them so i cannot let her loose,im afraid ill loose her.should i use the bathroom? what would you guys recommend?. when the summer comes i can cover the heater but its cold here in MI so we need it on and that is dangerous for the rat.im all about doing the best for my pets so please give me your advice for a new owners,anything you think i may need to know.as far as i can tell nugget is vary active and has a healthy appetite.she hasnt done anything to alert me to be sick thankfully,but im also new to rats
so i dont know everything.
Im not longer using tap water only bottled now and got new bedding as the last owners were using pine! ick!. this is all alot to take in ,such a short notice rescue.i found out she needed a home the same night i saved her,i could not let her live like that any more,they had her in a tiny cage locked in the bathroom because they got a kitten so they didnt care about the rat any more.nugget has been getting the reggie rat food and i have been giving her peas and corn also and corrots every few days,should i be giving more? how often do they get veggies and fruit? i will be getting HT in the next week ,its killing me that shes not getting the best possible.anyway here is a few pics of nuggets home,when she was living in a small cage at the last owners home without a house or cardboard or a wheel ,no toys or treats at all! so sad, i knew i could to better by her....my best friend happened to have this amazing huge rat cage that i could have.so here is nugget,any input to make her life better would be greatoh btw she does have a vary nice house under all that fabric she drug down there lol sorry fort he bare cage,it will get much better i promise!
alos the ladder for the first floor is outside the cage,i was cleaning it and forgot to put it back in
sorry for all the questions ,i just want to make her life better as much as possible

[blenderpie]

I'm glad you're switching food. Store bought mixes are usually a "no no". Rats should be getting veggies everyday and fruits more as a snack.

Your cage looks very good! I'm glad that you're reading up on everything that you need to do and acting on it so quickly. She was lucky to have found you!

As far as getting her a friend goes, please try to go through a rescue or a reputable breeder. Pet stores aren't exactly the organizations we support. You won't be able to keep them together at first. Here's a link to the thread that should have all you need to know about quarantining (important) and bonding.
http://www.ratforum.com/index.php/topic,21116.0.html

As for free range time, play pens are they best way to go when you don't have access to a rat proof room. I bough some of the "tri-fold display boards" from the office/school supplies isle along with a lot of binder clips. You can unfold them and clip them together to make a playpen the size of your choosing. Make sure to clip the top and the bottom together, though. We don't want an escaping Nugget (love the name, by the way). I rent so I put some fleece down to protect the carpet from little digging ratties and marking, but that's up to you. Then you fill it with toys and yourself and add the rat.

If she's calm enough, you can do what I do with my older male for out time. I through a fleece over the couch and put toys on there. He'll won't climb off the couch, just sit by me and be petted mostly.

Congrats on your new baby girl. You'll be addicted to the world of rats soon enough, I can promise you that.

[kailey lane]

thank you for all the input! yes i know the reggie rat food is bad and a no no,i tryed my best with one days notice it was either that or keytee fotified block things but it saud for hamsters,and i had almost no money at all when i got her lol,im all about my pets getting the best diet,my dogs and bird are on the highest of quality foods and just yesterday was telling someon why nt to feed crappy dog foods,so believe me it bother me that i dont have the money to pay for shipping on harlan teklad blocks until monday,its like over 15$ to get 2 lbs of the food to my house,i have to try and call some pet supply places to see if they can order it for me or carry it....i dont know yet but i will get it
its good to know she can have veggies everyday,ill have to go get more selection for her from the store.i cant thank you enough for the advice,also did not know that fruits should be more treats than food

i will for sure go threw a rescue hopefully,all of my other animals are rescues.I completely agree on the pet stores topic,i do not support either.Thank you so much for that link! i will make sure to fallow those directions when i get her a friend.

great idea about the play pen! i never would have thought of that,and ur right i would have a heart attack if i lost her,so im watching her all the time even when she's in her cage.i love her so much already,iv never had a rat before and never knew how much they like being around people,shes always fallowing us when we walk by her cage,so interactive.we took her out and sat on the couch with her,she was vary much go go go,just like read about females ,shes ready to go explore the house and doesnt really wanna sit still,which i do not blame her at all so im pretty happy that i can even hold her at all,i wasnt sure how nice she was gunna be considering she was in a bad home,her name was lucie when i got her but she just looks like a nugget to me

haha im already addicted to the rattys i got addicted to pigeons real fast too lol,both vary unique pets that are amazing and loving that people misunderstand.

is it better to get a younger rat for a friend or an adult?

[blenderpie]

It really depends on the rat. Because she's been alone for a year of her life, I would recommended babies because they're less of a threat. That being said, because she's an older rat, I would see about getting two young ones so you're not in the same situation a year or two down the line with an older single rat. Also, it gives the babies someone else to wrestle around with once Nugget'll be tired.

That's a very nice cage, and from the looks of it, it should hold three rats, but you'd want to look on the cage calculator first.

http://www.ratzrus.co.uk/ratguides/r...calculator.php

If it's not big enough, there are simple modifications that can be made instead of having to buy a whole new cage. You can build an extension with hard wire cloth. I have used it to cover a cage that's bars were too wide, but I've never built with it. A lot of others have so I'd look around the Rat Home section.

And I just realized that I didn't answer some of your earlier questions.
It's normal for rats to sleep in a ball like that. I think it's the most adorable thing in the world, like they're a narcoleptic yoga instructor or something.
It's also normal for her to sleep on places other than her nest. Rats like being high up.
And her taking all the fleece is normal behavior as well. She wants to make the best nest out there and you gave her such great materials! You just put them in the wrong place, or so she thinks Stick on tiles are relatively cheap (like 70 cents a tile or something) and are pretty easy to cut with an exacto knife. You'd just have to check that she doesn't chew on it from the underside (which would be very difficult, but you probably don't want her eating that stuff)

Is there a reason that you're using bottled water? I feel like as long as you can drink from the tap so can she. But you might not drink from your tap, my mommom and poppop always had jugs cause their water was bad.

[TamSmith]

I've used that cage for temp housing (I actually just got rid of it last week) I had 3 rats in it and it quickly became cramped. Plus it is not usable when rats get old. My geri girl was not able to climb it at all and I had to get a new cage for her. You might want to think about that since she is older and will probably eventually need modifications to get around.

My biggest concern about this cage other than size, it safety. In the 2 months my group of 3 lived in it, I've had 5 nearly broken toes and countless caught tails. It is not put together very well and toes and tail can easily get caught in the levels. One Charlie boy has a permanently dented tail because of this. I have heard of other peoples rats completely losing toes in this cage but I was lucky and it never got that bad. You may be able to use zip ties to strengthen everything and make all the levels snug against the bars. I know others have had great outcomes with that. For some reason my zip ties made no difference in my cage I just gave up and got rid of it when my group of 3 were ready to move into the CN with the others.

It looks like your doing a great job with her so far. Your cage looks pretty good and I'm sure you'll just keep getting more and more ideas for things to add in there to keep her happy. You can free range her in the bathroom. I do that with all 5 of my rats. Anything you think she will like as a toy or anything she can explore is a good idea. Something as simple as a box filed with tissue paper can keep them happy.

I don't use tap water either for my rats. I don't know if there is floride in the water or not so I don't want to use it. Better safe than sorry and it doesn't bother me since we have a jug of fresh filtered water at all times in the house.

[kailey lane]

thanks blenderpie ,yeah i used the calculator said 3 rats but like tamsmith said,it may not be the best . yes that hardware cloth stuff is great,i use it when building and adding on to my bird cages.vary useful stuff!

oh my lol narcoleptic yoga instructor i love how shes curls up,sooo cute.i was worried her home wasnt good enough since she started sleeping on the top shelf,but now i know im glad she has choices were to sleepdo all rats sleep alot?? she take sevaral naps a day.

@ Tamsmith-oh my! i had no clue that was a unsafe cage!this scares me vary badly,this was the only choice i had sadly because it was free from a friend,she also had up to 3 for years and said she never had issues,but oh my if it is possible and you went threw it i will take your advice,i do not have any money for a cage,or really for anything except changing her food asap.we just moved so were recovering financially still and will be for a a while,but i will do my best to get a new cage asap,i thought i hit the home run getting a nice big cage oh well,at least i know now! thank you so much for telling me.ill have to get a new cage for her to get older in.

I think all my worries comes from owing birds,if they ever sleep alot or sit in one spot too much its sometimes means they are sick.

I love watching her drag all the fabric around lol,so cute

and about bottled water,i dont drink tap water for personal beliefs of what's in it ,so i try not to give it to my animalsi agree! tap water has fluoride in it and thats no good for rats,or people for that matter. plus it cant hurt to have bottled water,iho i think it taste better anyway

thanks so much for the post!! its wonderful to have some advice and to know my gurl isnt acting odd thanks guys