Hi there everyone. I stumbled across this site after desiring to give better care to our two new rats than what I (thought) I knew to do.
You see, 6 months ago my 6 year old son and I went to pick him a new little pet out and we chose the sweetest, most lovable little rat girl you've ever met. We named her Fiona. You could tell she was handled every day of her life, despite coming from a pet store. Gosh, Fiona was beautiful in every way and wanted to spend every waking minute with her humans. She was a petite girl with a huge belly, always eating everything in sight. My first pet rat, I didn't know exactly what care they required and just went with my gut and a wire cage and pine bedding with some boxes and tubes strewn about. She was the happiest rat, always alert and ready for play. Although she was intended to be my son's pet she became our family pet and I loved her like I do my dogs and bird.
This morning we found our sweet Fiona dead on the cage floor. I don't think I've ever seen my son so crushed before. I don't know what went wrong, or how she died. I hope it wasn't the pine shedding we had in the cage (who knew it was harmful?) or the pet store rat seed/pellet mix. I'd give just about anything to walk by that cage and see her paw out reaching and begging to be taken out and put in my pocket.
In an attempt to calm my sobbing son we went to another pet store (where we got Fiona was closed down) later that day. A small town with little choices, we went to the one pet store within 30 miles of us. We were shown to the feeder rat cages and told to pick one. I didn't like the crammed, filthy, stinky cages but I didn't know where else to get a rat.
You could tell none were handled as they all ran like crazy when a hand went near the cage. I decided to pick a young, small one in hopes to get it used to humans and turn trusting at a young age. I asked for a female (don't ask me why) and we handled each female, finally deciding on the healthiest looking, calmest one. I then thought about how Fiona was in that cage day after day seeking attention and I impulsively told my son to pick another one so it'd have a cage-mate to fight against periods of loniliness.
The employee working there was a teenage girl and she clearly didn't know how to sex them. I can only tell on the adults and we tried the best we could to choose two females. I hope I didn't accidently get one of each.. I looked at tons of sexing pictures online and I am fairly sure they are both girls, but I do have my worries, especially because we have a humper.
Now we are back home, the two young-n's all tuckered out in their new home. They don't fear our touch like I thought they would and they seem to be healthy and friendly. They are eating and drinking and I came to sit down to do some research and figure out where we went wrong with Fiona so we don't make the same mistakes.
Here's the first little girl (at least I hope she's a girl!) we picked out. My son named her Jasmine:
![]()
![]()
![]()
I also took a pic of her "bits" in case there was any expert here that may be able to tell the sex from an poorly taken picture:
![]()
I fell in love with Jasmine's spot on her face so I sorta-kinda may have possibly persuaded my son to get her ( :lol: ), but I left rattie #2 completely up to him. He chose a very petite soft solid peachy colored girl. He named her Minnie.
![]()
This picture shows her exact true-to-life coloring. No variation in the coat, all solid super-light fawnish.
![]()
She is the one I worried may be a boy. She seems to try to hump Jasmine a lot. I can't exactly tell if its playing or not. I have female dogs who hump and I wasn't sure if female rats do it as well. Here is her bits if someone may like to take a peek and see if they can tell if she is a male or female. Took two pics from diff views as I'm unsure which is easier to tell.
![]()
![]()
We already love our two new family members and have spent so much time just watching and adoring them this evening. First thing tomorrow I'll go out and try to hunt down some better bedding and better food. If they are indeed male and female I will have to exchange one for the opposite sex. I don't want any rat babies to be responsible for.
Now that I've introduced myself and flooded you with pictures, I think I'll go poke about the rest of the forums seeing what else I can learn about these wonderful pets. One thing I am curious is what their color types are called. Any ideas?
Thanks for listening!
![]()
You see, 6 months ago my 6 year old son and I went to pick him a new little pet out and we chose the sweetest, most lovable little rat girl you've ever met. We named her Fiona. You could tell she was handled every day of her life, despite coming from a pet store. Gosh, Fiona was beautiful in every way and wanted to spend every waking minute with her humans. She was a petite girl with a huge belly, always eating everything in sight. My first pet rat, I didn't know exactly what care they required and just went with my gut and a wire cage and pine bedding with some boxes and tubes strewn about. She was the happiest rat, always alert and ready for play. Although she was intended to be my son's pet she became our family pet and I loved her like I do my dogs and bird.
This morning we found our sweet Fiona dead on the cage floor. I don't think I've ever seen my son so crushed before. I don't know what went wrong, or how she died. I hope it wasn't the pine shedding we had in the cage (who knew it was harmful?) or the pet store rat seed/pellet mix. I'd give just about anything to walk by that cage and see her paw out reaching and begging to be taken out and put in my pocket.
In an attempt to calm my sobbing son we went to another pet store (where we got Fiona was closed down) later that day. A small town with little choices, we went to the one pet store within 30 miles of us. We were shown to the feeder rat cages and told to pick one. I didn't like the crammed, filthy, stinky cages but I didn't know where else to get a rat.
You could tell none were handled as they all ran like crazy when a hand went near the cage. I decided to pick a young, small one in hopes to get it used to humans and turn trusting at a young age. I asked for a female (don't ask me why) and we handled each female, finally deciding on the healthiest looking, calmest one. I then thought about how Fiona was in that cage day after day seeking attention and I impulsively told my son to pick another one so it'd have a cage-mate to fight against periods of loniliness.
The employee working there was a teenage girl and she clearly didn't know how to sex them. I can only tell on the adults and we tried the best we could to choose two females. I hope I didn't accidently get one of each.. I looked at tons of sexing pictures online and I am fairly sure they are both girls, but I do have my worries, especially because we have a humper.
Now we are back home, the two young-n's all tuckered out in their new home. They don't fear our touch like I thought they would and they seem to be healthy and friendly. They are eating and drinking and I came to sit down to do some research and figure out where we went wrong with Fiona so we don't make the same mistakes.
Here's the first little girl (at least I hope she's a girl!) we picked out. My son named her Jasmine:
I also took a pic of her "bits" in case there was any expert here that may be able to tell the sex from an poorly taken picture:
I fell in love with Jasmine's spot on her face so I sorta-kinda may have possibly persuaded my son to get her ( :lol: ), but I left rattie #2 completely up to him. He chose a very petite soft solid peachy colored girl. He named her Minnie.
This picture shows her exact true-to-life coloring. No variation in the coat, all solid super-light fawnish.
She is the one I worried may be a boy. She seems to try to hump Jasmine a lot. I can't exactly tell if its playing or not. I have female dogs who hump and I wasn't sure if female rats do it as well. Here is her bits if someone may like to take a peek and see if they can tell if she is a male or female. Took two pics from diff views as I'm unsure which is easier to tell.
We already love our two new family members and have spent so much time just watching and adoring them this evening. First thing tomorrow I'll go out and try to hunt down some better bedding and better food. If they are indeed male and female I will have to exchange one for the opposite sex. I don't want any rat babies to be responsible for.
Now that I've introduced myself and flooded you with pictures, I think I'll go poke about the rest of the forums seeing what else I can learn about these wonderful pets.
One thing I am curious is what their color types are called. Any ideas?Thanks for listening!
