Joined
·
52 Posts
Hi, all. My name is Siobhan and I'm new to rats in general. I've been doing a lot of research online and have become increasingly glad that I got suckered into adopting my guys.
Here's the story. The other day, I'm at PetsMart looking for some stuff for the aquarium that I'm upgrading. I've picked up some stuff for my birds when I hear a girl say "Eww, they have rats here!"
Naturally, being the animal lover that I am and having never really seen a rat up close, I say, "Really? Where?"
The girl rolls her eyes at me and points me to one of the employees. He proceeds to take me to a back room where they've got several adorable balls of fuzz. He explains that the mother of these guys was left in front of the store, pregnant, so the employees took her in and raised the babies. Since they didn't come from a breeder, they can't sell them, but they are up for adoption. I fell in love.
Luckily, I had just come into a little extra money, so I agreed to take a pair of them. (It was just kind of instinctive to get at least two.) Having never owned any rats before, I had to buy everything new.
So, the employee prints up a care sheet (which really wasn't very informative or terribly accurate) and I wander around the store getting the proper supplies while he draws up the adoption paperwork. Half an hour later and over a hundred dollars poorer, I'm the proud new owner of a pair of brats. I take them home, set them up and start doing some research online.
First of all, I discover that I got probably the worst possible bedding for them...cedar shavings. Well, shoot. Okay, we'll fix that. I also got the wrong food, although it SAID 'formulated for rats'. *sigh* Of course, I'm used to improper packaging and sales of inappropriate stuff for pets since I've owned betta's and other fish. (Fish have got it soooo bad, 'cause they can't even really complain when their conditions suck.)
Anyway, I couldn't fix the mistakes right away, but I did proceed to fall completely in love with my new boys. They charmed the socks right off of me. I had no idea rats could be so sweet and friendly.
Anyway, two days later, I return to PetsMart with research in hand to pick up wood pulp bedding and Mazuri rat blocks, plus a couple of toys for them to play with as well as a paper tube for them to hide in. While I'm there, I just can't resist. I adopt two more. I'm such a sucker. *grin*
It's been about a week. I'm not sure how old my rats are, but I assume they're young, maybe two or three months? They are all males, so unless they developed some majorly aggressive habits, I will probably not be getting them neutered. The first two, I named Atra and Argent, but the second two look just like Argent and I'm not even sure which one is Argent anymore, so the only one that really has a name is Atra. He's a black (although, he's really more of a very dark chocolate brown) and the others are all cream colored. I assume they're probably feeder rat stock, but I love them anyway. I do know their cage is too small, so I'm working on building a bigger and better one. Yay.
So, I'm here to learn all that I can so that my little brats will lead the longest, happiest life that they can.
Here's the story. The other day, I'm at PetsMart looking for some stuff for the aquarium that I'm upgrading. I've picked up some stuff for my birds when I hear a girl say "Eww, they have rats here!"
Naturally, being the animal lover that I am and having never really seen a rat up close, I say, "Really? Where?"
The girl rolls her eyes at me and points me to one of the employees. He proceeds to take me to a back room where they've got several adorable balls of fuzz. He explains that the mother of these guys was left in front of the store, pregnant, so the employees took her in and raised the babies. Since they didn't come from a breeder, they can't sell them, but they are up for adoption. I fell in love.
Luckily, I had just come into a little extra money, so I agreed to take a pair of them. (It was just kind of instinctive to get at least two.) Having never owned any rats before, I had to buy everything new.
So, the employee prints up a care sheet (which really wasn't very informative or terribly accurate) and I wander around the store getting the proper supplies while he draws up the adoption paperwork. Half an hour later and over a hundred dollars poorer, I'm the proud new owner of a pair of brats. I take them home, set them up and start doing some research online.
First of all, I discover that I got probably the worst possible bedding for them...cedar shavings. Well, shoot. Okay, we'll fix that. I also got the wrong food, although it SAID 'formulated for rats'. *sigh* Of course, I'm used to improper packaging and sales of inappropriate stuff for pets since I've owned betta's and other fish. (Fish have got it soooo bad, 'cause they can't even really complain when their conditions suck.)
Anyway, I couldn't fix the mistakes right away, but I did proceed to fall completely in love with my new boys. They charmed the socks right off of me. I had no idea rats could be so sweet and friendly.
Anyway, two days later, I return to PetsMart with research in hand to pick up wood pulp bedding and Mazuri rat blocks, plus a couple of toys for them to play with as well as a paper tube for them to hide in. While I'm there, I just can't resist. I adopt two more. I'm such a sucker. *grin*
It's been about a week. I'm not sure how old my rats are, but I assume they're young, maybe two or three months? They are all males, so unless they developed some majorly aggressive habits, I will probably not be getting them neutered. The first two, I named Atra and Argent, but the second two look just like Argent and I'm not even sure which one is Argent anymore, so the only one that really has a name is Atra. He's a black (although, he's really more of a very dark chocolate brown) and the others are all cream colored. I assume they're probably feeder rat stock, but I love them anyway. I do know their cage is too small, so I'm working on building a bigger and better one. Yay.
So, I'm here to learn all that I can so that my little brats will lead the longest, happiest life that they can.
. I love your cage! i wish i could make/get one like that... I would just need a stop to put it in as my room is already pretty full :|. Anyways once again welcome, have fun on here i've learned a lot 
