My hands are always cold when I hold my rats I have poor circulation. It doesn't bother my females since they are totally covered in hair, but rat testis... it is probably a little uncomfortable. I wouldn't expect a rat to stress over it, but I agree that you should get your tea first just incase.

 

My rats are weird. They love the cold. The colder the better. The only time they will sleep together at all is if it is quite cold, otherwise they sleep separate. Their favorite thing in the world is having a frozen water bottle in their cage. Even if it's not hot, they'll both snuggle up with the icy bottle (not even covered) and go to sleep, even if it's getting them wet. Even if they don't put their body on it (which is frequent, for sleeping and taking baths), they'll still rest their head against it. And the cold condensation on the outside of the bottle seems to be quite a treat to them.

Different strokes for different folks.
Different pats for different rats.

 

Ah how strange! Thanks for the replies, I can't imagine a rat who enjoys the cold!


Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

I love touching the girls with cold hands, cause they're so warm and soft! They don't seem to mind.

 

Aoife is a double rex so she's practically hairless. She jumps and squirms sometimes when I touch her or pick her up with cold hands haha ;D If she's anything like her human daddy, then she might be unhappy if her skin is touched with cold fingers!

Maybe he was just stress bruxing because he doesn't like being put in the small side cage during med time and was unhappy you put him in there?

 

Maybe he was just stress bruxing because he doesn't like being put in the small side cage during med time and was unhappy you put him in there?

Definite possibility! Although, I've been doing it religiously twice a day for the past two weeks (it's a four week course of meds...I hate it) so you'd think he'd be used to it by now! But yes, he wasn't complying with the meds either, so he may have just been in a mood. Maybe cold hands didn't help either!



Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

Have you tried "forcing" him to eat his meds? It's unpleasant, but if they don't struggle very much, it's must faster to give them their meds and then quickly give them a treat and they usually forget about being upset. I have 3 rats on meds right now, and only 1 will eagerly eat his meds! One girl is calm and only struggles a little bit, but is still very easy to "force" feed. The other girl is a nightmare and impossible to hold down, so I mostly have to try to trick her with mixing it with food.

Try Nutri-Cal paste! Or I think it's called ferretvite in the UK? I can't remember. But the difficult girl is easy to trick if I mix it with that stuff. I bet your boy would like it too

 

I've tried, but it's impossible with him. He's not a still rat! He will not be held and remain still, even when no meds are involved! He's always always on the move. He's actually the worst one out of the three to have to be on this course of meds, because he is the only one who's a massive pain with taking them!

I think he's okay with going into the cage normally. He was just having an off day. Normally, he eats all the meds and begs to come out again. I think he's learning that that's what I want to see before he comes out. I do need to search for this nutri-paste though... I've heard so much about it!


Sent from Petguide.com Free App