Fancy Rats Forum

My first two boys were really shy and it took them a few weeks to come out of the cage themselves. My newer boys however where begging to come out on day one, but they were so absolutely tiny little things that I waited, and waited a week or so to bond with them. I had them in a play pen to start wi...

DE1 my boys have access to everyday alongside a bottle of just plain water (they prefer the 'rat crack' though :roll: ) Calcivet I feed a couple times a week, but they also have cuttlefish and lots of calcium rich foods like kale quite regularly too. All 4 boys have lovely coat condition, and I tend...

I couldn't tell you if it was the best, but I have a JINPUS Air Purifier. Which is a small compact unit with a low use setting that turns it's self after 8 hours which I like. It makes little difference to me, but my allergic OH can now spend time in the rat room without sneezing constantly, and it ...

At this age it's completely natural for them to play fight a lot. My older boys did it when they were younger (now 6 months) and my 10 week old boys do it too (who are half brothers who have been together since they were 4 weeks old). The older boys clearly had some figuring out on who was boss, but...

I'm following this with interest.

My older boys are bloody fantastic at using the litter trays, will even pee in there. The younger boys, not so much. There'll majority use them, but will just poop in the hammocks if they're sleepy and will pee vaguely near by rather then in them

My vet last week, also over phone had prescribed baytril (as well as metacam) for my sneezy/'hiccuping' rats. Mostly hiccups/shaking/odd noise thing rather than sneezing by the time I'd rung the vet. 2.5% stuff for a week. 0.05ml twice a day for 225g and 274g rat. I fully expected to have to go back...

Okay well one of my rats also gained a scratch on his eye (they do like making me worry this two :roll: ), so as I needed to contact the vets anyways and with concerns that they didn't seem to be making any improvements I rung up and got a phone appointment (with some images emailed in). I've been p...

Jem86 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:13 am

Luckily I am feeling more positive and I think I can turn this around. Being on lockdown means I've got even more time to work with him!

That's great to hear. Do let us know how you get on.

Ok so both younger rats were dosed on Friday evening. Over the last couple days I've heard less sneezing, but the worst affected is still making the odd hiccupping sound. They both yesterday however sounded quite snuffly, as if they had a cold. Is this a normal, the treatments working sorta sound? I...

The original nips did draw blood so I started wearing gloves. I am currently wearing 4 pairs, one pair is anti-bite gloves and he can still pierce the skin and draw blood. It doesn't matter if it's cage or outside of the cage, if he sees my hands he just freaks out and goes for them. Even if I'm ju...

We're the original nips proper breaking skin drawing blood sorta bites? Just thinking that wearing the gloves he may not nessicarly realise that it's skin he's going after. My rat bit after a short while of having him too, so I understand the fear though, proper bites are really rough. I still have ...

You need to keep them separate from other rats until it dries so that no one accidentally overdoses themselves by licking off, but otherwise I believe it is fine once dry.

Sorry to hear that your boys aren't doing too well. I thought my boys were big at 500g too! I've not had older rats myself, but I would say that if you haven't already, consider altering the cage layout to make it a little easier for your weaker boy. Use common sense at also keeping it interesting f...

Make sure that the spot-on you've ordered is going to be the right dosage for rats. You can check here if you need dosage help; there seems to be a fairly wide range of effective+safe dosages for rats, but you still don't want to over/underdose by too much. I got the rat/rabbit one, which is for ra...

Update. I checked my local shops stock levels and they were out, so I've ordered some Anti-Parasite Ivermectin Spot On, just to make sure I have it if needed.

I'm working from home again (same room as the rats) so I'm going to keep an extra ear out and how much he's sneezing today.