i am honoured

rats are awesome, i'm not bias honest all have diff personalities..mostly cheeky, one i have atm, one of the new ones (called them shaggy and scooby...so scooby) comes out his cages, runs across my desk and steals yoggies (or any food i have) then creates a secret stash..that shaggy finds and eats as quickly as scooby hides it

Adorable!  I had a flatmate once, who had a beautiful big white rat called Eric. Eric liked curry and naan bread - a lot. If you had a takeaway and he was out of his cage, you had to be quick..

I rescued a rat from my sister. She bought it from a pet shop and kept it in a wire cat carrier with no bedding, food or water, on top of her wardrobe. I was a bit frightened of it at first but couldn't stand to see what was happening. I went in to give it some water and this little white hooded thing came up to me so gently, I just fell in love with her. I told my sister I was taking her and she didn't really care. I called my little rat Tara and she went everywhere with me. They really are clever animals and she was very clean too. Then someone gave my sister another rat, a horrible vicious brown male, which escaped and got into Tara's cage and made her pregnant. She died a few months after having her babies.

Queenie  
I think I remember you mentioning this before - at least Tara knew a bit of love and care during the time you were looking after her.

awwwwwwwwwwww i remember you talking about tara. having babies can be quite damaging to a female rat....most responsible breeders will only do it once, and only from a well bred healthy young (but not too young) female. course being a pet shop rat she would have more than likely been badly bred so not of great health as fancy rats tend to be descendents of lab rats they are quite prone to certain illnesses...mainly respiratory and cancer

poor tara

was this vicious brown rat a wild rat by any chance? just asking cos it's more common than you think for wild rats to make female rats pregnant (well not common but i've heard of a few cases)...and the contact of a wild rat can make pet rats ill . you can get brown fancy rats, but they seem to be quite rare to find...ish lol. i only had one

Darth, is it true that dumbo rats don't live as long as the normal-eared type?

haha no. 'normal- eared rats' (called top eared) are EXACTLY the same as dumbos..the ONLY difference is that dumbo rats ears are a little lower set than top eareds...that is  the one and only difference. they can even be born in the same litter to the same parents. pets at home charge more for dumbo rats...and state they live for longer...money grabbing lying gits.

lol they even say that dumbos and top-eareds will fight and cant be kept together....
i wonder how many rats are on their own cos of this misinformation?

I wouldn't be surprised if the male rat was wild. It was over 20 years ago now but from what I can remember my sister got him when he was tiny and he escaped after a few days. He was horrible. I found him once in the larder eating a bag of flour. He was absolutely massive. Tara was pretty, clever and really friendly. Charlie was just aggressive and looked like a bog standard rat. Poor little Tara.

i think agouti (brown) rats are pretty...but thats me LOL. they come in so many colours these days...most of mine are hooded but i do have a siamese atm. not many fancy rats are human aggressive (esp males i find...too bloody lazy ), i've owned over 40 rats in my lifetime so far and only one was unhandable...and that was cos she get pregnant at the pet shop i got her from and was only 6 weeks old when i got her and her brother she also only had half a tail...so hated people lol! dont blame her though :/
i did have one boy who was LOVELY! but after a bath he'd attack anyone and anything in the same room as him LOL. he would chase you and bite you.....only when wet/damp though...proper weird. wouldn't think of biting people any other time.
sounds like Charlie could have been wild, or even semi wild.

Hmmm, my son is similar.

I would love to keep Rats--- Have had allsorts of weired stuff in the past-- Tarantula, Pirhanna, Lizards, Just wish my OH had the same pets fetish as me.

Poor little mite.  I do think rats make excellent pets but I don't think I'd want to keep small animals again though. I get too attached and they die so quickly, I'd be a permanent blubbering mess.  Plus I can't see our three lunatic dogs leaving them alone for a second. Daphne would just sit and stare at them and Wilfy would probably try and drop balls on their heads attempting to get them to play. OH used to keep guinea pigs and he's been after us having one for years. I think he reckons Hetty will be an excuse for him to have one in a couple of years time. I have a feeling he will try to coerce her into a spot of emotinal blackmail.

Darth, Pets at Home are full of it - in my local one, they have signs saying dumbo rats live 2 years and top-ears live up to 4.
And I never knew you could bath them!  See, I'm learning all the time...

Deman, how's Marble doing?

Queenie, he ate some broccoli last night and this morning he was doddering around his cage when I left for work. Still really off-balance, but it doesn't seem to worry him. I've a feeling he's sticking around for a while..

Aww, bless, that's good. He sounds like a right little character.

He's a little so-and-so. Still managed to give my thumb a nip the other night, when I was filling his food dish!
Talk about ungrateful..

Hang on in there Marble lad.

Good wishes to you both.

Thanks, Bo and brisket

you shouldn't bath them really...they dont like it LOL! but i didn't know that at the time they smelled a bit (some boys can get whiffy). non scented wet wipes are best...give them a good polish makes them wash themselves properly all over...boys are lazy and quite happy to sleep and wee in the same place and not wash properly.
you can get them used to water, but you have to do it gradually and make it fun and not scarey....like pea fishing videos on youtube of rats learning to be water rats . my local pets at home tells me the opposite lol! that dumbos live 4-5 years and the fancy rat lives 2-3 years (dumbo rats ARE fancy rats..lol). i dont get how they can advertise that 'fact' when it's aginst trading standards surely?

Queenie, they dont live very long and i used to be in absolute bits when they die...but, although it still hurts when they pass, i'm used to coping with it now. esp since my fav boy passed away just over a month ago and some of the rats i've had have died in my hands
guinea pigs are awesome! but i'm allergic to them weird lol! we used to breed them at college and great seeing little babie guinea pigs walking in a line behind mum meeping away

marble is still going strong then lol funny how they can bounce back

One of my previous hamsters, Nugget, did that.
She'd gone into the kind of sudden decline they often go into, just before the end. I left her in her bed and expected her to have gone by the time I got home from work. But she was still alive, with her eyes shut and breathing harshly.
I picked her up and cupped her in my hands. Her breathing relaxed into a more normal rhythm, her little body warmed up a bit, she opened her eyes and looked straight at me for a minute or two. Then she died...

the last rat to die on me (well on my OH) was Ocelot...

he came to the front of the cage and clawed at the door, we got him out and he just calmed down and slowly slipped away in my OHs arms...mind you he started breathing again a minute after he died then stopped again after a few mins. sometimes it can be really distressing to watch though, they can panic one litle girl i had, she was a pet shop rescue and apparently 6 weeks old when i got her....my arse was she, she was obviously too young. i only had her a week and she died...panicing

My wee budgie Jinks isn't well at all.How quickly it happens,he was fine this morning,then at lunchtime he started to  to regurgitate his food.This is common in birds for a short while but he was  doing for over an hour,little mite.He's a blue budgie with whith white  face feathers I was out for a couple of hours and when I got Back I saw his poor wee face feathers all yellow with gunk..Phoned the vet,they are not avian specialists so they gave me the number of a vet who was,I'll book  him in tomorrow.I suspect a problem with his crop.."sour crop" is the most common thing in little birds,alas it can be fatal....  He's only six,budgies can live 10 to 15 years..fingers crossed for "Mr Jinks."

Awwwww, no! Katty and Mr Jinks
That sounds really distressing for him, I hope he recovers.

Darth, Ocelot was a lovely big handful, what a beauty! It's so horrible when they die in any form of distress. Nugget was clearly panicking and refusing to go before I picked her up for the last time - I'm just glad I got home in time to comfort her and make her calm, so she could slip away.

Marble update - starting to look a bit skinny and wizened, but still got himself up and out of bed for a fresh dandelion leaf this morning..

thats too cute I used to have a guinea pig, loved the little squeaking noises they make

awwww!

I can't see that pic, Saz

Took Jinks to the vet,he's on anti-biotics,he's  a lot better today.

Good news, Katty
Marble was looking extremely doddery when I left this morning. I'm wondering if he'll still be alive when I get back.

Hows Marble doing?Jinks the budgie is back to his usual cheeky self,Elwood the hammy is still climbing the bars etc.

I'm sure there were more posts in this thread,have some vanished

Marble RIP  

He died in his sleep overnight - I found him curled up in a peaceful little ball this morning and he's now buried in the garden, between two rose bushes.

On noes   RIP Marble


at least he had a long, happy life with you Toid

.....

Deman

aww Deman

Thanks
It's OK - he was old and doddery, so I was expecting it. It just makes me feel a bit misty to think of him when he was a youngster..

Aww RIP Marble still its a better way to go,my hammies have all had to be euthanised by the vet,Tumours, heart failure etc.