Pet rat wat should i get for it?!?

Question

k ime buying a pet rat and i wanna buy it a litlle house and can u send me pictures of them just email them 2 me at [e-mail]

Answer 1

Rats are quite easy to care for so there`s not alot to do. If you are just getting one you may want to consider getting another rat if you can not give her the attention she needs. Rats always love a friend that they can snuggle up to!

What you will need:

A cage: Make sure your rat has a fairly large cage as the rat will get bigger and you may decide to get other rats. Make sure that it DOES NOT have wire floors or if it does make sure you can take them out. You should clean the cage out once a week using a warm water and a cloth and removing and old bedding and replacing with new bedding.

A large house or a place to sleep in - tissue box or a big plastic house bought at a pet shop.

Rat block or rat mix or your own homemade mix - There are a few types of foods you can feed your rat. The most popular type is lab blocks. Many people like to feed these as the rat`s staple diet as they will not pick out what they like unlike rat mixes. There are many different brand of blocks. A good quality one would have to be harlan Tekland and is used by many people and contains high quality ingredients. Rat blocks are not a very easy thing to find if you live somewhere other than america so rat mixes should be given. Alot of people think rat mixes are not nutrionally complete and balananced and that rats have a hard time digesting whats in it as some mixes contain corn or alfafa. Some people agree that rat mixes are good and that rats will get bored of having rat blocks and that you will have a hard time trying to get you rats to eat it. Some people also think that it is not a good idea to give rats rat blocks as they are tested on lab rats. Either one is good, I reccomend rat blocks but if they are not avalible where you live there are other options like rat mixes or even make your own homemade rat diet. I reccomend Sue bee`s ray diet or Debbie Ducommun rat diet.

http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html

http://ratfanclub.org/diet.html

A hammock (optional) - You can either make one or buy one from a pet store - homemade rat hammock instructions further on

Rat bedding - There are many different kinds of bedding materials, some aren`t very good and can cause respiratory infection and sneezing and there are some good ones where no symptons were experienced in the rat. I use cat litter as my rats bedding. Other people may have a different opinion.

A wheel (optional) - you can buy these at pet stores.

A water bottle or bowl - Water bottles are probably the best to use. Rats will tend to tip over their water bowl over or their bedding may get in the water. Make sure you give fresh water daily especially if using a water bowl.

Treats(optional) - You may want to buy some yourgurt drops or even dry fruit and vegetable mix for small animals. These are goods as treats and should only be fed in moderation.

Make sure that you supply fresh vegetables and fruit daily or every 2-3 days. This should make up 20% of their diet. Remember to always cook sweet potatoes and never give onions, green bananas, uncooked beans etc.

You may also like to feed other snacks like tofu, unsalted cracker, milk, a small amount of cheese, table scraps, cooked lean meats, museli, oats, dried fruit, whole grain bread, sunflower seeds, poridge, no added sugar cereals or baby food.

Here is a few websites I reccomend you take a look at:

http://www.dapper.com.au/

http://www.ratz.co.uk/ratbedding.html

http://www.ratfanclub.org/

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/home/

Home made hammock:

You will neeed:

A peice of soft cloth

Some thinn rope or thick string

Scissors

Instructions:

1. Cut a hole with your scissors at each corner of the peice of cloth. You should have four holes.

2. Thread the string or rope through

3. Tie it the bars of the cage making sure it is in an open space.

Hope this helps. Goodluck!

Answer 2

You should be careful with those plastic houses, many are designed for gerbils and hamsters and the holes are simply too small for rats.

We got one in our cage when we bought our rats, it was completely designed for rats (although looking a it now its was a pretty shoddy cage, but it was our first time..we now have a Jenny http://www.zooplus.co.uk/froogle_uk/shop... its fantastic). Our 2 rats often both liked to squeeze in there together, one on top of the others back hehe it was cute. One day the bigger of our two rats decided to come out, but through the window. He got completely stuck and started panicking. He made a horrible squeeling noise, it completely broke my heart. I helped him out but both rats cowered in the corner of the cage for a few hours, until one went to comfort the other. :D awh. I'm just glad we were there, if it happened when we were at work..well i don't like to think.

Anyway, long story short. Make sure everything you buy is designed for rats/ferrets anything else is just too small and though it may be ok when they are babies, they grow so fast and may well get stuck!

Because they missed their house so much we got them one of these log cabins http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V... they absolutely love it and its huge. they love hiding in it or standing on it

Also please get consider getting two rats, they love the company and can become very lonely and sick if alone. Only should you ever get one rat, if you have ALOT of time to devote to it, and even then human contact alone may not be enough for some. Why have one depressed rat when you can have 2 lovely happy rats?!

Answer 3

please get 2 at least. mine love to play with ping pong balls.

Answer 4

The basics:

- A same s*x friend. Very important since rats are too social to be kept alone.

- A large, multi-level cage.

- Safe bedding (no pine or cedar!), like aspen or Carefresh.

- Hide out (Super Pet igloos work well)

- A healthy rat diet (harder than you might think since most pet store diets are crappy). My write up on good rat diets: http://www.petinfopackets.com/rats/ratfe...

- A food bowl and water bottle.

- A solid running wheel (not wire, those are dangerous).

It sounds to me like you need to do a lot more research into their care. Here's my website: http://www.petinfopackets.com/rats/ratin...

Answer 5

rats are social creatures and become very lonely without a friend. i highly recommend you get at least two rats.

'loner' rats have a higher chance of suffering from depression and obesity.