Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / June 2005

Nathan,

I too have one of those large water bottles (it came with Maggie - what a
deal!) and when one starts to drink out of it, the other two come running
and try to drink at the same time.  It's a strange phenomenon.  I noticed if
I fill it FULL, the vacuum pressure can sometimes cause the water not to
come out, so I only every fill it 3/4 full.  In fact once this happened on a
weekend I went away, and the poor things couldn't get any water all weekend.
That's when I put the second bottle in on the downstairs floor.  It was all
I had - a mouse water bottle - and to my surprise they prefer that one.  ???
I've never seen them use their paws to get the ball to move, just their
tongues.

Living in a small town - something I can relate to!  In fact, where I live
is *very* rural and the closest thing we have to a pet store is a "feed
store" where they sell things for farm animals.  I made the huge mistake
when I first moved here thinking that people who kept horses, goats, pigs,
chickens, dogs, ducks - you name it - all at the same time, would like rats
too.  So they were all having a conversation about their animals and I piped
up with "yeah, my rats are the same way" and got this look equivalent to
something you'd get if you said you sleep with your cockroach farm.  The
nearest "shopping place" is 3 hours away so I have to plan ahead to get rat
food.

I order my lab block in bulk through the mail and make my own dry food based
on the recipe found at this site:  http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html  The
rats absolutely love it.  Then of course they get their nightly fresh stuff
like fruits and veggies.  It's not too difficult and I think it's actually
cheaper than getting the commercial "rat food".

Meghan