Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / November 2007

Hi, I have a lot of experience with hamsters and now I'm thinking of getting
two female rats.  However, I've read about rats' urine marking and I'm a
little hesitant.  I like to hold and play with my rodents and don't really
want urine all over me or my stuff.  I know that females ...

I have added some pics of all our animals.  It was about time for a wee
update :)) Take care everyone.
regards Kate Mater and Silber

The earlier biting rat post has just made me remember the amount of
people who see the boys (they live next to the front door) and
automatically ask "will he/they bite?" I get other visitors, who do
NOT ask if the cats, or mice, bite, and I am fairly sure that if I had

I never thought i'd be writing this for another 2 years at least,
But Branden went to sleep for the last time yesterday afternoon (23rd
of November)
checking sam's phone photo's of him, i realised we'd got him not on

Finally saw this movie..:))  OH it was sooo cute !!!  It was like
watching our Silber.  Except our Silber is more of a thief !!  LOL.
Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it already  (New Zealand tends to
get everything last)

Rats' milk would make fine cheese, says the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/21/food.climatechange/print
(But just how *would* one milk a rat?)

This afternoon my old man Casey was put to sleep. :'(
Last week his breathing suddenly became difficult. He didn't want to to do
much anymore, but he did still eat and drink. I decided to wait a couple of
days to see if he would improve, but during the weekend he stopped eating

What do you do when one of your rats has become suddenly agressive towards
others?  My friend watched them a few months ago and said that one tried to
attack her.  Every time she came around she said that he tried again and
again, though she never got close enough to let him do any ...

I have two female mice.
One of them appears to have conjunctivitis of one of her eyes.
It's really red all around it. Fluid appears to be clear and not red.
I tried to wipe her eye with sterile water and she didn't like it.

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/marlopoohbear/Rats/?action=view&current
=TributetoChip.flv
Here's a like to a video I made awhile ago as a tribute to Chip, my
husband's rat.
-Marlo

as i've said many a time on this forum, i'm a rat breeder.
so... i was wondering what you people think about the idea of a breeder hand
raising rats from birth until they are old enough to be spayed/neutered,
then having the operations done, and then offering already ...

I love looking on this site but don't understand why all these other MI5
postings can't be blocked before they arrive on the site.  It's a real
nuisance having to sift thro them even tho everyone very correctly ignores
them.

Hi. So my old girl Chewie is doing poorly and the time has come. I've
read that the ideal euthanasia for rats is gas anesthetic before a fatal
injection. Unfortunately, my vet does not do gas for anesthesia. She
does injection in the rear leg for anesthesia. We have had rat ...

One website I looked at said that sinusitis was the most likely cause
(when the only symptom was snuffles, and rat otherwise seemed
healthy).  So *how* do you treat sinusitis in a rat?
We have 2 does, just about 1 yr old.  They both seem bright enough and

I've just ordered a pot of ipakitine powder for Tar to see if it will help
him with his hind legs problem. As he has blood and protien in his urine I'm
leaning toward thinking it may be his kidneys that are causing the problems
he is having. Has anyone tried ipakitine before and ...