# my lovely rats :D (may be loads)



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

here are my rats ... all hooded ... 2 males 2 females ... ronnie fifi lulu and unnamed male rat

Tiny ronnie when we first got him









Ronnie and Fifi









Lulu









baby boy (no name)









Ronnie & Fifi









Fifi having a wash









Fifi & Lulu in bed thing lol









Fifi in bed thing









Ronnie and Fifi









unnamed baby rat 









as above









Fifi









Fifi Lulu and unnamed rats head lol









Fifi drinking









Fifi 









Ronnie









Lulu


----------



## Eliza (Jan 20, 2008)

Do Ronnie and Fifi live in the same cage? If so, you need to seperate them so they don't breed! They're very cute, though.


----------



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

at the minute they are all in together cus they all cuddle up and its soo cute..we dont mind if any of the girls get pregnant lol .. but they have been together for a while and havent .. we aint trying to breed them or anything we just let them stay together and if they do they do .. obviously if theres signs of rat being pregnant males will come out! just so shes safe but till then we're leaving them be! although i did take ronnie out earlier for harrassing fifi

i would love loads of rat babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Emster (Dec 9, 2007)

8O I can't believe your way of thinking!
Please say you are joking. The reason why so many rats are in shelters and are mistreated is due to people like you who don't care regardless of mixing sexes and have hundreds of babies.
Do you realise how stressful it is for a mother rat?!

Believe me, this isn't going to go down very well on the forum...at all.


----------



## k_petersen5 (Jan 26, 2008)

I don't want to tell you what to do, but coming from someone who bought a pregnant rat who had 14 babies, and had to see 8 of them die, this is not a good idea. 

Rat babies are adorable, but believe me things go wrong. Everything was fine until ours turned 1 week, and after that they started shrinking in size and haveing trouble breathing, they eventually died even though I did everything and they saw the vet numerous times. 

Things happen so prepare yourself. I would seperate now, but if she is pregnant prepare yourself, and good luck, I hope your outcome is better than mine.


----------



## Rattiegma (Jan 23, 2008)

No, she may not "be ok" if she gets pregnant. Fifi and Lulu both look really young, and pregnancy can cause lots of stress, even death for a rat who gets pregnant, especially when young. Are you really prepared for a whole ton of little rat babies running around? What about your rat dying during/after birth and having 12 babies without a mom? Or what if mom AND the babies die? Do you know anything about rat breeding, pregnancy, and babies? I doubt you do, because if you did, you wouldn't carelessly have a male in there with that poor little girl.

Please, please seperate the boys from the girls!

It seems you REALLY don't know, or just don't care, about all the problems that you are most likely causing yourself, as well as these rats.


Also, are they still in that aquarium, and what type of bedding are they on?


----------



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

> I can't believe your way of thinking!
> Please say you are joking. The reason why so many rats are in shelters and are mistreated is due to people like you who don't care regardless of mixing sexes and have hundreds of babies.
> Do you realise how stressful it is for a mother rat?!
> 
> Believe me, this isn't going to go down very well on the forum...at all.


Well first no im not joking ... they spend most of the time together 
we have 3 cages and love our rats 
we just want more to look after
And like i said if any signs of lady rats being pregnant and males wud be banned (so to speak) untill babies we're born!

and who do u think u are saying i dont care about my rats! 
I love my rats!!!
They're like my babies!
I speak to them like i do my own daughter! 
and im always cuddling them and playing with them!
and obviously there wudnt be hundreds of babies! 
cus like sum1 else had posted sumwhere on forum after a couple of litters i wud have them (dont know the right word) doctored 



> The reason why so many rats are in shelters and are mistreated is due to people like you who don't care


and as for that part they wudnt end up in shelters and mistreated i wouldnt allow it! .. i would keep as many as possible and the rest would go to safe friendly homes and to people i can trust! or solded to our local pet shop that is brilliant at looking after pets! 

God still cant belive what you've said about me not caring about my rats! 
:x :x :x :x :evil: :evil:


----------



## Emster (Dec 9, 2007)

I did NOT say that you didn't care for your rats, just stating the fact that you obviously don't care about mixing males and females together and the consquences of doing so. Also the fact that you could lose the mother and all the babies in one low swoop.

I can say what I want and I believe unless you are a professional breeder and know about breeding rats and what it entails, then you should in no way have mixed sexes together unless either of them are neutered or sprayed.


----------



## dragonegg (Oct 2, 2007)

I bought two rats who turned out to be pregnant. Each had only 9 babies (it could have been many more, I know) and both moms were healthy, even though they were really too young to breed and they were pretty stressed out about it. 

Baby rats are awfully cute, no doubt about it. But they also grow very, very fast. After two weeks, they ran and climbed...and pooped. I had to clean the cage twice a day to keep up (and we had the two litters in separate cages). I spent about 3 hours daily just controlling the poop and feeding the critters. I also have one 'special needs' baby who needs feeding by dropper 3-4 times a day. In the end, I had nearly no time to cuddle and play with any of them.

Maybe you have that much time to put into rat care, but I would rather spent that time with a few rats that I've grown close to. I was very lucky to have been able to place most of my two litters with other rat lovers and didn't have to bring them back to the pet store. 

But, my point is, babies (rats & human alike) take up a lot of time and worry. Many people here had moms or babies or both die. In any case you have to be prepared to take care of them, even after they are grown and not the cute little baby rats anymore. Just something to consider.


----------



## sonoma (May 26, 2007)

Most backyard breeders are nice people who love their pets, but because they think itâ€™s cute and fun to let their animals breed randomly 4 million â€˜excessâ€™ pets are euthanized every year in the US. 

Rats are unbelievably prolificâ€¦they can have nearly 20 rittens at a time, breed immediately after giving birth, and their babies become sexually mature within a few weeks. Before you can blink an eye youâ€™ve got well over a hundred rats. Rats that will burden the rescue system or worse- become snake food. Pet stores want to make a profit, even the â€˜niceâ€™ ones, you have no control over who buys your babies from a pet store or for what purpose. 

You probably think that wont happen to you, but it happens ALL THE TIME. Ask any rescue worker. 

If you want to breed please do it the responsible way, find an experienced breeder to mentor you. If you just want to see â€˜the miracle of birthâ€™ or experience raising babies, than foster a litter for a rescue. 

Nobody is trying to bash you, but many here are very involved in rescues that are fueled by careless breeding and itâ€™s an emotional subject. 

Apologies if Iâ€™m wrong, but that looks like pine shavings in the pics, pine (and cedar) is bad for ratsâ€™ as they have very sensitive lungs. Paper-based beddings are much better


----------



## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

ChrissyGz0r said:


> And like i said if any signs of lady rats being pregnant and males wud be banned (so to speak) untill babies we're born!
> 
> and who do u think u are saying i dont care about my rats!
> I love my rats!!!
> ...


These darling girls will get pregnant if left with the boys. "Ban" the males from the females NOW. Later will be too late. And just "banning" the males during the pregnancy isn't going to do squat, the poor young girls will just get pregnant again once they're reintroduced. 

You should "doctor" (I assume you mean spaying and/or neutering?) them NOW. Why on earth would you put your very far too young girls through the trauma and physical hardship of being pregnant too young not once, but "after a couple litters" when you were intending to have them spayed all along? That makes no sense. 

There will in fact be hundreds of babies if you do not stop these irresponsible practices right now. Rats breed prolifically, and are unable to stop themselves from doing so. That's why you, as a (theoretically) responsible owner have been charged with keeping them safe and apart. 

Treating rats like a child is not always appropriate. They are in fact animals, and sometimes you have to take the appropriate measures to ensure their health and safety as animals. Things go horribly wrong all the time.

You say you care about your animals, but it's not just about love and kisses and cuddles. You have to do everything possible to provide the best life for them, and allowing those little girls to be mothers is very, very irresponsible. You may care, but if you don't do anything and allow them to breed indescriminately, you do not care about them in the right way. 

And those little "smilies"? Grow up, and learn to take care of your rats. We spotted a problem, maybe you didn't realize it, but now you do. Separate those poor dears and never let all the rats play together again, those girls will end up pregnant, and you will have a LOT of little ratties on your hands. And then what? Will you let all the brothers and sisters "play" together, even though rats will breed with siblings and you'll end up with hundreds of inbred rats? Yikes.


----------



## Rattiegma (Jan 23, 2008)

Also, you should really take both girls to the vet, and if they are pregnant, you could get an e-spay done. That way, since they get along so well apparently, once the girls heal, they can all live together WITHOUT tons of babies.


----------



## zlioness (Dec 27, 2007)

That's a neat tank, where did you get it and how big is it? I wouldn't put rats in it, but it might be perfect for my snake.


----------



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

lol wasnt sure so measured with tape measurer the width is 24 inch the lenght or whatever is 16 so 24 by16 lol think thats right.
I got it from the petshop i got my 3rd rat from ... which is in england lol ... it also has 3 shelves so dunno whether that wud be ok for a snaked???


----------



## Leala (May 31, 2007)

ChrissyGz0r said:


> and who do u think u are saying i dont care about my rats!
> I love my rats!!!
> They're like my babies!
> I speak to them like i do my own daughter!


Nobody said you don't love your rats. People are just trying to tell you that it's irresponsible and inadvisable to keep your males and females together.

I assume you wouldn't be too pleased if your daughter decided to go out and get pregnant and her response was "but I would LOVE to have lots of babies!"
I am not trying to personally attack you I'm just putting this in another perspective that is all. (And yes I realize that she is just a baby it's just an example)


----------



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

> I assume you wouldn't be too pleased if your daughter decided to go out and get pregnant and her response was "but I would LOVE to have lots of babies!"


well no seeing as shes not even one yet lol ... but if she was obviously older i wouldnt mind as much as in 30! lol



> People are just trying to tell you that it's irresponsible and inadvisable to keep your males and females together.


and i understand what your saying its just you say it like that and other people say it horribly (sp?) .. like your gonna be killing mother ect or whatever. 

im not arguing anymore anyway .. i posted this post to show off my lovely rats and i think ive had one post complementing them! 
if you want to have a nag at me or tell me how or what to do i think it should be done in an private message! and not flooding my post.


----------



## Rattiegma (Jan 23, 2008)

ChrissyGz0r said:


> > and i understand what your saying its just you say it like that and other people say it horribly (sp?) .. like your gonna be killing mother ect or whatever.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Leala (May 31, 2007)

I'm not trying to nag really.
You're rats are absolutely gorgeous and I know that the people here can see that.
Seriously they are just concerned. They do not want to see possibly hundreds of rats that cannot be taken care of because it's seriously just too much for one person to do.
If you do want to keep them together consider having your males neutered or spay your females (which also lowers risk of mammary tumors). A pregnancy at such a young age CAN in fact kill the mother.
People are merely concerned and I doubt VERY HIGHLY that anyone here would try and attack you personally.
Just consider it seriously please. I know you said you would not allow the rats to be mistreated, but it can happen unintentionally even when you may think you're doing the right thing.


----------



## rattieluver (Dec 29, 2007)

(Changing subject) Your ratties are gorgeous! They all seem like real sweet hearts! (if your boy and girl can't stand being apart you could always have her spayed...)


----------



## rat_ratscal (Sep 23, 2007)

ChrissyGz0r said:


> and obviously there wudnt be hundreds of babies!


im sorry, i didn't want to get involved, but i have to say this, and im sorry if someone has already said what im about to say (im reading the whole thread after i post this)

if fifi and lulu both get pregnant, that could add up to 40 baby rats. lets say each of these litters have 10 boys and 10 girls. now lets say you dont have enough space to separate the boys from the girls by 5 weeks without overcrowding them, then you have 20 more litters of 20 babies, if you get where im going, you would have hundreds of rats, and it would all be very expensive (not even including vet bills) and time consuming, and i dont see how anyone could handle it.

but yes, your rats are adorable, i love fifi's colours


----------



## ChrissyGz0r (Mar 3, 2008)

thanks everyone  .. yea i love fifi's colours .. i was soo close to getting another one like her today bit a smaller version but i got a self? i think cant remember what the woman said now hehe... shes all brown .. but i think shes out the same litter as the unamed rattie.. but i dunno  i will post pics in amin x


----------



## Almi (Feb 11, 2008)

How did you put the levels in the tank? What are they made out of? Are they detachable? It looks like a really cool idea; I'd love to do that for some of my mice.


Hey, if you want a bunch of little ratties around, you should adopt some!  I am always seeing rats up for adoption, and I know there are rat rescues out there. Try Craigslist or Petfinder; you'll be saving lives instead of creating new ones!


----------

