# we all make mistakes...



## scarletbegonias (Oct 24, 2012)

I apologize if this thread has been done already but I thought maybe some of you would like to share some of the no-nos you've done in your rat loving journeys. I'm always learning new things from my fur babies but I've come a long way since owning my very first rattie love about 8 years ago now. ive learned so much from each rat as many of them have individual needs at different times in their lives. I'll go first. my first rattie was a boy named Lil Jon. he lived alone in a tank and my bedding of choice? frequently pine or cedar. his diet consisted of lab blocks and a commercial seed mix. fortunately for him, he got many treats from me (mostly healthy considering some of the garbage I'd give him). if I was home, he was never in his cage. he was the perfect shoulder rat and were inseparable. he spent his whole life by my side and while i know better now to keep rats in pairs, im kind of glad in a way i didn't know this back then because we were so closely bonded. although his diet and cage weren't optimal, he lived to the ripe age of 2.5 years and died of reasons unknown. i still will periodically put a flower by his burial spot today. does anyone else have any oops moments from their early rat loving days?


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## Voltage (May 15, 2013)

Uhm let's see...
I did a lot of research before getting my first two girls in may this year. And still do research and probably always will so I've probably avoided a lot of mistakes I would have made.

Biggest one right now may have been getting a huuuuuuge cage that I inevitably had to cover in chicken wire and blocked all the doors except one making it VERY hard to clean. I have to have my boyfriend help me drag it outside to hose it down every week.

I did house my first two girls in a hamster cage for a week until I got my big cage which they love. Then got three boys and put them in the hamster cage for a couple weeks until I got an even bigger cage.

I've given my rats baths without properly introducing to water first.
That is all I can think of

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## lalalauren (Jul 3, 2013)

I gave my male rats a slice of orange once. Luckily, this was back in the early days when I literally was googling everything I was doing to make sure I did it right, so as soon as I learnt how bad it is for male rats, I removed it from their cage. They hasn't eaten much of it though. I think they knew better than I did!


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Biggest mistake: not noticing my female was not a male. Got babies.

Giving male dried manga. Giving them watermelon without removing seeds.


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## Ratnan (Jul 14, 2013)

I learnt the hard way not to scoop up a sleeping rat without waking her up first!


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

When I first got Molly she was a spur of the moment thing and she lived in a tank, by herself, for five months. 

Later on she met Charlie and had babies. My friend, the owner of temporary Charlie at the time, wanted to take two babies, and that was the reason why Molly and Charlie were together in the first place. She ditched me at the last minute, so I had to find last minute homes for all of them. 

Giving Charlie back to his former owner (my friend's friend), and watching him die of starvation by his former owner. 

Free ranging Mimi when she was still young and skittish, then proceeding to fish her out from under my bed for half an hour.


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## Dinoclor (Mar 2, 2013)

The pet store gave me the WRONG FOOD (I thought it was a lab block, it turned out to be a protein treat for rodents that looked like a lab block) and I believed them until one day I read the back label and it said "Rodent protein treat". I had only been feeding them that and vegetables, thinking it was a lab block. Luckily they're fine and are now fed the shunamite diet. I am not taking advice from the pet store again.


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## evander (Jun 30, 2013)

I almost always google before doing, this goes for most things in my life (overly cautious mamma) - so nothing that I can think of really.

BUT I do go on craigslist way too much, and occasionally will look at pet shops too and fall in love easily - which is how I am at my max of 10 girlies!! lol


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## CJMoore (Jul 30, 2013)

This was very helpful, maybe I can avoid some of those mistakes. I have been a rat friend for only week weeks and my mistake was purchasing them from a Pet store. The were both sneezing for a week and now Kitty seems pregnant. I will never get another pet store rat.

What happens if they eat a watermelon seed?


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## scarletbegonias (Oct 24, 2012)

CJMoore said:


> This was very helpful, maybe I can avoid some of those mistakes. I have been a rat friend for only week weeks and my mistake was purchasing them from a Pet store. The were both sneezing for a week and now Kitty seems pregnant. I will never get another pet store rat.What happens if they eat a watermelon seed?


im sorry you had some hiccups with your rats. ive gotten five rats from petstores and theyve all been lovely. except moose. she had a litter of 13!


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## Ruby&Lola (Apr 25, 2013)

Worst mistake for me taking my rat to this vet in Austin that man handled her. Also getting another rat and not properly introducing my rat to her and it ending up not workin out wit them.


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## Soosler (Jul 25, 2013)

getting gerbil food by accident xD


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## kyzer (Apr 28, 2013)

Giving them Baytril when they were younger than three months which can cause serious health issues in the future. My vet was inexperienced with rats, as was I at the time. I think thats why my two girls are smaller than usual now. They're around 10 months old and my young 4 month old rat is almost bigger than them already. Don't always trust professionals unless you're certain they know what they're doing.


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## Actress (Aug 9, 2013)

Getting rats from a pet store instead of a rescue or breeder & bathing without proper water introduction :O


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## watts300 (Aug 3, 2013)

Ruby&Lola said:


> Worst mistake for me taking my rat to this vet in Austin.


I live in Austin, TX. Which vet was it? If I ever need/decide to go to a vet, I'll think twice about that one.


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## KelseyShea (Jan 20, 2013)

Very smart thread, good thinking, OP!

Biggest mistake- not hiding all electrical wires. Squeak chewed through a lamp wire in a matter of seconds and got zapped. Luckily she was okay.
Also I did not do proper water/bathing introductions.

I've noticed several people listed getting rats from a pet store as a mistake, and I know it's an ever-going debate, but I have 2 pet store girls and 2 breeders' girls- all four are healthy, happy, and I wouldn't give them up for the world. I realize the moral issues now with the low standards in most stores, but I like to think I got lucky with my local Petsmart. I may be the exception to the rule, but I think my pet store girls are more social than my breeder girls.

Thanks again for coming up with this post, it's a great way for many of us to avoid mistakes and help others.


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## poodlecrazy1 (Apr 14, 2013)

Giving one of my rats back in the day tons of candy. She loved it and I was a kid so I didn't know better. Her name was Dizzy because she was always so hyper and ran around (sometimes in circles) making you dizzy. She was a great rat and we ended up having to put her to sleep due to old age. Also she never got fat,I guess she would burn off all the sugar and calories by running around so fast. 


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## Mball77 (Jul 3, 2013)

nanashi7 said:


> Biggest mistake: not noticing my female was not a male. Got babies.
> 
> Giving male dried manga. Giving them watermelon without removing seeds.


The watermelon seed thing, did the rat get an allergic reaction? My poor fuzzy's face swelled right up, we had baby benadryl for another problem he had but still, scared me. 

Also once I though one of my rats started choking on peanut better, that was also very scary.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

No reaction, thankfully. Just happened to read about it after they were given it so I learned not to repeat it.


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## Nathan4d (Feb 17, 2013)

When one of my ratties escaped and I spend 2 hours scaring her behind the washing machine banging things trying to get her to come out!


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## Amelia (May 3, 2013)

I had rats throughout my childhood, but always kept them on their own as this "makes them more loyal to humans". I feel sooo guilty now, thinking of how lonely they must have been.

To add to the petstore vs. breeder debate -- I have recently re-entered the world of rat-keeping with 2 girls from a breeder. It is my first time getting rats from a breeder, and also my first time keeping rats in pairs as opposed to on their own. Not sure if it's keeping them in pairs or because they were from a breeder, but as much as I love the 2 girls I have now they are nowhere near as affectionate and friendly as the rats I had as a child were.


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## mcbride4227 (Aug 13, 2013)

My first rat was a spur of the moment kind of thing, my boyfriend decided to come home with her one day (not like its a problem now). I think my biggest mistake was not noticing she had mites so she went a year without going to the vet... When we got our second rat we didn't introduce them properly so they are both still lonely and it's twice as much bedding. Neither of them like water either, 


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

My biggest mistake was 2 weeks ago actually, which just goes to show there's always more to learn with rats. I bathed my girlfriend's rat Bella using a different shampoo to the regular and it ended up giving her second degree chemical burns! She's all healed up now though.


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## mcbride4227 (Aug 13, 2013)

I use this foaming shampoo to clean my babes









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## scarletbegonias (Oct 24, 2012)

omg! im glad shes ok!


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## DAZZIE (Sep 20, 2008)

gosh, what type of shampoo was it, for a community warning?


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## Voltage (May 15, 2013)

I've never used soap or shampoo on my babies, I don't think they need it honestly. My boys end up with poop all over them and just a rinse and scrub down has them smelling like fresh tortillas again.
But I definitely would love to know what soap to avoid just in case.

I have another mistake to add that I forgot about. I skipped intros and quarantine. Nothing bad happened thankfully. My girls were too young to care.

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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

It was a Head and Shoulders one, with citrus in it. I looked at the ingredients after she was burned one listed is Hydrochloric Acid... Wouldn't even recommend it for humans. We only bathe ours every month or so, usually when they've gotten into something they shouldn't have. We usually use one that's plain with jojoba oil in it and it works great, but I overlooked it in the moment. Sad thing was, she was getting a bath to get ready for a rat show the following day! Her front paws were all red and swollen and so were the tips of her ears. It took 2 weeks of Metacam, Baytril and love and attention to heal her. She lost the tips of her ears and her finger nails are growing back from stubs at the moment. She's a trooper at 22 months old too! She's 90% better now, back to her old self - just needs to grow her claws back now!

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## DAZZIE (Sep 20, 2008)

Gosh that's scary, so easy not to even give it a second thought, glad she is making a good recovery.


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Aw, ratclaws, your poor baby! I'm glad she's better now though, I'm definitely reconsidering using head and shoulders after reading that!



Voltage said:


> I've never used soap or shampoo on my babies, I don't think they need it honestly. My boys end up with poop all over them and just a rinse and scrub down has them smelling like fresh tortillas again.
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Hahah I thought I was the only one who thought a wet rat smelled like that! I'm glad others have noticed that too! xD


My mistakes were when I had rats when I was younger. I moved in permanently with my grandparents when I was about 10, and it wasn't for years later that they even got a computer, and they thought that the internet was full of pedophiles, porn, and e-mail only, so I wasn't allowed to use it very often or for very long at any time to do any reasearch. I got my first rat when I was about 8.

The only information I was able to get to care for rats was buying WAY outdated (60's, 70's publications) used rat care books at pet stores or book shops and the advice from pet shop owners who really knew nothing other than "well this has a picture of a rat on it, you should buy this". I tried my best to do research to care for all the babies I had, but it wasn't until my fourth run getting rats that I realized some of the biggest no-no's. For one, I kept only one rat at a time. My first rat was an agouti hooded girl named Alyxandria. My second rat (who ended up being SO special to me) was a black hooded girl named Poppy. My third was an agouti hooded male named Toby.

I bought crappy hamster chow (I wouldn't even have fed it to a hammy) it had dried corn, seeds, kibbles, and brightly colored bits of sugary dried fruits. It's no wonder that all my rats became fat. They also were kept on Pine shavings.  I remember pine smells nice, but I would never never use it again of course. I learned that Pine was bad when my young male Toby, who was probably less than 6 months at the time, got a URI and developed pneumonia almost overnight. I woke up and said good morning to my buddy, and he was lying on his side on the floor and panting. I panicked and tried to pick him up but he just squeaked in pain whenever I touched him. My grand parents were out for the morning walking their dogs and stuff for a few hours (before they had cell phones) and I was holding my sick little baby who squeaked in pain at the slightest movement, and I was just sobbing, not knowing what to do. I looked through the phone book under vets and called one, crying and freaking out and the nice nurse tried to help me as much as she could. When my grandparents finally got home I was freaking out and sobbing and they took me to the vet with him and he of course had to be put down.

Poor little Toby.. It was most likely from the Pine and it was something that was so easily preventable. I was horrified when I found out Pine and Cedar (what most pet shops only use) is actually dangerous ("Why would they even sell it?!?!?!" I thought). I still get choked up remember my poor little boy and the painful condition he was in..

After all that it was a little while before I got rats again and I was in high school. I then finally got two sisters I named Molly and Willow, both beige hooded, and only used carefresh and fed oxbow, and tried to limit their unhealthy table scrap treats. It was another long break before having rats again after the two sisters died. And now I'm very happy to have rats in my life again, and I'm doing my best to learn even more about their care and enrichment.


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## Laylicorn (Aug 14, 2013)

This thread is so helpful, I didn't know watermelon seeds were a problem..


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## Nimh (Jun 3, 2013)

I bought the walmart small pet foaming shampoo once. It cause all three of my babies to have red irritated skin. They squeaked for an hour after I did it. I immediately had to bathe them in the tub to get the crap off of them.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I suppose I've made almost every mistake you can make with rats... and in doing so I've learned everything I know. To some degree that's why it's easy for me to give certain advise... that's because it worked gangbusters or it ended very badly.

All I can say is always try your best and never make the same mistake twice. Rats are pretty intelligent, adaptable and durable. For the most part they will survive. Certain mistakes will kill your rat first time, every time... like not knowing exactly where your rats are before closing doors (especially car doors) while they are out of the cage.

As a shoulder ratter, I take big managed risks every day. I believe you have to take certain risks to give your rats the best life you can, even if they are comparatively small compared to those we manage, but you always have to be on guard never to be reckless and if you can get advise before you try something new... always ask first. There just might be someone like me on line here that can tell you exactly how things will turn out. So never be afraid to ask.


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

Finnebon said:


> Aw, ratclaws, your poor baby! I'm glad she's better now though, I'm definitely reconsidering using head and shoulders after reading that!


The thing that made it worse was that she's my girlfriend's rat, not even mine. And she's the most special rat we have between us; she was the rat that made me get them and learn so much. I'm just glad she's back to normal!


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## tori_m (Mar 5, 2013)

I had to dive in to their cage and tug-of-war pull a raw brussel sprout from them, after googling it while walking away from putting it in their dish. lol. luckily they didn't get much more than a little bite!


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## Divit (Aug 5, 2013)

So what is this about proper introductions to water before bathing? We don't have our rats yet and are (obviously) newbies. How does one properly introduce a rat to water?


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Divit said:


> So what is this about proper introductions to water before bathing? We don't have our rats yet and are (obviously) newbies. How does one properly introduce a rat to water?


Rats don't always like water so you don't want to just throw them in. You can wet them, pea fish and there this a good video on YouTube using a paint roller tin to get them into water. 


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## CrazyEleanor (Aug 16, 2013)

A few days ago I realized that my baby rat's water bottle wasnt releasing the water. For about a week. Poor babe, I didn't realize until she tried many times to get into my glass of water. I feel awful 


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## Yoggy (Oct 29, 2012)

CrazyEleanor said:


> A few days ago I realized that my baby rat's water bottle wasnt releasing the water. For about a week. Poor babe, I didn't realize until she tried many times to get into my glass of water. I feel awful
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I'm always so paranoid about water bottles! I can't believe how many of them don't release water. Now, whenever I hear my rats drinking for longer than a few seconds, I look closely to make sure there are bubbles rising in the bottle.

My biggest mistake was not taking Sharona to the vet as soon as I noticed her clumsiness. It happened so gradually that at first I thought she was deliberately sliding off the couch so she could explore on the floor. Turned out she had some sort of neurological problem. She stopped eating shortly after I took her to the vet, so after three days of hand feeding her, I had to bring her back to get put down. Maybe she could have been saved if I had gone sooner. Though both vets I took her to were stumped.


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