# North Carolina (Close to the Border of South Carolina)



## Scridreas (Jan 10, 2012)

_I posted this on another forum originally, but I feel this applies anywhere I go, as that is why I registered:_

I need to put 7 out of 10 girls from an accidental litter up for adoption, I would like to adopt them in groups of 3 or 4, as they are all very close to each other and have known each other for a long time.


*Age:*
They are about 1 year in age and all albino.


*Where do the rats come from?:*
A former friend gave me 2 female rats as a gift, both of which were pregnant.

*Health Problems*:
None of the 7 rats I would like to adopt have *known problems.


The 3 girls I have decided might be best not to adopt have problems: 1 rat has a mammary tumor, 1 does not like to be picked up despite being handled from birth, and will only let you pet her, feed her, and play with her--but not pick her up, and another one had an unknown illness which I recently nursed back to health--I will not put her up for adoption.


I may put the rat that has a mammary tumor down after it reaches a larger size as the cost of removing the tumor is outside of my budget and the vets in my area do not have experience with rats, and charge the price of a full dog or a cat to remove it. 


I don't have the heart to Euthanize an animal that isn't suffering, and so would much rather have all 3 rats spayed.


*What Bedding do I use?:*

I have switched between aspen bedding, carefresh, and cloth and use a combination of the 3. 


*What kind of food do you feed your rats?: *

I have fed them Beneful dog food, fresh fruits and vegetables, spaghetti, cabbage, carrots, oatmeal, blueberries, and human foods that are not fried or have too much grease in fat content, and read that it was ok to feed them dog food. 


*How many litters do you have a year?:*

I do not breed rats.

*
Other Notes:*

I am not entirely comfortable putting my rats up for adoption. I am afraid that someone would break the groups up, give them away, feed them to rats, or that they would end up the way I have seen some rats end up. Alone and in a pet store being handed out for free by Petco with a cage because the owner couldn't care for it anymore. I have kept them for this long because of my fear that I would adopt them to the wrong people, and I couldn't live with that mystery of not knowing.

They are beautiful, wonderful girls who have made me laugh so often with their antics. It's just not plausible for me to do this and not fair to them, they deserve a home full of toys and someone who has time for all of them. 

I came to this rat forum because I figured people at a rat forum would be here because they love and care about rats. But I still have fear because I don't know any of you, but as my situation is growing more and more unpredictable I am becoming afraid of getting to a point where I am on the streets wheeling a giant rat cage or worse that I would become so desperate that I would put them down as I would rather see them euthanize peacefully than go to a home where they would abandon or feed them to a snake. And I cannot live with that, I just couldn't.

So I don't know what to do, this is really my last resort. And at the same time I don't know how to trust that they will go to good homes, or even what questions I should ask "You" the adopter, and how to make sure that they do go to good homes, so I can sleep easy.


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## Miscellaneous (Jan 9, 2012)

Would you be willing to have me(someone looking to adopt another rat for my girl) ship some of them her via UPS live animal shipping? I already own a girl, but she is companionless, and my cage can hold a max of 4 rats(2 per cubic feet), so would you be willing to give them away in smaller groups(2-3)? I understand if the answers are no


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## Scridreas (Jan 10, 2012)

Thanks for your interest , I'm really nervous about adopting my rats, so I hope a few of the requirements I've thought out don't seem offensive. 

I think I'd rather not ship them through the mail, it would be very traumatizing for them. And I'd like to meet the prospective adopters before I gave them away. So I'd want to know more about you and your history with rats, and if this was your first rat etc. I'm thinking if I adopt to someone on a rat forum or from a mailing list it would have to be from someone who had been here a while that way I could read their posts to see how much they know. Then have a trial period to see if the rats were a right fit for you, like the person would meet them see if they bonded with any and if they decided to take some home they would see if it were a right fit for them and could return them if it wasn't a good fit during that trial period.


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## Miscellaneous (Jan 9, 2012)

Okay. Well, I'm sorry to say that I'm a fairly new rat ownership, so I'm sure you'd prefer a more experienced member. Good luck finding hose babies good homes


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## phoebe (Nov 22, 2010)

I just responded to your post on Goosemoose, my name is Oleander over there.


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