# Ames/Des Moines,IA foster rats need homes! 2 young females, 1 adult male



## rileymai (Aug 17, 2010)

Hello everyone~

I have been fostering larger pets (dogs and cats) for a few years and in the past few months have switched to smaller pets. Right now, I have a lot of fosters so I'm looking for anyone interested in adopting my three foster rats.

The first two are sisters Emma and Willow, about 7 weeks old now and were going to be snake food until I managed to rescue them from that grim fate. They came from two teenage boys who raised rats for snake food, and Emma and Willow must have watched all their other siblings one by one be taken away from the cage and eaten.. I even found out they had fed their parents too.  As you can imagine, when I got them they were very scared and took a couple days to start warming up. I have them now with my three pet rats, and they really seem to be blossoming and becoming more social. Emma is a bit more confident than her sister, and will take food from your hand and let you hold her for short periods of time. Willow, who is a little smaller than her sister, is more timid and will require regular attention and love for sure. These two are young enough that with some love and care, they will surely become great pets! I don't have a very good picture of them right now, but here's a couple that I do have. Emma is the grey/white and Willow is all grey (including her tail) and quite fuzzy.

Emma's on the left, Willow on the right









Emma (Willow was hiding under her)










I also have another rat in foster that is looking for a forever home. His name is Peanut, and he a male fancy rat about 2-years-old. Peanut has a bit of sad story. He was originally bought at Petco with his brother, Butter, but his brother unexpectedly died when he was six months old. Peanut has not been quite the same since then, and has developed some social issues. Due to lack of being held and socialized, he is not used to being handled and while will not bite your hand when you to go pet him, he will put his teeth on your finger (but it doesn't hurt). He seems just under-socialized and I'm sure would become friendlier with more attention - and possibly a cage mate. If I get another male rat into the foster program I will try to see if they can bunk together, since I wonder if his problems all arose from being by himself without any other rats and not enough attention from his previous owner. His previous owner surrendered everything to me with Peanut, including his cage with a built-in wheel, food bowl, water bottle, a wooden house, bedding, and food (although I'd be happy to give you some of my suebees mix for a little while if he's adopted because I'll be switching him off his commercial rat food to suebees/lab blocks which is what my other rats including the two other fosters are eating).



















Peanut's cage he will come with~









I'm less concerned about getting anything for them than finding homes. I am willing to travel a reasonable distance (2-3 hours max) for the right home, because right now I simply have a lot of fosters currently and pets of my own. 
**A bit random, but I also am fostering a 2-yr-old female harlequin rabbit, two 9-mo-old Chinese Dwarf hamsters that are sisters and housed together, and an ~1 year old white/tan abyssinian guinea pig that are also looking for forever homes. If you have any questions or would like to know more about anyone, please comment or you can email me at [email protected] Thanks!


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

*Re: IA foster rats need forever homes! 2 young females, 1 adult male*

Suebees is not a complete diet, just so you're aware. It's not really useful for much other than a bit of variety on top of a good staple diet, usually with a lab block of some sort.

What bedding is Peanut on? It looks like pine to me 

Also, you might want to add more specifically where you're located in the board title


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## rileymai (Aug 17, 2010)

*Re: IA foster rats need forever homes! 2 young females, 1 adult male*

Yes, I know it's not complete - I feed them that mixed with lab blocks, no worries. (and I realized I spelled Suebees wrong, it's 1am lol). I just made a really huge batch a couple days ago, and it will probably go stale before I use it all so I thought it wouldn't hurt to send some along if they get adopted.

And yes, it *was* pine - I got rid of that about five minutes after I got him inside but I always take a photo right when I get new fosters which are these pictures. I haven't taken any again after I switched the bedding - I'm sorry, I didn't even think about it! But yes, the pine bedding is gone - I only use aspen or fleece depending on what the ratties seem to enjoy more (my girls prefer the fleece).


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