# Rat *bling*



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Hello Rat lovers,

I was talking with a co-worker about my desire to keep some keep some rats...

And they mentioned a craze thats taken off in some places is "Rat Bling"
were you buy rat with its ear peirced!!! :? 

Has this been available to anyone knowledge outside of Australia..
to me its silly, but then again, i cant see the harm in it either..

Considering removing their little ratty organs is acceptable.

Peoples, thoughts?


----------



## amandahoney (May 14, 2007)

is this for real?

hmm, i can't imagine any rat would enjoy that... and there's no medical reason for it. in fact, it would be a big liability in any inevitable rat scuffle. and it would be kind of like when people have their babies' ears pierced before the babies are old enough to know what's going on.

in my opinion, it would be cruelty, plain and simple.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

amandahoney said:


> is this for real?


Its for real, apparently they cost only $15 pierced and with a stud.
Although i didn't ask what age they were sorry.


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

The only piercings here are when old-school feeder breeders identify their rats by taking a hole punch to tiny babies ears. 

This little fella came to me dying of horrible respiratory at 4 weeks old (his owner couldn't care for him and rehomed him to me)...He's fine now, neutered and has his own young harem.









I don't think piercing your rats ears is humane and using studs is even possible. Their ears are very light and it would just bend them down. I don't believe there's a craze about it. 

Unless you would like to provide some proof hmm? Links maybe?
:lol:


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

lilspaz68 said:


> I don't believe there's a craze about it.
> 
> Unless you would like to provide some proof hmm? Links maybe?
> :lol:



Its one particular pet shop, apparently causing a localized craze..
But, i was curious if it was more wide spread.

If i travel down that way, ill try for a photo.


----------



## Randi (May 25, 2008)

lilspaz68 said:


> Unless you would like to provide some proof hmm? Links maybe?
> :lol:


Very good thinking... people don't need to get all worked up over some sort of crazy story. :roll:


----------



## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Any rat worth its salt would get that chewed out, ASAP, I doubt the truth of that.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Forensic said:


> Any rat worth its salt would get that chewed out, ASAP, I doubt the truth of that.



chew its own ear?


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Randi said:


> lilspaz68 said:
> 
> 
> > Unless you would like to provide some proof hmm? Links maybe?
> ...



I don't think its crazy at all....

You can buy fish with your name or just about anything tattooed onto 
them, so a simple piercing isn't a stretch IMO


----------



## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

geebus said:


> Forensic said:
> 
> 
> > Any rat worth its salt would get that chewed out, ASAP, I doubt the truth of that.
> ...


No the earring. They can chew through steel pipes, a little wire of gold wouldn't hold up long.

Heck, my boys chew on my rings or bandaids...


----------



## JulesMichy (Apr 8, 2007)

geebus said:


> I don't think its crazy at all....
> 
> You can buy fish with your name or just about anything tattooed onto
> them, so a simple piercing isn't a stretch IMO


 :x Can we boot it _now_?


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Forensic said:


> No the earring. They can chew through steel pipes, a little wire of gold wouldn't hold up long.
> 
> Heck, my boys chew on my rings or bandaids...


Yeah, i know they're pretty capable with their teeth, to clarify i thought
you meant a rat could chew it off its own ear..


----------



## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Nah... well... maybe, if they were in the circus or something...

But in a cage with a bunch of others? Ten minutes, tops.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

JulesMichy said:


> geebus said:
> 
> 
> > I don't think its crazy at all....
> ...


What did i do wrong now ?!?!?!?! im not condoning either practice.

... geeez, im actually starting to think you might
dislike me or something... 8O :lol: 

Before im accused of making up the fish story!! i best provide a photo eh!










News story:
http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=01769543281


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Forensic said:


> Nah... well... maybe, if they were in the circus or something...
> 
> But in a cage with a bunch of others? Ten minutes, tops.


Yeah, i wont dispute that!... 
Sorry i assumed you meant a single rat.


----------



## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

This goes to all members - if you have nothing productive to say concerning a topic it's best to refrain from commenting. Jules, if you have an issue with a member please PM a moderator.


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

geebus said:


> JulesMichy said:
> 
> 
> > geebus said:
> ...


I know it's true... but it's cruel.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

KayRatz said:


> I know it's true... but it's cruel.


Well, i agree with you there...


----------



## Mimzy (Apr 21, 2008)

I think its stupid. You pierce an animal with something because you want them to have it. They`ll never see it, or understand it...so why do it? Stupid craze. Blinged out rats...now I've heard everything.


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

You will not believe what I just found, guys.









"Dawson's piercing; it healed quickly and with the tiny jewellery i put in it, he didnt even notice he had it."

http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/11-surface/animal001.html


----------



## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

Why would someone do that?! Poor rattie


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

I dunno, it's so wrong.


----------



## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

I just found another one. It explains the piercing further down the comments..

http://modblog.bmezine.com/2007/07/30/real-rat-vs-tattoo-robot-rat/


----------



## Nicodimus (Jun 23, 2008)

Ugh. 

General rule about piercings: the person getting pierced makes the decision to have holes punched into his/her body. Doing it to pets is just cruel and selfish of their owners.


----------



## AlienMando (Jan 19, 2008)

I remember a story a few years back about a woman in the states who caught a fawn, pierced its ears and tried keeping it as a pet.

Animal control saved the deer and removed the earrings and charged her a fine.

Meanwhile the woman's defense was, "it made the fawn look cute."


----------



## amandahoney (May 14, 2007)

a while back my boy dogs got in a fight, and one of them bit straight through the edge of the other's ear. when it healed completely, it was a hole right through. my family jokingly tried to stick an earring through the already-there hole, just for a second, and he HATED it. i'm sure it reminded him of ticks or the pine needles he gets stuck to him when he rolls under the pine trees (silly dog...) and it can't have been pleasant! i can't imagine, if my relatively docile dog who actually likes to dress up in sweaters and things hated an earring in a healed hole, how unpleasant it would be to actually poke a hole in your rat!

okay. calming down now.


----------



## Marysmuse (Apr 28, 2008)

The painted fish are sick. Those are tattoos, and they reduce the lifespan of the fish by weeks and months.
Fish might not be on the same level as other "intelligent" animals, but that doesn't make it ok to decorate them with needles for the entertainment of the "throw away society" we live in. :evil:

And Geebus, just to be clear, I understand you're not condoning/promoting the idea, I'm not jumping on you, just on the idiots who do things like that.

Back to the op, I'd say peircing a rat's ear makes about as much sense as pasting tails on gp's to make them look like rats... 

Rejoicing in the day,
-Mary

Ps did you read the comments? The guy who pierced the rat got blasted for it. Idiot.


----------



## clarry (May 19, 2008)

OMG i shouldnt have looked at that website. This has angered me beyond belief, people are so sickk, I mean, whats the point? Why would a dog want a tatoo?! GRRRRR


----------



## MariHxc (May 23, 2007)

my dog has tattoos.
buuuut, he's a greyhound (never raced though, he broke his leg when he was a few months old and got put up for adoption), so it's normal.



















but as for peircing rats and tattooing fishies, that's cruel. if there isn't a purpose for the two (like putting tags on livestock, or tattooing racers, etc) it shouldn't be done. plain and simple.


----------



## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

Ughh... when I was working in clinic a lady came in with her cat... I saw something under the fur and asked about it. Turns out when she first got him she had the VET shave him down and tattoo her name on the cat. Both the vet and owner should be shot. 

Piercings and tattoos on animals should only be used on animals when necessary, such as tattoos on registered dogs and the tags on livestocks ears.


----------



## MariHxc (May 23, 2007)

reachthestars said:


> Ughh... when I was working in clinic a lady came in with her cat... I saw something under the fur and asked about it. Turns out when she first got him she had the VET shave him down and tattoo her name on the cat. Both the vet and owner should be shot.


well, i dunno. sometimes things like that can be helpful, like if the cat escapes a lot. it's one one to identify it. i'm not agreeing with it, but maybe it was the woman's logic. and i know a lot of people who work with feral cats tattoo on their tummies when they've been spayed/neutered and released.


----------



## reachthestars (Feb 27, 2007)

Nope, this lady was just off the wall nuts.


----------



## MariHxc (May 23, 2007)

you wonder what's going through people's minds sometimes.


----------



## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

The shelter around here will tatoo an ear of a cat if they've been neutered.. I'd rather have them do that then notch the ear... But tatoos for vanity's sake? Please!


----------



## Vixie (Jul 21, 2006)

I fostered a retired racing Whippet who had his ears tattooed like that Greyhound.

Stuff like that, branding, tagging, etc., it's more understandable but I still don't like it. 


I was apprehensive to have my dog microchipped, but my mom eventually said no(which pisses me the heck off now after we nearly lost him when he followed me into Walmart without me knowing) because she thinks he's "learned his lesson" which is absolute BS, someone could easily steal him; he's a small dog.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

Ah, well im glad someone found photos, atleast people might see im 
not just making it up ... :lol: teehee







Vix,
Its is a small dog, smuggle it in a handbag, Paris Hilton styles! :wink:


----------



## Vixie (Jul 21, 2006)

geebus said:


> Vix,
> Its is a small dog, smuggle it in a handbag, Paris Hilton styles! :wink:


Lol, no way. He's trying his best to keep his manhood as much as he can--he even grew a mustache! 

When I get my car I'll take him.


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

geebus said:


> Ah, well im glad someone found photos, atleast people might see im
> not just making it up ... :lol: teehee


There are maybe 2 people in the world who have done this... you're still making it up.


----------



## Susinko (Apr 29, 2008)

I have both my cats microchipped. I want them back if they get out! I love my babies!

I'm really against cutting parts off of animals, piercings, tattoos and anything of the sort that isn't really needed. I know that race horses are tattooed and other valuable horse so if they get lost are are stolen, they can be recovered. That's understandable. Microchipping an animal is understandable so that the animal can be recovered and not destroyed at a shelter. Taking off an injured part of an animal, like a leg that is too badly injured, is understandable.

Piercing an animal is not understandable. I waited until my daughter was eight before I gave her the choice of having her ears peirced. It's her body. She should be able to choose what holes get poked in it. A rat cannot choose. A deer cannot choose.

One day at the vet's office while I was there, a lady walked in. She had just gotten a tiny kitten. The tiny kitten was there to be spayed AND be declawed at the same time. She didn't give that kitten a chance to show that she would only claw the scratching post. She didn't work with the kitten. She just thought it easier to declaw the cat now. Poor little kitten.

Note, I'm not blasting people who have declawed cats. Sometimes it's the only choice you have to keep the cat. But you have to try first.

Besides, I don't need any baubles to make my animals cuter. They couldn't be cuter even if they tried!


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

There are alternatives to declawing. You can get claw covers that keep cats from clawing furniture. My dad used to insist every cat we had was declawed, so we have two declawed cats, and with one cat we used to have it very obviously made it difficult for him to walk.


----------



## JulesMichy (Apr 8, 2007)

Susinko said:


> One day at the vet's office while I was there, a lady walked in. She had just gotten a tiny kitten. The tiny kitten was there to be spayed AND be declawed at the same time. She didn't give that kitten a chance to show that she would only claw the scratching post. She didn't work with the kitten. She just thought it easier to declaw the cat now. Poor little kitten


You wouldn't believe how often that happens. Actually, a lot of people think they _have_ to get their cat declawed, or it'll destroy their house. Even more think that they _have_ to get their doberman's/rottweiler's/etc. ears and tailed docked. It's not a dobie if its ears aren't pointy!

God, I hate cosmetic surgery for animals. Ear docking is one of the most barbaric things I've ever had to watch, and I will never, NEVER work for a clinic that does it.


----------



## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

Piercing rat ears is just as much useless mutilation as cropping and docking in dogs.
They didn't ask for that. They are just right the way nature intended them to be. Why are people so arrogant that they think they need / can improve mother nature?


----------



## AlienMando (Jan 19, 2008)

Forensic said:


> The shelter around here will tatoo an ear of a cat if they've been neutered.. I'd rather have them do that then notch the ear... But tatoos for vanity's sake? Please!


Some mass breeders do that. With ferrets they place tattooed dots in the ears. 2 dots in the left once its been neutered and 1 dot on the right ear once its been descented. Poor things are about 5 weeks old when they undergo these surgeries and get tattooed.


----------



## clarry (May 19, 2008)

Marihx, yeh I understand the tattooing your dog has, I meant the tattoo's on thats website like the hello kitty one and the pirates of the Caribbean one...sick. We may think we need to improve ourselves but animals are not accessories. GRRRR


----------



## AceYourFace (Jan 4, 2008)

JulesMichy said:


> Susinko said:
> 
> 
> > One day at the vet's office while I was there, a lady walked in. She had just gotten a tiny kitten. The tiny kitten was there to be spayed AND be declawed at the same time. She didn't give that kitten a chance to show that she would only claw the scratching post. She didn't work with the kitten. She just thought it easier to declaw the cat now. Poor little kitten
> ...


uhhhg god that gets me mad why even get a cat then?! I hate stupid ignorant a** people.

The fish thing is really dumb if you fall for that bull....I like the last quote in the article
"My hope is if it gets more people into the hobby it's a good thing. If a kid comes in and sees a fish with a heart on it and says I want a fish tank and learns how to care for it, I think it's a win," says Lane.

Wow...just wow....what an IDIOT

I think hurting an animal or altering them cosmetically just for the sake of the humans entertainment is disgusting and those people should be allowed to own them. There is no...uhg... I agree with whoever mentioned a rat chewing it out. If Lilly can pull out her wire stiches and chew off her stainless steel staples she could rip out an earing. OMG this is so dumb lol


----------



## themacgregor (Jul 12, 2007)

This is just disturbing and wrong. Altering an animal in any way seems wrong to me, even spaying/neutering. Although my cat will be undergoing that in a few more months, poor baby. Piercing anyone, animal or not without taking their own opinion into consideration is ridiculous! I chose to have my ears pierced, my neighbour's two year old couldn't. 
Rats are active, sensitive animals, they only live about 2-3 years, why should we make them our accesories, when we should be trying to make their lives the best that we can. I'm sure my girls would have it out in an instant, they even try to take out my earrings.


----------



## Vixie (Jul 21, 2006)

themacgregor said:


> Altering an animal in any way seems wrong to me, even spaying/neutering



I will argue heavily against that, altering an animal(especally dogs and cats) is almost essential nowadays. Try walking the streets of downtown Baton Rouge without seeing a pack of stray dogs or cats...it's just not gonna happen. Especially after Katrina, there is an over-population crisis.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

I think the de-sexing is ok, as it has the potential to increase
the quality of life/health..


----------



## Skitza (May 18, 2008)

i think thats horrible!


----------



## JulesMichy (Apr 8, 2007)

Vixie said:


> themacgregor said:
> 
> 
> > Altering an animal in any way seems wrong to me, even spaying/neutering
> ...


That's not to mention the health and behavioral benefits. Reduced chance of mammary tumors, aggression, and no chance at all of pyometra or testicular cancer. For unspayed female cats, it can be downright dangerous for them. When they're in heat they will do absolutely anything to get outside and breed, putting themselves at risk for winding up lost, hungry, exposed to the elements and possibly hit by a car.

And for ferrets, spaying is an absolute must, or they'll die if not bred.


----------



## MariHxc (May 23, 2007)

JulesMichy said:


> And for ferrets, spaying is an absolute must, or they'll die if not bred.


really? 8O


----------



## KayRatz (Apr 5, 2007)

Yes, that's true, Mari.


----------



## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Yep. That's why they're all 'fixed' before being being sold/going to their new homes.


----------



## MariHxc (May 23, 2007)

that's crazy. i've had 5 ferrets before, but only one female, so i guess that's why i didn't know.


----------



## themacgregor (Jul 12, 2007)

Guess I was sort off caught up in the moment when I said that.
Like I said, I believe in choices, but I do also strongly agree with fixing/spaying for the medical benefits (my cat is getting fixed, I realize that I sound like an enormous hypocrite) . I mean, humans get fixed for health reasons as well, but they have choices. Animals don't have a voice, we usually end up speaking for them. And sometimes, we are more concerned about what we want than what they need.


----------



## geebus (Jun 23, 2008)

I also hate the practice of de-clawing cats (its not popular in Oz)
which i saw a lot of in America, ... i think if you don't want a cat
that is going to scratch up your furniture and carpets, don't get 
a cat, don't get a cat and hack it up until its more suitable.


----------



## Sky14 (Aug 18, 2006)

geebus said:


> I also hate the practice of de-clawing cats (its not popular in Oz)
> which i saw a lot of in America, ... i think if you don't want a cat
> that is going to scratch up your furniture and carpets, don't get
> a cat, don't get a cat and hack it up until its more suitable.


I know what you mean! I myself volunteer at my local shelter and I'm sick of seeing de-clawed cats!! :evil: :evil: If you don't want your furniture to be a scratching post get a scratching post and teach the cat to use it!!!! 

I myself have 2 cats a 1 year old and a 3 month old and they both learned very quickly that if they scratched anything other than the scratching post they'd get sprayed with a squirt bottle. :wink:


----------



## AlienMando (Jan 19, 2008)

Sky14 said:


> geebus said:
> 
> 
> > I also hate the practice of de-clawing cats (its not popular in Oz)
> ...


I've done long volunteer stints at local animal shelters here and thats one thing that just never makes sense. These people spend all this money getting their cat de-clawed then end up not keeping them anyway!!! WTH!

Atleast when we use to get de-clawed cats in they were usually the ones that went through the system quicker, since sadly people thought it made the cat even more worthy.


----------



## Sky14 (Aug 18, 2006)

It's just plain sick. *gags*


----------

