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I've always had at least one cat whenever I've owned rats. Currently I have 2 rats and 2 cats. I keep the rats away from the cats, and have their cage situated so the cats can't jump on it/beside it. If I have the rats out for playtime, and cats are in the same room, they're either sleeping away from the play area, or otherwise kept at a distance. If the cats ever got too nosy, I could just shut them out of the room until rattie playtime is over. Years ago, I had some close calls with sudden rat-and-cat encounters. Quick reflexes are great, but you won't always be faster than your cat.
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Jul 5, 2014 17:26
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 04:02 |
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I have two cats who grew up with rats, and have never had a problem. The cats view the rats wiyh indifference, the rats like the cats but the cats will generally jump down from the couch if a rat comes up to them. I would not remotely trust a cat who hasn't grown up with rats from kittenhood. Hell, I never leave mine unsupervised together.
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Jul 5, 2014 17:32
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Breaky posted:I didn't see anything in the OP about this so asking here: Honestly, take a light attitude by keeping an eye on both and everything should be fine. My rat who just passed away was not scared or timid by my cats. The cats were horrified of her to be honest. Early on she bit them in on the nose, claimed the couch and every since then the cats knew she was the boss of the house and mainly kept to themselves. Otherwise, she LOVED the cats. She loved watching them, and I swear even wanted to join in at times. For example, food time for the cats are 6am, she would wake up at 5am and watch them try to wake me up. She would get so excited as I got up and tried so hard to join in. The only get got her upset was when the cats were on the couch and/or cuddling me. My rat got super territorial over me and the couch. Still, all she could do in the cage is watch and be slightly pissed off. There was no traumatic moments, poor little rats hiding fear, etc etc. Introduce both sides and when the rats are out, just keep an eye out on them. Simple. If you don't feel comfortable enough, put the rats in a room the cats can't access or if it time for the rats to come out, put the cats in a different room.
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Jul 5, 2014 18:44
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Thanks all. In the past when I owned them I let them free range around me and my desk and that was about it. The cats can be easily separated from them, entirely if need be. I do appreciate the negative opinion on it and will think about that awhile longer before deciding. Good thing is the house is big and the cats have lots of other stimulation / less "cat smells" near where the rats would live.
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Jul 5, 2014 18:50
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Breaky posted:I didn't see anything in the OP about this so asking here: Speaking as someone that brought the rats in after the cats: my cats are terrified of my rats. The only one that comes near is our kitten because she used to play with one (highly supervised) when they were the same size. Obviously, this is anecdotal and every situation is different.
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Jul 5, 2014 22:37
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I think it totally depends on the individual rat and cat. Hell, I have parrots too and my cats are indifferent to them because they found out early on partots BITE if you go near the cage. Pet rats are pretty big and strong. One bite from a rat would probably deter a lot of cats. I still never leave mine unsupervised. Thats pretty much all I meant by not trusting them. Its just smart to err on the side of caution. Oh, I should add none of my 8 or so rats have ever been scared or stressed by my cats. I have one boy who is a bit cautious of them while out of the cage, but as long as they're not on the couch with him he's fine. All my other rats have been curious and wanted to be friends. Which is hilariously off-putting to my cats, who usually run. Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jul 6, 2014 |
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Jul 6, 2014 06:11
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Can anyone recommend a vet in the Silicon Valley? I think my boy has an abscess behind his ear.  His ear looks fine, no weird smells, shows no sign of pain or any other symptoms of illness, but the abscess is spreading apart his fur apart and showing some dark patch of skin beneath. It all grew within two days.
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Jul 7, 2014 10:04
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Clare was put to sleep today. She never recovered from the seizure she had, or she had a pituitary tumor growing. Either way, she wasn't able to keep herself upright to walk any longer.
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Jul 8, 2014 17:55
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KariOhki posted:Clare was put to sleep today. She never recovered from the seizure she had, or she had a pituitary tumor growing. Either way, she wasn't able to keep herself upright to walk any longer. Poor baby. I'm sorry
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Jul 9, 2014 08:10
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Has anyone successfully isolated an extremely elderly rat? I have a female going on 3 1/2 years, and free feed her a lot of high-calorie foods to keep her weight up. (She is amazingly healthy other than her weight.) Her cagemate is about 1 1/2 years, and has grown so fat she resembles a round ball of fur with a head and tail. She will literally steal the food out of the elderly rat's hands. She bullies her occasionally, too. The elderly rat is missing fur from surgeries that never grew back, and I've started noticing a few small scabs here and there. Nothing major, but the elderly rat is very fragile. I'm leaning towards isolating the elderly female and just keeping her with me a few hours in the evenings. She has always loved human attention, and never seemed too attached to a specific cagemate. Either that, or getting her a baby companion (maybe 6-8 weeks) that would be less likely to scuffle and aggressively eat all of her food. Thoughts? Jin Wicked fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jul 13, 2014 |
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Jul 13, 2014 18:40
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Oh hey guys, it's time to wash me again? So cute.  Done? Well, off you go, then.   oh gods rats in my underwear noooo get ooout, oooot...  please don't ever do that againGod, that was harrowing. To my balls, at least.
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Jul 14, 2014 21:53
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Jin Wicked posted:Has anyone successfully isolated an extremely elderly rat? I had to isolate my elderly boy from his two younger friends towards the end of his life, yeah. They were too rough with him, and he got disoriented by their energy too easily. While it wasn't ideal, he seemed okay with being alone, but he had also been living alone for a while earlier on before I got the two younger boys to keep him company, so maybe he was more used to it? It's doable, just give your old girl extra attention whenever you can, I think. Probably better that she has a quiet, safe time in her golden years than to have company that adversely affects her health.
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Jul 14, 2014 21:58
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Yep my last elderly rat had his own cage. I let his old cage mate come see him sometimes, and a lot of the time he snuggled on the couch since that's where he wanted to be anyway. He was happy as long as he had a warm snuggly place to sleep.
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Jul 15, 2014 00:11
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One of my rats has gotten quite skittish. He keeps jumping at the slightest movement or sound. I can't find any kind of wound on him nor does he yelp when I feel around on his underside so I've ruled out an injury at the moment. Is it because he's in a new cage? He seems to be adjusting well besides that.
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Jul 25, 2014 20:39
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:One of my rats has gotten quite skittish. He keeps jumping at the slightest movement or sound. I can't find any kind of wound on him nor does he yelp when I feel around on his underside so I've ruled out an injury at the moment. Is it because he's in a new cage? He seems to be adjusting well besides that. Probably the newcage. How long hsve they been in it?
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Jul 26, 2014 04:23
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Do you guys have any tips on how to keep my ratties cool during hot days? I live in the northern part of the world but last couple of days have been pure hell.
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Jul 26, 2014 10:40
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Jack Trades posted:Do you guys have any tips on how to keep my ratties cool during hot days? I live in the northern part of the world but last couple of days have been pure hell. Frozen vegetables in a bowl of water is a particular favourite of my girls - pea fishing is great to watch. We also freeze a filled old water bottle and put it in the cage - they tend to roll it to where they want then.
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Jul 26, 2014 11:39
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The rats have hand-knitted hammocks, a giant igloo and a Silent Spinner in their Critter Nation... but all seven rats choose to be in a half-destroyed cake box. 
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Jul 26, 2014 14:21
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Cardboard boxes are the best that's why. They can renovate them just how they want, and they get nice and smelly. That is a mighty cute rat pile you have there.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:11
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Thanks! I like how the bigger rats are on the outside and the smaller ones are on the inside.
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Jul 26, 2014 15:49
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You always put the biggest pieces on the edges. Basic rule of Rat Tetris.
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Jul 26, 2014 20:34
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I must say washing my boys can sometimes be an unpleasant but necessary process for anyone involved but the results adorable. [timg]http://i.imgur.com/8thXwDK.jpg][/timg] The fact they smell less is also a bonus!. DerVerrater fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 22:29
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Patchouli Patrol posted:The rats have hand-knitted hammocks, a giant igloo and a Silent Spinner in their Critter Nation... but all seven rats choose to be in a half-destroyed cake box. It's not half-destroyed. It's artistically deconstructed, rat-style. That's one adorable rat pile you've got there.
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Jul 28, 2014 07:49
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 I couldnt help my self, i got more. My appologies for poor image quality i think i need a new lense on my cam.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:51
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Apparently honey is loving scary. I just tried to offer one of my rats a little dab of honey on a spoon. He sniffed it a bit and then made a jump backwards like I had tapped him on the nose. Now he keeps doing it whenever I get close to him with the spoon.  Rats.
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Aug 8, 2014 22:29
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Lost my Luna today. She was an enormous, slightly retarded second-hand feeder rat, but she was always so stupidly happy. She's the kind of rat you would find just sitting in a corner, boggling because she was converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. I found a massive (what I think was ovarian) tumor last week, but it didn't seem to be bothering her -- she just did her thing. We just found her in the igloo. We found her with a piece of food in her mouth, so we know she died doing what she loved best. Farewell, squishy special-needs rat.  
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Aug 12, 2014 22:20
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Hey rat thread, I'm a first time rat owner and being a dumb newb, I'm freaking myself out over stupid things. I've been sitting with one of my new boys on my lap and he squeaks whenever I touch him - is he hurting, or just freaked out? I've read that rats aren't the most vocal animals, and I'm worried that he's hurt himself in someway. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him otherwise, but as I said, first time owner. He's currently trying to help me write this post (as it turns out, both rat paws and rat tails work on touch screens)
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Aug 18, 2014 19:07
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Unless he only vocalized when you touch him in one particular spot he's probably freaked out. My rats sometimes squeak in protest when I take them away from something they really want, like a particularly nice bit of food.
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Aug 18, 2014 19:27
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Treated our rats to some mealworms for the first time. Older greedy rats wolf them down, no questions asked, but the younger fancy rats don't like having something wriggling on their dainty paws so end up throwing them down...so fancy
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Aug 18, 2014 20:01
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A squeak is rat way of saying "stop that", what ever the reason might be. If he was in pain or scared he'd at least try to run away from you but if he squeaks when you touch him without trying to get away from you then he probably just doesn't want to be touched. My pudgy boy doesn't like it when I touch his fatty rolls but I just can't help myself.
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Aug 18, 2014 22:40
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One of my rats hates me picking him up. He grabs onto the cage and will squeak until I set him back down. I mostly ignore it because he wont leave the cage and I need to clean it. I'm hoping he'll grow out of it like his brother did.
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Aug 19, 2014 02:36
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Hehe, one of my boys used to squeak every time I picked him up or tiuched him, but he did grow out of it when he got used to me. I called him Mr. Squeaky. Just ignore it and be gentle, aware that he's a little bit freaked out.
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Aug 19, 2014 03:53
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Squeaks don't always mean "stop that". I've had rats squeak loudly while pinning down another rat and winning a rat tussle. Some rats are just dramatic, but squeaking generally dies down as the rat ages.
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Aug 19, 2014 03:57
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My rats are currently squeaking all the time, ever since I took them on vacation. One of them will sit in their little grass house and block the front entrance and the other will sit there and give indignant little squeaks. It always seems to take them a while to realize that the thing has two entrances and that they both fit in there. I really don't know why they're doing it, but they're at least not harming each other.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:01
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Invalid Octopus posted:Squeaks don't always mean "stop that". I've had rats squeak loudly while pinning down another rat and winning a rat tussle. Some rats are just dramatic, but squeaking generally dies down as the rat ages. Generally, but some rats are dramatic forever. Hannah is well over a year and a half old and we still hear her squealing when she's winning a tussle.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:44
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Drama queen rats are the best.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:45
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Invalid Octopus posted:Squeaks don't always mean "stop that". I've had rats squeak loudly while pinning down another rat and winning a rat tussle. Hmm, Interesting. I have two rat babies that play-fight with a lot of squeaking but I don't think I've ever heard the "winning" rat squeak. Though I'm probably just deaf since it's not really easy to hear which crazy supersonic furball is making the noise.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:46
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Jack Trades posted:Hmm, Interesting. I have two rat babies that play-fight with a lot of squeaking but I don't think I've ever heard the "winning" rat squeak. I wouldn't say they're squeaking to communicate their win, but more just to be dramatic. Or, squeak because the other rat is fighting back, how dare they. Rats.
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Aug 19, 2014 05:15
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Back again, but everything seems to be going wrong. The two boys I bought are about 12 weeks olds and were living together before I bought them ( they're from a pet shop though, so ymmv) They've been scuffling together on and off since they got home yesterday, but I noticed today that Moose has what is either a bite mark or a weird scratch on his side, which could only have come from the other rat. He's currently sitting in a tube shivering and making rapid chattering sounds, and I'm not sure what to do. It seems more violent than what I've been told to expect from boys fighting. Do they need reintroducing, or am I just paranoid?
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Aug 19, 2014 12:50
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 04:02 |
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It might not be a bad idea to separate them for a while, especially if someone got hurt. Rats sometimes start behaving strangely when they're put into new territory and have to decide who owns what now. What I did was to separate mine for a month, rotating them between cages, having them mingle on neutral ground and finally shaking them around in a box for a while. Which is honestly a lot more effort than you need normally, but, you know, it worked for me.
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Aug 19, 2014 13:15
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