Most baby rats – wild and domestic – will be cared for by their mum, which is the best thing for them. However, sometimes as a rat owner you may find or be asked to care for abandoned babies. What’s the best thing to do if it happens to you? (If you have to care…
As every pet owner knows, our adorable friends come with a price tag: vets’ bills, food, cages, bedding etc. Toys can be another expense if we buy them ready from a pet store. Fortunately for our bank accounts, rats don’t need pricey toys. A bit of ingenuity, a lot of cardboard, and a few treats…
Rats aren’t just adorable and engaging pets. They are also genuinely amazing creatures and the more we know about them, the better we can look after them. Here are 10 facts about pet rats I’ve learnt in 20 years of rat care. 1. Rats Can Get Lonely and Depressed Many people think mental illnesses and…
Most rat owners will either buy their pets as 6-8 week old fully weaned youngsters, or adopt them as adult rescues. However, occasionally we can find ourselves playing grandparent to a pregnant mum and her babies. In March we agreed to take in two rats who needed emergency rehoming. The two were a boy and…
Rats, and people, love to play. Coming up with games you can enjoy together is a great way to bond with your rats, and add interest to the time you spend together. It’s also a great way to keep the big brains behind those little pointy noses healthy, active and engaged. Here are some ideas…
Buying a great cage for your rats is only the first step to making them a comfortable home. Most of the space within even a large fancy cage is wasted from the rats’ point of view if we don’t do a good job of the interior decoration. So, what kind of accessories and decorations does…
Yesterday’s meals included home-made muesli, loads of fresh veggies and baked chicken wings. That was the rats’ food. I dined on left-over Chinese takeaway. As my mother is prone to pointing out, the rats eat better than I do. Rats, just like humans, are naturally omnivores. Unlike ferrets (strict carnivores) or guinea pigs and rabbits…
Your first pair or group of rats are home, and now you need to make friends with them. How do you bridge the gap between species to become someone they love, and their number one safe place? The reason rats make such good pets, apart from their all-round awesomeness, is that they actively want to…
Are you wondering if your rat can happily live alone? Let me tell you a story about R, a boy in the current Horde. His previous owner bought him from a pet shop as one of a “female” pair. Unfortunately, no one noticed that he possessed unusually testicle-like testicles for a girl until babies appeared….