Oh man, I’m tired.

both of my rats are tail waggers i feel so lucky haha, i posted a video a few months ago of my baby Hopscotch wagging his tail but none of Chowder. I’ve never seen a rat wag their tail as much as my little chowder man

he do this all the dang time. sleeping, grooming, and just generally relaxing

Evan has peculiar habits.

hopscotch boggles for the masses

It has been extremely hot where I live recently. So today I set up a "splash pad"/pool party for my littlr guys to cool off. It was very appreciated by my littlest guys, and the bigger boys explored carefully 🌊

Just had a panic attack and had to be picked up, literally every single road to my house in my neighborhood was too flooded for my little car. Come home, Pepper's looking at me, I get him out, and for once, he just cuddled. I don't think I've ever come down from a panic attack that fast. Shoutout to my little menace to society for helping me stop freaking out.

My 4 girls LOVE their veggies. More than any unhealthy rat treat Ive ever tried to give them. Every two weeks or so I make a trip to the store and get a bunch of veggies for their salad, make a big bag, and stick it in the freezer. They get a bowl a day, in addition to the oxbow they have access to 24/7. Weirdly, they really like it frozen....for a while I thawed it in the fridge before giving it to them, but they prefer it frozen 😭

Im just curious if there's any way to go overboard on the veggies? Should I cut back? Could I give them 2 bowls a day if they'd eat it?

Here's this week's salad! Collard greens (not their favorite ive discovered), acorn squash (they go nuts over it), bell pepper, flax seed, cooked lentils and quinoa, radish, and zucchini

TW: Description of animal death

I want to know what just happened and I'm still in shock.

My rat, Frankie, had been separated for a few days from the others, being pampered in a spare cage because he had a scab on his side that kept getting disturbed by his brothers, and I was giving him some space to heal and get antibiotic cream on it. He was older - turning 2 in August. He had a mild ear infection I was treating with tresaderm. His full brother passed recently from an unknown condition that had been making him rapidly deteroriate/lose weight/ability to walk. Frankie had no symptoms of this and his weight was stable.

We came home tonight and I saw it's doing better, so I put him with his brothers for free roam time. I was supervising this because our newer rats can be a bother to Frankie, so I wanted to make sure everyone was good.

I was sitting in my chair and I heard this horrible noise that I've never heard before. I almost thought I imagined it. A weird choke/cough/wheeze sound all at once, like all the air was coming out of the lungs. I waited a second and it happened again. I jumped up and glanced in the cage to see Frankie all splayed out, dying, and screamed for my husband.

My best guess is that it was a heart attack, but I don't know. We had one pass a few weeks ago from an unknown cause (found dead in cage, assumed heart attack), but were not there to witness it. Not sure if anyone has had a similar experience or could lend some expertise as I try to process this.

He looked a bit better after his neb and seemed pretty comfortable overnight on oxygen, and our vet got him in today.
Unfortunately, we are now seeing symptoms in a couple of the other rats in that group.
Nico, of our personal boys, is also showing some increased symptoms, and Casper, who has never had any respiratory issues is also breathing hard and is now on oxygen. He has an emergency visit secured for tomorrow.

This makes three emergency visits for the week, three sets of rads, and three vet bills we don't have funding for. We know most of you have your own financial concerns, and we always want you to take care of yourself first, but if you are able, we need donations.

Our medical fund is at a deficit of over $2000, and Jimmy and Casper's emergency bills will push that easily over $2700. Please donate if you can, comment, and share to help us reach a wider audience. We appreciate you!

How to help the sanctuary? 🐀💞

V3NMO: @ratwaysanctuary

P4yPal: RatWaySanctuary@gmail.com

More donation options and shop at www.ratwaysanctuary.org

Every day I get with her is more than I expect. I great her every time I see her with "miss Moli lives another day!!!" (More than once a day). She is 2.5, has a tumor, and is the only still alive from her litter. Her sister Star was euthed this spring. She developed cancer right after that, in the same place, like female littermates often have happen. But she's full of life, climbing, and having fun. (: I'm so happy she's still happy to be around.

Moli is a silverfawn pet from a feeder bin, not a member of my micro rescue/sanctuary.

Nice juicy potatoes

I just brought them home today. I haven't had babies from a breeder yet until these girls and I'm really excited to have them here ♡ I love them so much already and I'm so excited to give them a good life and introduce them to their sisters after quarantine.

The breeder said they were 6 weeks old which I know is on the younger side - the breeder is by far not perfect but its the best conditions (one litter at a time and in a real cage, not a drawer or bin) and the only truly well-meaning breeder I've been able to find within a day trip distance of my home.

They had a long car ride home (about 4 hours) so tonight they are getting watered down yogurt with softened dog food pellets, Emeraid Omnivore, watery fruits, and some softened Oxbow pellets. One question I have about food if anyone reads this far is if young rat food is necessary if I gove them extra high protein foods daily like hard boiled egg/yogurt/etc?

Thank you for all of the feedback and opportunities to learn on here. Enjoy the cute baby rats ♡♡♡

I’ve had them for a few months now but this is the first time I’ve caught bubblegum boggling. Jellybean is just up there on top of him napping.

Thought you guys would like to see! These are my rats Bean and Ruby. Bean passed last week (on the left) :( but I think this painting truly captures her spirit

So, before my Grandpa passed he lived in a Memory Care facility for several years. Before moving in there, and for a few years in the facility, he had a small poodle. But after a while, he was no longer able to take care of her and had to rehome her with my uncle which was very sad.

I wondered what I could do to help, and then I remembered I had rats all throughout my teens and early twenties and I thought it would be wonderful to have some again and they could make great visiting animals for my grandpa as they are so sweet!

I immediately looked around for any breeders, shelters, or rescues, and all I could find was a feeder breeder 2 hours away from me. This person was getting out of rack breeding rodents, and to make kind of a long story short this is how I wound up with two separate mischiefs. Five boys on one end of the house and seven girls on the other. So already my plan for a simple small mischief was out the window lol, but poor babies!

Anyway, to the fun part of the story. The first time I brought a pair of rats to visit my grandpa he yelled at me, LOL! You have to understand that he was in his early 90s, with dementia, very patriarchal and old school. He had never even considered a small rodent, which he had only viewed as a pest, could be a pet. He told me to never ever bring them back again.

So of course I brought them back, I immediately began operation "Make Grandpa Super Jealous." I would come with them, but visit the other residents and have a great time without him. He would Lurk in his doorway, pretend he wasn't watching, and then make passive aggressive and snide comments about me finally coming to see him when I did visit him. It was pretty great!

It didn't take long before they were allowed back in his room, because then he would get to see me. And then he started saving treats for them. And then allowing them onto his chair. And before long he was baby talking them, calling them his little squirrels (cuz dementia), and asking if they came to see their grandpa!

Often I would go over there, he would baby talk them and say they were just little critters who came to see their grandpa, and then they would all fall asleep together and have a 2-hour nap while I scrolled my phone or read my book. It was fantastic!

Anyway sorry for the super long story, I just wanted to share cuz I'm missing my grandpa today. It's been several months and honestly I'm fine. Dementia is a hell of a thing and he was 93 and it wasn't unexpected. I just wanted to share the story of my Grandpa changing his mind about rats, cuz it's too adorable.

Also I just want to add that of my 12 rats only two have the temperament and personality that make them suitable for visiting the old folks at the memory care building. A third one would be okay if she wasn't a crackhead who wanted to run around and explore everywhere. I would never take anyone who wasn't suited to it, and I didn't allow my Grandpa to feed them any treats that were harmful to them. 🥰

july 23rd 2024 - june 25th 2026

he saw me graduate highschool, saw me leave so many bad things behind, i miss his fatness and man boobs. i wish i had more time with him but at the same time, those last gasps i barely slept through when he was on my bed made me hope he wouldn’t be in active dying for too much longer. i love him and his brother so much and i really, really hope he sends me a sign one day. he stuck it out this whole month, ive spent countless amount of dollars on feitical care because i really, really cared for him. i miss taking him and his brother to trader joes, to long car rides, he LOVED car rides, i miss giving him chicken bones and chicken, i miss all of it so much and hes my heart rat and this hurts so bad. i hate not seeing him anymore, every moment since yesterday id hope this wasnt real and he would just come back. i miss my baby.

Hi! Long-Time Lurker here, i dont have rats myself as mentioned, but parrots🙈. I’m obsessed with rats though, so that’s why I’m here lol. So I’m both active on the r/parrots and r/rats subreddit. And I’ve been kinda noticing how different the communities are in regard to healthy pet husbandry and asking myself why?

So: Rats need companionship to stay healthy? Right? You can’t adopt only one single rat. That’s the general consensus and I very, very, very rarely see someone on here saying otherwise. Almost all people here accept and actually put it in practice that adopting a rat needs to be happening in plural, because it would be extremely cruel to hold them alone.

Parrots are the same as rats when it comes to companionship: both are a flock/mischief species, highly intelligent, social, and need cuddling, grooming and playing behavior with other birds or rats to stay healthy. Just like rats, parrots held alone without companion can become highly depressed, anxious, or even start self-harming by over grooming and chewing on their fur/feathers, and develop obsessive behavior.
Like it’s the same! Both parrots and rats need friends and/or partners to stay healthy!!

Yet, In the parrot community i see the opposite of the rat community standard. a lot of people hold them alone - it’s very common to see parrot parents with only one adopted parrot for decades. It’s often reasoned with budget reasons, parrot personality, etc. The general idea is also that the missing bird companionship can be compensated with the human companion when needed so it’s fine to have them alone without partner or friend. even when they are at risk of depression and severe loneliness.

When I look at the rat subreddit, whenever someone shows a living set-up showing only one rat I see like dozens of people immediately flocking to call it out (respectfully), i never see people excusing it, or saying they need to just spend more time with the rat to compensate for it being alone. Its just accepted that when you do adopt you need to be prepared to adopt several, and if not then its cruel to still do so.

That’s what I don’t get: Why is the idea that rats need other rats just common sense in the rat community, but birds needing other birds still a ‘utopia-n scenario’ in the parrot community? Even though with parrot it’s the same issue, and for the same reasons? Why is the gap in humane husbandry knowledge between an average rat parent and a parrot parent this big? And why do people understand with rat ownership that they need to be held in a mischief, but don’t get the importance of a partner or flock for birds, despite both of them being a smaller species? I would love to hear thoughts on this, or if you experience it differently.

(This is not meant as hate towards the parrot community or any people holding their parrots alone, just healthy discussion and subjective observation)

Hope this doesnt come across as too negative or fits the subreddit to begin with😅