My Lovely Rats

My four boys have come through another battle with myco, and I’m doing all I can to build up their immune systems, by adding vitamin drops to their water and garlic powder to their dry food mix. The dry food is replaced every so often so that there is a constant supply in their cage. I use half Burgess Super Rat Excel and half my own mix which is based on the Shumanite diet (see links below). They get fresh food every day, including green leafy veg (not too much as this may cause diarrhoea) and I try to vary their fresh food every day. They can eat nearly everything we do, except that they mustn’t have too much protein (from nuts, eggs and meat) as this can cause skin problems. Too much fat or sugars in a rat’s diet can have the same effect as it does with us, the rat can become overweight and may suffer ailments associated with this including diabetes. The odd sprinkle of sunflower seeds between a few rats always goes down well though!

I’ve found the following sites to be very useful for information on many aspects of rat care:-

Ratz
Shumanite Rats
The Dapper Rat

Beautiful Rocky

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating rocket salad and cooked beans.

Tags: Food and Treats, Health by admin
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For Christmas I decided that just because my four boys were rats, it didn’t mean they should be left out of the Christmas celebrations. So I filled a fabric advent calender (one of those with the little pockets) with food treats. They soon came scampering up to the top of their cage to collect a treat from mum every day!

They also received a wopping big Christmas stocking from ‘mother’ Christmas! They got lots of treats and a few new hammocks and nests from my two favourite Internet rat shops: Acrorats and Fuzzbutt Cage Comforts. Acrorats make the most sturdy rat bunk beds which have lasted longer than any other products I’ve tried. They also sell great rat treats, cereal mixes and medicines. Fuzzbutt make wonderfully original rat furniture which has been well designed and is tested by…..rats of course!

Here are some examples of the rats’ fave beds:

Pip sniffing out new Acrorats Bucket

Acrorats Bunk Bed in April 2007 /Same Bunk Bed in October 07

Fuzzbutt’s Snooze Cube (still going strong,
with extra bolt hole made by the rats!

Today my rats have been mostly eating rodent ‘pizza’ and rodent chocolate drops.

Tags: Toys and Games, Food and Treats by admin
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Since giving Shy-Shy his medicine disguised in soft food, he is much more relaxed and friendly around me, so I’ve tried offering the other three rats food soft food from a spoon. I started with yoghurt (the fruity kind with no bits - because this is what my kids eat), and the rats love it. At first they would only come to the door of their cage to take the food from me, but after only a few days Stripe and Rocky were eating the food on my lap. Pip is still nervous, but I’m sure he’ll come round once he realises I’m the treat-lady!

Shy-Shy discovers an orange pointy thing

Pip, Stripe, Rocky and Shy-Shy’s Favourite Treats:

Scrambled Egg (A firm favourite, but messy)

Sweetcorn (They can’t resist this!)

Sunflower Seeds ( Not too many)

Yoghurt (Served on a teaspoon on owner’s lap!)

Egg Custard Baby Food (Too tempting for the shyest rat to miss!)

Cheesy Vegetables Baby Food (I found this great to hide medicine in)

Mashed Banana in Lactose-Free Baby Milk (Or soya baby milk is supposed to be OK for young growing rats, and good for poorly rats)

Pip gets his carrot and eats it

Today my rats have been mostly eating cornflakes.

Tags: Food and Treats, Handling and Taming by admin
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