I have two female ratties (5 and 4.5 months). Lately their cage [SuperPet for Critters] has become extremely smelly! I thoroughly clean it once a week with white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, but spot clean with a damp cloth or baby wipe daily. No matter what I do, the poop smell returns after a few hours. I feed them Suebees w/ Harlan Teklad 2018, and fresh veggies daily, fruits every few days. I use a mix of Yesterday's News and Carefresh Ultra [I used to use towels, but the girls started absolutely ruining them about a month ago, so I had to switch beddings].

I have to keep them in my bedroom, and the smell is getting to be a bit much! Any suggestions??!

Also, I recently invested in a Wodent Wheel Senior, and while Luna loooves to run in it, she also loves making messes in it :P How do you all clean your WW's?

TIA!

hi everybody i have a quick question.
i just went to an awesome pet supply store that has food in bulk including lab blocks and special mixed food and bunch of different stuff i can just mix. well i got quite a few of different things but when i got home i noticed some of them have bugs in them. small brownish bugs with weird noses like with wiskers or something. they are only in 2 of the bags. i dont want to waste all that food but i dont want to breed bunch of bugs in my rats' cage. i heard that its a good idea to freeze bedding before you use it for some time and ended up putting the food in zip lock bags and put it in the freezer. is that a good idea? most of the other food i havent noticed any bugs in but decided to put it in a freezer just in case. if this would work then how long should i freeze them for?
i just got super excited because this way its much cheaper to buy food and i can mix bunch of stuff and the per store is really nice with lots of stuff i dont see everywhere so this would be a huge bummer if i cant buy food from there :(

thanks for you help

kate

Does anybody know of a good vet in the Portland area? The vet I used to use apparently relocated to the Seattle area (!)...

It can be anywhere in the Metro, I can drive.

I've had it for a while now, and "Ratatouille" has officially bumped "Amadeus" for the title of Favorite Movie Ever EVER.

The video is done to "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)" by Josh Groban.

(x-posted to ratsnospos and theratcommunity)

A pointless entry, just to show off some pictures of the boys. I'm not as fantastic a photographer as some around these parts, but I do my best with what I have.

:D



( Pssst...follow me to pics! )

Indy is a camera ham, for sure. Pi, on the other hand, is not so keen on having his picture taken. I'll post pictures of him when I get the chance. I feel bad, as I recently got injured at work and so the boys haven't had their usual 3 or more hours out of cage time a day. I've been trying to spoil them with new toys and boxes, and their Ferret Nation is at most another two months away. I saw one at Petsmart yesterday and was thiiiiiis close to getting it. I know it's much cheaper elsewhere, but it's so tempting when it's right there and you can touch and look at the box and all. But at the moment I may or may not be moving to a bigger apartment, so I'm going to hold off on getting one until I know whether or not I am. I'm getting it either way, of course, but it would be one less thing to move if I waited, y'know?

Well, I finally got my rats, I was so excited, I had been looking forward to it for two weeks, I got two little girls, named them Pan and Poke, they seem to be discovering aroudn the cage well, they're kinda shy, and the lady at the pet store didn't know shit...Picked them up by their tails, males and females mixed together and all they sold was cedar and pine shavings *sighs*
I plan on giving them a loooot of love, I'm already crazy for them, but Poke is sneezing and it worries me already...
I know I should've gotten them from a breeder, but there is none around here. :s

I hate craigslist, it's depressing reading about what people are doing with their rats, but this post is running around the TX rat boards and fussing people out. Therefore, I bring it here, where there are people who *might actually be able to do something about it*.

Thanks for your patience.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/pet/742387472.html

My mother in law's girl rattie has this weird round lumpy thing underneath her armpit. The other girl has a little round lumpy thing in the exact same spot too. I'm a relatively new rat owner, so I'm not 100% knowledgeable regarding rat anatomy. I'm hoping that they have some sort of mammary tissue/gland there that I was not aware of. Anyone have any advice/experiences that would help?

I guess I'm a little worried because my MIL smokes like a chimney in her house/near the rats and doesn't feed them quality food (cheap, bagged pet food). Not only that, they don't get fresh veggies/fruits on a regular basis. (she's got extremely poor health herself) She feeds them treats of corn and peas every night and occasional baked chicken. I am vehemently opposed to this diet because it isn't meeting their nutritional needs and have expressed my dissent several times. There is a good chance that these growths (if thats what they are) are due to poor diet and exposure to second hand smoke. I've at least convinced her to take them to the vet to get these growths examined. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

Once they return from the vet, I'll give you all an update and I'll try my best to educate her about rat diet and health. *sigh*

I'm so worried.

Does anybody here know of a rescue in the Philadelphia area who would be interested in my rattie supplies/cages/hammocks/water bottles/etc.? I'm about 10 minutes outside of the city and they would have to come here to get the stuff, but they can have it for free. Please pass the word if you know of any rescues in this area who would be interested. Thanks.

I live in Southgate,MI and was wondering if anyone in the area has a female hairless dumbo rat up for adoption?
I've wanted one for such a long time.
I also need a nice cage big enough to fit 3 ratties comfortably.
Im sorry if there's anythign wrong with this post. I just need help and am a bit tired. I know to look on petfinder but I don't want to wait around for one to show up and would prefer a baby. Anyone know of any breeders in my area?
Thanks