Am I the only one...?

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manda_lovee

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Aug 13, 2014
Messages
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Who gets sad when your look up stuff for your rat and there's "rat poison" "rat extermination"? [emoji17] [emoji26]
 
Manda, no, you are not the only one, I promise!

I am sure it happens to all of us rat lovers and I am so used to seeing those exterminator ads that I don't even pay attention to them anymore. No worries, and don't be sad! :love2:
 
Or rats being smashed in traps. I can't do it!!
My family doesn't understand the point of me getting a pet rat my Mom even said she wasn't coming to my apartment anymore.
People just don't understand [emoji31]
They're just so cute and lovable. [emoji4] [emoji7] [emoji8]
 
You're not the only one, I've been saddened by those ads too. /: more offended and hurt when my 'friends' joke around about feeding my rats to snakes and giving them rat poison or linking me to sites that sell rat poison. I cut ties with one of these people when one of these 'friends' told me that my terminally ill rat could be cured if I let him feed him some rat poison, and he could make it all 'better'. People can be jerks.
 
Yeah, people can be down right mean and cruel..it is what makes the human species the least admirable of all the species on our planet. And those jokes or rude comments about rat poison, etc, just come from ignorance about what wonderful creatures rats are. Zephye, boy, if I had a friend who advised rat poison for a terminally ill rat of mine, that person would instantly become a non-friend to me. That is monstrous to say something like that. I would have zero tolerance for that.

People who do not know about them or have never interacted with a pet rat tend to lump ALL rats together and make up their (tiny) minds that the word RAT means vermin, filth, disease, etc.

The way rats are portrayed in media/films does not help. But knowledge brings understanding and compassion, so do not lose hope. My mother, who is in her 70's, was creeped out, scared and did the "ewww" thing when my husband and I adopted our first rats.

All it took was having her come to visit, interacting with our rats and learning about their loving and sweet natures, and now she cannot wait to come and see them (well, now it is just Achilles, since Maximus passed away) and give them a treat or hold them, etc. She even picked up a few things from thrift stores for them as "presents from Grandma". WOW.

This kind of thing happens all the time when people lose their prejudice by getting to know the charms and sweet natures of rats. If it can happen to my mother, there is hope for all out there! :dance:

Just take every opportunity to educate others about rats when you talk to people. When someone says, "Eww, I can't stand rats" or whatever, ask that person how many domesticated pet rats they have interacted with or spent time with. Chances are the answer is, none. So there you go. Ignorance breeds fear. Take that fear away with information and education, if that makes sense. ;)
 
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I would definitely not have room for people like that in my life...

That's my plan get my babies well handled and then introduce my mom to them. I'm just now setting up my house for my rat babies. Have not gotten them yet but next Sunday is the day I go pick them out. I am so excited and happy I found this forum to begin my experience with lots of help! [emoji4]

Where do you guys free range? What do you do to rat proof the area?
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Where do you buy your food? And what type do you buy?

I see a lot of mentions of uti's? Are rats prone to such? Should I feed them cranberries often?
 
I let them free range about the apartment, just blocking off areas where they can get to wires and the kitchen area with a gate. I've been planning to get a rug just to cover the area since my boys love to mark a lot. :roll: That and I've learned rats can basically get through anything if they really wanted too.

I buy my food from my local shelter who sells oxbow for a good price. c: Since I foster from them I get the exact cost too, which is even better.

I find rats get URI's more than uti's. Haven't experienced a UTI yet in my experience of owning them. You can give cranberries as a treat but other than that I'm not too sure.

I also have zero tolerance for people who can't respect that I own rats. If they can't have the maturity to keep their comments to themselves I want nothing to do with them. Most of them think they're cute but they don't really have the ability to understand why I care more than that they're pets. They seem to put pets as a lower priority, I'm sort of glad none of them own pets themselves.
 
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I have made a coroplast playpen surrounding their cage which I leave open most of the time because I work from home. You can get coroplast from home depot or those type of stores. We didn't cut it so it's 4 feet high but it needs to be a minimum of 3 feet high. The playpen is just for them so not much rat proofing needed. Some people will use a bathroom or bed.

I feed my girls Oxbow as well. You can get that at most pet stores I believe. It's best to only give that to adult rats. If you have young rats Harlan is good but it needs to be ordered as opposed to bought in store. We can help you find that if that's what you want. Living World's Extrusion is also considered an acceptable brand. I think it's marketed for hamsters? but it's okay for rats. It can be bought in a pet store. They also needs lots of fresh veggies and some fresh fruit. I would limit the fruit.

Are you sure you aren't seeing URI as in upper respiratory infection? This is incredibly common with rats. I haven't heard too much about rats getting UTIs.
 
Ugh! I don't understand that kind of joking. If you wouldn't have a rat as a pet, fine, but don't joke about killing/feeding a living creature I love.

I have guinea pigs and it's equally hard to research because you inevitably end up with pictures of them as someone's dinner :( :swear:
 
I have had people insist on showing me pictures of rats being eaten by snakes. It's like really, you think I want to see that? I realize rats aren't for everyone but when people are doing the kinds of things mentioned on the thread it's not okay.
 
Thanks for the answers! I have another question I've posted once now but I'll post again just to make sure I get answers

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Is this an okay hide out just for the ride home? Since the ride home will be about 2 hours I want to give them a nice hide out. Its an old shampoo bottle. Washed out. Edges melted to be soft & not sharp. Will it be okay for going home?
Plus note the cut up baby blanket in the back cut into strips so they can fluff it up themselves!:) good idea or not?
 
I'm confused. You want to keep them in the bottle? Is the bottle going inside something and this is just a little house or are you trying to confine them to that bottle?
 
I have had people insist on showing me pictures of rats being eaten by snakes. It's like really, you think I want to see that? I realize rats aren't for everyone but when people are doing the kinds of things mentioned on the thread it's not okay.

Wow, Trikhal, what is the motivation for people who insist on showing you pictures of snakes eating rats? It is boggling my mind. Have you asked these creeps WHY they want to show you these pictures? Just to enjoy someone else's discomfort or sadness or what? That just freaks me out that a person could be that mean spirited. I would really want to ask them, "What outcome are you looking for by showing these photos to me?"
 
I also have zero tolerance for people who can't respect that I own rats. If they can't have the maturity to keep their comments to themselves I want nothing to do with them. Most of them think they're cute but they don't really have the ability to understand why I care more than that they're pets. They seem to put pets as a lower priority, I'm sort of glad none of them own pets themselves.[/QUOTE]

Yep, agreed. People who thing "pets" are less important than other members of the family should NOT have pets.
 
Where do you guys free range? What do you do to rat proof the area?
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Where do you buy your food? And what type do you buy?

My boys always free ranged every day on our bed, or on the living room couch, with lots of blankets to play and hide under. They also had a playpen area that we basically set up on our dining room table (since we never use that table anyway) with lots of fleece, hidey boxes, places to sleep, snacks, toys, etc.

I have always purchased my Harlan Teklad lab block food online from The Crafty Rat website. I am sure there are many other online places to order it. Oxbow also makes a good lab block for rats as well and you can sometimes find that at online pet supply places. I never go into pet stores though.
 
Wow, Trikhal, what is the motivation for people who insist on showing you pictures of snakes eating rats? It is boggling my mind. Have you asked these creeps WHY they want to show you these pictures? Just to enjoy someone else's discomfort or sadness or what? That just freaks me out that a person could be that mean spirited. I would really want to ask them, "What outcome are you looking for by showing these photos to me?"

They claim they 'just wanted me to be aware'. Did it ever occur to them I might prefer ignornant bliss? But in reality I am all too aware that happens without the graphic pictures.
 
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