What is humane and possible?

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Ratti

New Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2018
Messages
1
Location
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So I just found out today my baby is possibly a girl and she is my littl cuddlebug and super personality and I adore her. I dont want her to be snake food or alone in a pet store. I also dont want to separate her for long from the boys but I wont be able to get them neutered for a long time as i'm still paying off my dogs 4k bill for pancreatitis a couple of weeks ago. I have doors at the top and bottom of the cage. Is it mentally OK if I separate them by basically creating a rat apartment where she gets the top floor and they get the bottom floor. Will the pheromones and proximity be inhumane? Will her psudoisolation be inhumane?
 
You need to separate them by sex and if the cage is large enough, it should be possible to separate it into two.
Post pics and perhaps people can suggest ideas

Rats do need to live with other rats but hopefully in a few weeks you will be able to get her spayed or the boys neutered by a good vet with the experience and knowledge to do it safely - it is different from cats and dogs. Spaying when possible is also important for health reasons

If she is living alone for awhile, you will need to spend several hours a day with her ... it will not replace living with other rats but will help.

good luck
 
So as soon as the store opens I plan on buying mesh wire and splitting the cage in half. Will that be enough space for the boys on bottom and her on top?
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What are the cage dimensions?
You will want to cover all wire floors ...... dollar store dish drain trays cut to fit and attached with zip ties are good to cover small levels, while a piece of thick linoleum, cut to fit can be used to cover a larger floor space

You will want to use the space wisely, hanging hammocks, attaching more levels or hanging baskets etc .... you might find some useful ideas in the habitat section (however, it the baby is pregnant, you will need to remove all levels, hammocks etc from her half - actually with that bar spacing she will need a different cage because the bars look too wide)

You might also want to get a digital scale that weighs accurately to 1 gram and has a tare function - important for all rat owners - but esp now as you can start weighing the baby at the same time each day and recording the info so we can see changes in weight ... although babies do normally gain weight
 
It is 4 ft by 3 ft by 2 ft. I was thinking of halving it. The boys are super lazy and rarely go to the third level so I could possibly even give her 1/3 and them 2/3rds... I built extra floors into the current one so the boys would have two levels with floor space and room for the ramp in the second floor cut out. She would only have a solid kinda of live in the upstairs apartment with one little level. The bar spacing is really tight on purpose because I knew I was getting rats st a young I cant get my pinky through it and they can barely fit the tip of their noses through. I can definitely give her hours of attention daily as I am a student and planned on training her to be with me most of the time i'm home anyways because I finally found a rat with the personality to be able to hang out with me without running off or jumping away when te cats walk past. It's been a slow process but shes perfect for it.. that probably should have been my first cue. The boys are just lazy and afraid to leave the cage. They scramble to get back in as soon as they are close enough even jumping from my shoulder and hands and it seems dangerous to me so they just get playtime with each other and toys supervised on the bed with the cats locked out for safety reasons.
 
Oh, I'm so sorry for you! Separate her Immediately! I sure hope she's not pregnant... You don't really know her age to know when she could be spayed, do you? This is upsetting for you, damn pet stores!
Your wonderful cage you worked so hard on will certainly be fine to separate a level for her.. You'll do a great job as you did with the cage initially.. As SQ says, linoleum can be used to cover the wire floor, coroplast is great stuff too for things like that...
I've had boys & girls in separate cages right next to each other (not recommended because of possible escapes), it didn't pose any stress or problems for anyone (tho my boys were very young or old at the time).
I hope all goes well..
 
I would have that sweet girl spayed and placed back with her buddies.
I cant afford to have her spayed. That's why I asked the pet store for males only :( I can afford basic care for them until after I graduate in December when I can work again which is why instead of buying a new cage for several hundred dollars I refurbished an old one for twenty dollars and some hard work. Unfortunately my dog took all of our pet emergency fund earlier this month. He had acute pancreatitis with secondary aspiration pneumonia and he had started to develop DIC with liver involvement. He was hospitalized for a week and very sick for the three weeks after Mother's day.. he still has liver issues but the 4k we had set aside for pet emergencies is gone. I got the two baby rats just before all this happened to keep Guinness happy since Stout died, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten them and just made Guinness a Bachelor.
 
That's certainly understandable! again, I'm sorry you're faced with this difficulty in your happy little family.. So you put a separation in the cage and all will be well.. I hope your dog will be ok, too..
.. maybe this is why the boys were being so nice building her a nest and bringing her food, they knew something you didn't?o_O
 
Look into the cost of a spay so you know what you are dealing with, and save what you can toward it so that in a few months, or Jan you will be able to get one ...... my vet charges approx $230 but an exotic vet 6 hrs away from me charges $85, ..... prices can range from hundreds of dollars to much more affordable levels, depending on the vet and where you are. Of course the most important thing is making sure you have a good vet that can safely spay a rat

It is great that you have created a safe play area on the bed for your boys. Re rats sitting on you ...... some will, but definitely not usual behaviour for rats to do it for long, especially for young active rats, because rats need to get out in a safe play area (in their groups not one at a time) and run and play and climb and explore and interact with you for one to two hours per day ........ I find that my rats like having access to their cage when they are out playing and they tend to go back and forth. Although some rats seem to be ok, is normal for rats to be afraid if there are predators, like cats, in the house.

So nice that they boys were parenting the baby

Btw, as you may be aware, it is dangerous to mix rats with any other species because rats are either predators (smaller animals) or prey.

good luck with dividing the cage. It is a good size and they should have lots of room if the space is use wisely. For example, a critter nation cage also has a base that is 3 feet by 2 feet as well as height, and when divided in half with the space used wisely, it can house several rats comfortably in each half.
 
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My cats are definitely not trustworthy which is why I wanted a rat friend I can trust to stay on my person when the door is open and i'm busying around the house or doing studies. I had an ASF male that belongs to my friend for a short time. He escaped and it was a race who got to him first. The poor guy bit me so hard I tried holding on but ended up dropping him on the couch which he ran under. My maine coon cat brought him gently back to me unharmed. That ASF was lucky... my maine coon was taught fetch. He also has a gentle bite on toys because he stole a kids toy that exploded liquid when he bit it when he was a kitten.

Also I got a small bird cage from my friend who had it in storage. It collapses so I'm about to go tear it apart and put it back together for a floor. Attach with a ton of zip ties and be vigilant about checking it regularly for any damage. I'm going to line it with something more solid than the fleece that I use on the wire levels.
 
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Yes, you absolutely need a solid floor.
A thread was just started today about a baby girl who died after becoming trapped in the wire floor of her cage
 
I'd for sure start saving. In KY some vets only charge $50 for a spay. maybe instead of buying fancy coffee you can save that $4 for her spay. Every bit will help. Maybe if you know you can't afford her spay at any point you could try to get her a female friend, that would be better than housing her alone
 
i would suggest that you do not get her a friend, at least not for 3 weeks because if she is pregnant her she will be able to live with her daughters.

Edit: She will need to live with other rats as soon as possible but the more girls you have, the more spays you will need
 
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It's done! My boyfriend cut the finch cage apart and we used the stronger support sides and reinforced them with a lot of zip ties all over. The floor wedged perfectly in the cage we had to force it in and then we zip tied it to the sides a bunch of times. I had some tile samples from a while back so I used those to give her a solid floor then with the last of my fleece I zip tied her a hammock and covered the shelf. I also used an old fitted sheet and cut in half to help prevent spillage all over the room by zip tying the sheet to the outside of the cage near her level and under the bottom.

She seems happy and a little lost at the same time. If she doesn't have a litter then my friend who is downsizing her personal rattery said she will give me one of her female rex rats to keep her company.
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Beautiful, Again, you've done a fantastic job! I feel bad for you that all this was necessary, and for the kids that they had to be separated, but I know your little Trouble is gonna get lots of attention from you while you work everything out. You had no idea how prophetic that name would be when you named him (her), did you..
 
Beautiful, Again, you've done a fantastic job! I feel bad for you that all this was necessary, and for the kids that they had to be separated, but I know your little Trouble is gonna get lots of attention from you while you work everything out. You had no idea how prophetic that name would be when you named him (her), did you..
I named her that because my boyfriend didn't know I was bringing her home and I knew I would be in a little bit of trouble for about 5 minutes lol. He joked last night that now i'm in more trouble if she has babies lol
 
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