Vacation

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TulipAndBlossom

Guest
i’m going On a vacation and I have to leave my pet rats at home for a week. We are leaving on Monday and I want to know what should I leave them with. There’s two they are both young girl rats.
 
It is unsafe to leave rats alone …….. they can become ill and die quickly without medical care.
Water bottles can get clogged, water dishes filled with bedding etc and they will die - rats die every year due to dehydration
Other things can happen as well

It is important that rats are checked on at least twice a day to ensure they are not ill, provide food, and clean water.

People who need to go away get other rat owners or knowledgeable friends or family to either care for the rats in their homes or drop by twice a day to care for them. Other people hire a knowledgeable pet sitter to care for their pet rats in your home or in theirs.

Rats need their blocks, a variety of daily vegetables, clean water, clean cages, and clean litter boxes.
Rats need to be checked for illness and need to be taken to your vet and given medicine if they become ill

No pets can just be left for a week ….. and especially small pets that become ill and die fast without medical care
I would not leave pet rats for longer then overnight unless I had someone reliable caring for them

good luck
 
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When I left for a weekend, I asked my friend to come and check on them once at night, and then once during the day to check their water bottles, water bowls, and food bowls. They fed them and gave them some veggies for me. My friend isn't exactly rat smart, but I gave her a 45-minute lecture on how to care for rats in a brief way and what to look out for. I gave her a list with pictures. I'm sure she thought I was being excessive, but my rats were fine. She even texted me a few times like "is this okay?"
She knew my rats well and they knew her, so they accepted her poking around and even gave her a few kisses. Some of my social and brave rats even tolerated some handling from her. She had handled them before and I had shown her how, so I felt like my rats were in good hands.
 
I'm VERY strict about my rats when I go on vacay. If my kids can't take care of them, I have my mom come in and feed them and check on them. I always have her put food in their dishes, and veggies in their baskets, and she changes their water. She can pet them, but there is a strict rule about her not picking them up or holding them. They are very social, but if a smell is off just a bit, or something scared them, they tend to scatter. I would be devastated if one of them fell, or got lost trying to find safety. I've even had the worst happen the last time I went out of town. Cookie was perfectly fine when I left a day earlier, and had been played with, and checked on only and hour earlier and was fine. Then when my son went to give him a treat, he found him dead on the bottom of the cage. Let me tell you from experience, you DON'T want to get a call in the middle of the night, that your rat is dead, or come home to find him dead for who knows how long. At least my kids could wrap him up, and put him in the freezer until I could get home 2 days later. But rats can choke, and need help, or get tangled in stuff in their cage, or even escape trying to look for human companionship. Maybe at the very least have someone come in, check bowls, clean and refill water bottles, and talk to them for a bit. Don't leave a light on 24/7, but don't leave them in the dark 24/7 either. They are very social animals, and need human attention. In fact, they crave it and will often beg for it. They need to know they weren't just left alone and abandoned.
 
What you can do if you want to make things easier for whoever watches your rats is, put each day's worth of lab blocks in a snack size ziploc, and each day's worth of veggies (seperate each meal if you feed veggies twice, like in small batches, in snack bags), and put in a few appropriate treats, (say plain cheerios, or a slice of apple, or a couple of grapes) in a snack bag, then place all of them for each day in a gallon sized ziploc bag, and label the big bag with the day it's for. That way, your care taker only has to grab a gallon bag, and give a couple treats to distract your rats while they add food to the dish, then close the cage. In each bag, also put special instructions, if any, so its all streamlined. I'd put in day one, a note saying fill water bottles. Day two, clean and refill water bottle. And so on. Clean every other day. Put a list of ABSOLUTE NO NO FOODS on that list too. Some people like to bring their own "treats", and these can be dangerous, like peanut butter, or too much sugar. Put the bags in your refrigerator in order of the days y'all will be gone. Then post a RAT RULES sign near their cage. Rules like no taking them out of their cage, or huts. Or no outside time. And leave a disposible camera near for them to take pics while they are with your rats, so both of you can look back on cute pics later. Put any supplies they may need, like a broom and dust pan, or baby wipes. Or towels in case of emergency, and of course their travel cage with vets name and number written on the top with with instructions on how to get there. But if that's not an option, and Noone you know will take care of them, call different animal hospitals about boarding them for a small fee. Or rescues near you. They can sometimes care for them for a short time. It may cost a little bit of money, or time (helping the shelter out with duties, or a small donation. But ABSOLUTELY DO NOT leave them alone.
 
Made sure whomever takes care of them can contact you at any time, that they have your vet's contact info, and make arrangements with you vet to treat them while you are gone if they are brought in so the person will not have to come up with the money for treatment etc. If the person is knowledgeable re rats you can also give them a letter with permission for them to get your rats medical treatment.

Also call the person daily to see how your rats are doing.
 
Thank you for your help, but I have gone on vacation and came back. I was not allowed to have anyone check on them during my vacation. I left them with plenty of food and water, and came back to them being perfectly fine. I left for about 6 days, and they got a little bit bigger! Thanks for your time giving me advice though. :)
 
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