Alfalfa King Timothy Hay

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kelsey514 said:
Couldn't hurt to try it!
So we're down to 11 blocks from the 15 this morning. But those blocks are so tiny, I doubt 2 each is ok in 12 hours...? & Should they be biting such big holes in their towels? My boys never did that. I don't see any bits and pieces of towel lying around, I hope they're not eating it!
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They are probably making the towels their own, hehe The females I had here were bad chewers but my boys not so much. My guys eat maybe 1-2 blocks a day. I have no idea if that is normal though.
 
You also give them a grain mix? If so, that's why they don't touch their oxbow. And they may not touch their harlan. Rats with a grain mix will hold out for the grain mix.

You say in that site she puts a lot of research... but where's that proof to show that she does research? I would need to see her citing her work.
 
Oh yea I know they wouldn't touch the blocks if they get a grain mix :) I waited 24 hours of them not touching their blocks at all to give them something because I got nervous. But now it's been 36 hours since I gave them any grain mix and they are making some progress on the blocks. yay! Now the only thing I'm waiting out is to see if their sneezing cuts back. mspca said if it doesn't get better, or especially if it gets worse (duh), to bring them back in. It's about the same...last night at times it was worse. And I'm changing their towels every night so I know it's not anything here.
 
I started feeding oxbow (finally found a reasonable priced location). Most of my rats are eating it without issues although I do have a few that are holding out for something better. I feed Mazuri 6F as my staple for block. It is just to expensive to get Harlan or native earth due to the shipping costs. As Moon suggested feed it to them frozen and see if that makes a difference.
 
Jo, we feed Suebee's mix twice a week, and put it straight into the boys bowl with their refill of harlan, and they dig out pieces of the 2014 long before the mix is gone... =)
 
MomRat said:
Jo, we feed Suebee's mix twice a week, and put it straight into the boys bowl with their refill of harlan, and they dig out pieces of the 2014 long before the mix is gone... =)
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I also feed a home-made grain mix (not suebee's, although it is somewhat based off that). The boys get it in the evening each day, and HT 2014 in the morning. Both are eaten right up.
:)
 
I don't know if anyone else is still following this post, but my girl Madison is acting crazy today!! She lept out of the cage and ran away, i tried to get her to come to me and she did but then jumped away when I tried to pick her up! I had to get the raisins out and led her back to the cage that way... Is that normal?
 
kelsey514 said:
I don't know if anyone else is still following this post, but my girl Madison is acting crazy today!! She lept out of the cage and ran away, i tried to get her to come to me and she did but then jumped away when I tried to pick her up! I had to get the raisins out and led her back to the cage that way... Is that normal?
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They might have not had much socialization in the past..try doing some bonding games with them. :)
My favourite is wearing 2 layers of loose shirts (or even better, a shirt and a hoodie) and sticking them in the middle of both layers. They'll enjoy exploring around under all the fabric + your scent will be right there... perfect for them to get use to it!

You can also stick them in a small, safe room (such as the bathroom) for 30 minutes to an hour, and lay on the floor and watch them.
They can run away and hide if they want to, but with the room being so small, they can't hide in any "hard-to-reach" spots & chances are they won't hide as long either (not such a big environment to adjust to)
If you're patient, they might start crawling onto you by the end of the session.

Both these techniques will work better if you do them multiple days in a row - turn it into a routine! :)
 
I do the layering trick and they like it. But the thing that's confusing me is that Madison has been interacting with me very well since I got her 4 days ago. This is a sudden change. She's acting all jumpy and skittish, so much so that I'm afraid I'm going to get a good bite! She was shaking like crazy too. Also today, their cage smells very strongly of urine and i just cleaned it last night. This is also a new thing. So...what's going on? Do they go through heat like dogs...could that be it?

Oh, well I just looked it up and it says they go into heat every 4-5 days and I watched a video of the vibrating ears...that's exactly what she looked like!
 
Haha definately sounds like she's in heat! It's an alarming but hilarious thing to see. Expect to see them chasing/humping each other too, it's all normal XD
 
Hormones can make them do crazy things, and rats can be prone to crazy fits, especially young females, even if they're not in heat. You only got them recently, so be prepared to learn lots of new quirks :p
 
Gahhh no matter how many towels I put in their cage, they keep bunching up the bottom layer and peeing all over the bare plastic bottom...and it's nasty! What should I do?

ps I'm definitely appreciating all the support here! You guys are awesome :)
 
kelsey514 said:
Gahhh no matter how many towels I put in their cage, they keep bunching up the bottom layer and peeing all over the bare plastic bottom...and it's nasty! What should I do?

ps I'm definitely appreciating all the support here! You guys are awesome :)
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What type of cage do you have? You could try using binder clips to keep them down.
 
I don't know the brand, it was from Petco about 6 years ago lol But it's 3 levels and the bottom is a deep plastic bin. So there's nowhere to attach the towels to because the actual cage starts about 5" up. =/
Hmm..well I guess if I just left it loose and kind of lie in the bottom and still attach it to the wires that might work, but I feel like they'd end up underneath the towel anyway if it was that loose. lol
 
I would try one solid layer (no bunching, no folds, etc.) and scraps on top for them to nest with.

As far as the diet issues discussed earlier in the thread (sorry I am chiming in so late) the advice on Timothy hay is exactly the same as is given for rabbits, I wonder if the shelter in question just assumed rabbits and rats were so similar that it must be the same for both. (Their needs are not in fact similar at all.) As for the vegan diet, you can find many sites that claim that their dog/cat vegan diets are as suitable as meat based diets but that doesn't make it true. Practically speaking, any diet that allows rats to pick and choose what they eat is not balanced because the rats will eat their favourite parts but ignore others. Rats will rarely starve themselves, even if they don't like Oxbow, if you keep on making it available until the HT comes, they will eat it.
 
I don't know who would think it's ok to give a cat a vegan diet.

They have gotten much better with the Oxbow. They must have just needed a little time to adjust. I agree, rats should have a block. Some rats will eat whatever you put in their mixes though, mine ate everything in the mix equally! But if you put in fruits and veggies and the grain mix at the same time, they would definitely pick fruits and veggies first. I think it would work if you just seperated the two. I certainly don't have the time for that and don't want to worry about them getting all the nutrients though! So blocks it is :)
 
Another HT success!

Like MomRat said, whenever it it time to refill their foodbowl (we let the fuzzbutts free feed) I come back with a bowl of frozen HT 2014 and have 3 rats dancing at the door. Everyone gets handed their own piece and runs off to eat/hide it like a treat.

We all know that anything that is handed directly to or stolen by a rat is obviously The Best Thing Ever.
 

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