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Emmabeeee1996

Emmabeeee1996

New Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Messages
4
Location
Canada Quebec
I own rats and recently moved in with extended family. They have a young child who owns rats but she does not take care of them and the mother and father don’t check on the rats or take care of them either. All her rats are ill because of this so I stepped in and now am taking care of them. I have too many rats now and find it stressful to take care of them all. I clean three cages, give them good food and water and they all get time out of the cage to run around. Her two rats don’t get along and so they have to be in separate cages. I feel like I can’t give them all attention or have the time to make them get along together. What do I do? Is it wrong to give them to some kind of rat rehoming shelter. They are both young enough.
 
How old are they?
Have they always lived together?
Is there only 1 sex of intact rats in the household?
When you say they do not get along, exactly what is the behavior and exactly what is the environment that the behavior occurs in? ie tiny cage etc

If the family agrees and you can find a good rat rescue then yes that might be an option
but there are likely other options as well

all rats need to live with other rats
you may want to check out joinrats.com
 
SQ said:
How old are they?
Have they always lived together?
Is there only 1 sex of intact rats in the household?
When you say they do not get along, exactly what is the behavior and exactly what is the environment that the behavior occurs in? ie tiny cage etc

If the family agrees and you can find a good rat rescue then yes that might be an option
but there are likely other options as well

all rats need to live with other rats
you may want to check out joinrats.com
Click to expand...


I have three males of my own and the two rats I’ve taken on are both males as well. One is less than a year old and the other is a little over a year old. My three have a huge cage and these two each have a big cage. The youngest one is very afraid of any rat and becomes defensive (stands on legs and shows teeth or squeals) I have only tried to introduce them outside of their cages so they are less territorial but I put their cages next to each other so they can get used to one another but even then the older rat lunges at the younger one so they both seem very unsure. I can handle my three rats but I can’t handle five of them. I also can’t watch rats suffer under the care of a child who is too young to take care of animals. They were seriously neglected before I took them. My rats became obsessed trying to attack them through the bars so I asked my sister to look after mine until I can figure out what to do with these two rats that won’t get along. The kid seemed to be relieved when I said I’d take care of them and the parents are aware that i have them. I think it would be best to give them to someone who has time and attention to give to these little rats. And it would be better for my rats to come home so I can give them all my time and attention. I’m spreading myself thin trying to give them a better life. I don’t regret it because I’ve probably saved them from a future of neglect. I still feel guilty that I can’t keep all of them. I’m just worried if I give them away if they’ll be take care of. The older rat has had two seizures that are triggered by loud noises and the younger one has an upper respiratory infection which I am treating with doxy.
 
WOW
Thanks for taking those 2 poor rats on
If doxy is not enough, you might want to try doxy + baytril (for at least 4 to 6 weeks if it helps)

If you start a post on the older rat, lilspaz68 can give you info re treating rats with seizures as she has had a lot of experience
You will want to describe the seizures in detail, post a video if possible, and explain the circumstances in detail.
It would also be a good ide to keep a detailed record of each seizure and when it occurred in order to track them and so patterns can be discovered

It sounds like the younger boy could be introed in with your rats if you had the time etc (see joinrats.com)
And if the aggression is not being caused by neurological issues, then the older boy may need a neuter

The Ottawa Rat Rescue is an excellent rat rescue and I would suggest that you contact them http://www.ottawaratrescue.com/
Jorats (Admin and founder of this group) is on their board of directors
They provide medical care and try to act in the rat's best interests
In addition, lilspaz68 lives in the Toronto area and might be able to help
 
Last edited:
SQ said:
WOW
Thanks for taking those 2 poor rats on
If doxy is not enough, you might want to try doxy + baytril (for at least 4 to 6 weeks if it helps)

If you start a post on the older rat, lilspaz68 can give you info re treating rats with seizures as she has had a lot of experience
You will want to describe the seizures in detail, post a video if possible, and explain the circumstances in detail.
It would also be a good ide to keep a detailed record of each seizure and when it occurred in order to track them and so patterns can be discovered

It sounds like the younger boy could be introed in with your rats if you had the time etc (see joinrats.com)
And if the aggression is not being caused by neurological issues, then the older boy may need a neuter

The Ottawa Rat Rescue is an excellent rat rescue and I would suggest that you contact them http://www.ottawaratrescue.com/
Jorats (Admin and founder of this group) is on their board of directors
They provide medical care and try to act in the rat's best interests
In addition, lilspaz68 lives in the Toronto area and might be able to help
Click to expand...

Thank you for all the information! I really appreciate it! Somehow I’ve managed to get the two of them to get along outside the cage so it’s a start. The youngest one keeps trying to restle with the older one and the older one kind of ignores him but that’s better than before. I have to decide what to do with them which is a hard decision to make. I’ll make the best choice for them. Maybe I’ll just have to keep them but that would mean my sister would keep my other three because they were aggressive to the older one and I find five rats too much. It’s a really tough decision to me. I’d like to keep them all. I’ll definitely ask about the seizures, he did the exact same thing both times it was triggered so I think I know the cause. He went close to a speaker that was playing music and I read that noise can be a trigger so I just won’t play music while they are free roaming. When it happens he runs around and knocks into everything. It’s hard to know if I should pick him up or let him knock into stuff, both are potentially dangerous.
 
You certainly have your hands full! If you could get those two rats to get along, that would be perfect and if you feel you need to rehome them, that's perfectly fine too. You don't want to get overwhelmed either.
I did have a rat once who would run around like in a huge panic, hitting walls and such and it seemed to be each time I vacuumed. I just stopped vacuuming around him and he seemed much better.
 
jorats said:
You certainly have your hands full! If you could get those two rats to get along, that would be perfect and if you feel you need to rehome them, that's perfectly fine too. You don't want to get overwhelmed either.
I did have a rat once who would run around like in a huge panic, hitting walls and such and it seemed to be each time I vacuumed. I just stopped vacuuming around him and he seemed much better.
Click to expand...

I think I’m going to try and put the bigger one in the smaller ones cage and see if it goes okay! But I’m definitely going to watch the whole time and probably put him back in his cage again for the night. I hope they get along. I’m still not sure what I’ll do with them but if they become friends it’ll be good for everyone. Yeah I’m just never going to play music out loud it’s not worth the risk! His nail came off from the last time he rain around like that probably because he hit it on something! It’s healing pretty good. I’m feeling more positive about this. Thanks for the responses!
 
SQ said:
Have you done many successful neutral area intros? many successful nonneutral area intros? if so then you need to completely clean a cage so it does not smell or look like anyones territory, put them in the cage and keep an eye on them for at least 12 hours
(See joinrats.com and the established gradual intro steps https://www.ratshackforum.com/threa...ps-used-when-putting-new-rats-together.32368/ )
Click to expand...

It took some time but I’ve successfully got them to live together! Now they snuggle all day :) when I take them out the youngest rat is very happy and loves to be tickled and bounces around but the older one is still very shy and seems to always try to go to the speaker that caused him to have a seizure. We don’t play music anymore since loud noises seems to trigger it. I cleaned the area because I thought maybe he smells something interesting but he still wants to go there. I have no clue why!? There’s a bright light there, and it’s a small space so maybe he feels safe or maybe he likes the light? Maybe he remembers the seizure was caused there? It seems like a strange behaviour. Ive has rats that liked a spot and would try to get to it all the time but they were never this fixated.
 

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