Hi from Ontario.

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mamaz

Member
Joined
May 27, 2020
Messages
9
Location
Ontario, Canada
Hi! Initially, I was researching hamsters and watching Youtube videos on them when I stumbled on pet rats and well.... I'M OBSESSED LOL!! Anyways, I found this forum and have been looking at some of the posts. I am currently in the process of trying to find a critter nation (impossible right now or always impossible? hmmmm). But yea, once I find the cage then I'll get all the accessories and stuff like that. Super excited!!! Feel free to give me some tips as a first time rat owner!!

I hope everyone is doing fine during this time. :)
 
It's so cool to find another person from Ontario on here! I felt the exact same way when I found out about how awesome they are on Youtube many years ago. I feel your pain trying to find a critter nation cage. They're sold out a lot whenever I check, since they are pretty much the best cages. Do you have rats yet, I can't really tell (I sometimes miss stuff if it's not overwhelmingly obvious lol) but I can't wait until you can show pictures of them regardless! I hope any rats you may or may not currently have (or your future rat children) do great and behave at least most of the time lol.

I still consider myself a newer rat owner, so I'm not sure how good my advice is. But for starters I'd recommend you fill their cage up as much as possible since my boys had some issues because of boredom. Which is fixed now! You don't have to break the bank either, I found that my boys love those small baskets from the dollar store and when they were smaller would sleep together in one. It was so adorable. Don't be afraid to zip tie things to the cage bars, I'm pretty sure most rats won't bother chewing them and it give you a lot more freedom to add things. Their favourite thing I bought that's actually for pets is probably their Space Pod/ Sputnik. Now that they're bigger and can reach it from the bars they've made it their nest and they all sleep together. If you can find someplace near you that sells them I 100% recommend. I do fill anything made of plastic with these soft pet blankets that I get from the dollar store, just so they have something soft to lay on. Trust me, there is nothing cuter than moving a blanket and finding 3 baby rats cuddled up underneath it.

This got a lot more rambly than I though, oops. I hope you get some good advice on here, everybody's been really nice to me so far!
 
I think a really good thing to keep in mind is to get your rats from a good rescue or rattery which will almost ensure that you will have well behaved, healthy, non pregnant rats, a lot of people who get their rats from the big chain pet stores end up with timid or pregnant rats. Aslo Morrigan what's the brand of the pet blanket you were talking about? I want to try it out.
 
I think a really good thing to keep in mind is to get your rats from a good rescue or rattery which will almost ensure that you will have well behaved, healthy, non pregnant rats, a lot of people who get their rats from the big chain pet stores end up with timid or pregnant rats. Aslo Morrigan what's the brand of the pet blanket you were talking about? I want to try it out.

I took the tags off my blankets so my boys wouldn't chew them, and looking thing up on the dollar store's website is super unhelpful, I swear half the things they sell aren't on it. They're fleece blankets and are covered in paw prints, I think they're Pecute ones. I always find them in the pet section, usually in black, gray or blue. They're really cheap and soft, I do wash mine before it goes in the cage cuz I don't know who might have touched it. My boys really like them as nesting material and they're easy to cut up and pretty big. So far they've lasted a couple washes (I hand wash them) and are still soft as when I bought them.
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I took the tags off my blankets so my boys wouldn't chew them, and looking thing up on the dollar store's website is super unhelpful, I swear half the things they sell aren't on it. They're fleece blankets and are covered in paw prints, I think they're Pecute ones. I always find them in the pet section, usually in black, gray or blue. They're really cheap and soft, I do wash mine before it goes in the cage cuz I don't know who might have touched it. My boys really like them as nesting material and they're easy to cut up and pretty big. So far they've lasted a couple washes (I hand wash them) and are still soft as when I bought them.
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Those look super cute!! I think I'll wait for Covid-19 to die down a bit more before shopping in store though. Is it "clean" to wash the fleece/blankets that the rats use in the washing machine?
 
Those look super cute!! I think I'll wait for Covid-19 to die down a bit more before shopping in store though. Is it "clean" to wash the fleece/blankets that the rats use in the washing machine?
Braving the horde right now is pretty nerve racking, I’ll admit. I know the blankets themselves are okay being machine washed, as are a lot of the hammocks and stuff I got. I hand wash them because I share the washing machines with my family, who are kind of grossed out about my rats lol. I know a lot of people wash their rats things in the washer, just separately from everything else. You might have to ask someone that actual does that though, cuz I have no idea.
 
Braving the horde right now is pretty nerve racking, I’ll admit. I know the blankets themselves are okay being machine washed, as are a lot of the hammocks and stuff I got. I hand wash them because I share the washing machines with my family, who are kind of grossed out about my rats lol. I know a lot of people wash their rats things in the washer, just separately from everything else. You might have to ask someone that actual does that though, cuz I have no idea.
SAME my mom hates rats so I'm not even going to bring up washing their blankets and stuff in the washing machine. Do you just use normal detergent?
 
SAME my mom hates rats so I'm not even going to bring up washing their blankets and stuff in the washing machine. Do you just use normal detergent?
I just use hand soap, since I don’t know if our detergents are safe for my rats, cuz they’re pretty sensitive. I think I read that detergent for sensitive skin is good. I do make sure to wash them thouroughly enough that they don’t smell, and no bubbly water gets squeezed out afterwards, so the soap is all gone. The soap probably won’t bother their skin since it’s hand soap, but I don’t want to take chances lol. If you can figure out a way to avoid having to hand wash everything I would, I spend so long washing that my back hurts by the end of it. I’m kind of paranoid and a bit of a neat freak though, so I could probably cut that time in half lol.
 
Welcome to the forum :)
Please see our Reference Thread for good information about rats, rat care, cages etc REFERENCE Thread - Read Only

Lilspaz68 mentioned Flower Town Chinchillas above. Not only do they sell critter nation cages, cage accessories, and food but they also sell space pods, tubes etc www.chinchillas.ca

This is a rat rescue forum.
We support rescuing rats and adopting rats from shelters, rat rescues, and rats being rehomed such as on kijiji. We do not support the purchase of rats from breeders or stores.
The forum rules can be found in the Reference Thread and in the Introductions Section
https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
 
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Flowertown in Brampton doesn't have CN's in-stock right now but you might want to email them to see if/when they might be in stock again. They are not a store but only online where you can pickup in Brampton. They do carry one of the best rat lab blocks there is, called Envigo Harlan. The 14% is the block to get :)


https://www.chinchilla.ca/detail.php?ProductID=HT201405https://www.chinchilla.ca/product.php?catID=1&menuID=2
I emailed them a few days ago about it, just waiting for a response :) super excited thanks! I see you're from Ontario too, do you make your own hammocks?
 
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