how do you make yourself 'stop'

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I currently have two, but I stopped by the humane society and saw these two boys. I picked out the names and figured that they would be easy to introduce to my current two. I was thinking about it today and I keep talking myself out of it. The extra expence, the time and effort, food, etc. But then I remember their adorable faces and I'm like, "Four's not a bad number."

I don't know what to do.
 
Right now I am FORCED to have a limit of three rat because of my parents. My mom loves them, but thinks they smell [I have a galvanized cage :emb: ] and her boyfriend hates rats, he just HAS to tell me about how he killed them for a quarter as a kid :sad3: but when I can my limit will be 5.

My dream is to start up a rat shelter once I get my career going, which should work well because I plan on becoming a veterinarian. Of course this won't be for some years [I'm 16 xP] but it's what keeps me from going nuts with GGMR, knowing that when I CAN I will be able to help them :dance:
 
Trinity.Speckk said:
Right now I am FORCED to have a limit of three rat because of my parents. My mom loves them, but thinks they smell [I have a galvanized cage :emb: ] and her boyfriend hates rats, he just HAS to tell me about how he killed them for a quarter as a kid :sad3: but when I can my limit will be 5.

My dream is to start up a rat shelter once I get my career going, which should work well because I plan on becoming a veterinarian. Of course this won't be for some years [I'm 16 xP] but it's what keeps me from going nuts with GGMR, knowing that when I CAN I will be able to help them :dance:
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That sounds like me! My dream is to be a pet exotics veterinarian and do spaying and neutering for as cheap as possible. It's what I've wanted to do since I was 4. :D

My comfort number is 4, though I've figured out that 3 is the perfect number for me. Right now I have 6, but at one point I had 16, I just couldn't stop!
 
Britchenhauer said:
Trinity.Speckk said:
Right now I am FORCED to have a limit of three rat because of my parents. My mom loves them, but thinks they smell [I have a galvanized cage :emb: ] and her boyfriend hates rats, he just HAS to tell me about how he killed them for a quarter as a kid :sad3: but when I can my limit will be 5.

My dream is to start up a rat shelter once I get my career going, which should work well because I plan on becoming a veterinarian. Of course this won't be for some years [I'm 16 xP] but it's what keeps me from going nuts with GGMR, knowing that when I CAN I will be able to help them :dance:
Click to expand...

That sounds like me! My dream is to be a pet exotics veterinarian and do spaying and neutering for as cheap as possible. It's what I've wanted to do since I was 4. :D

My comfort number is 4, though I've figured out that 3 is the perfect number for me. Right now I have 6, but at one point I had 16, I just couldn't stop!
Click to expand...

Same! Been wanting to be a vet since 3. On;y recently though have I wanted to be an expert with exotics, plus my mom wants to have a bird rescue in the future, so guess who she is making be an expert on birds? She also plans on making me do everything for free :rant: I guess we're a lot a like with or animal obsession, only me with rats, and her with birds.

And wow! 16! I think I would just about die on overload if I were to have 16 right now :panic:
 
I said to the woman I got my new Ratties off that i'd like to just foster them, she said 'they all say that!'. Indeed, it's been a couple of days, and I don't think I want to give them back lol.
 
jorats said:
My hubby is not much help either... He knows there's trouble when I say, honey, how far is *name of city* from here?
He'll gently approach me and say, but jo, I thought you said we were going to go down in numbers. Then I do that stern look and say, Scott... they need me. And he walks away, head down. :lol:

I'm doomed too!
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haha I know this post is old, but I've been browsing and just laughed reading the "how far is *name of city* from here" cuz I JUST did that last night to my boyfriend for the same reasons lmfao
 
I know this is an old post, but it is both refreshing to know there are so many people out there like me who want to take every single one of them home, but sad that even with all of us out there it is never enough. My poor hubby Scott didn't even want the first two we had and now he loves them just as much as I do. Lucky for the ratties he never tells me no, unlucky for the pocket book...... I just got three last week because I couldn't stand to see them become snake food.
 
Hi. My name is Donna and I have been clean since July 2010....

And no plans on getting more until we are down a lot in numbers! lol I have kept true to my promise, 9 is my limit and although I have been tempted... I have stayed strong for 4 months! My best way to stop is just avoid everything and everyone, disconnect all phones, internet and never go outdoors. Remove all friends from your life (even non rat friends, because you KNOW you're going to be the one they contact when they see a rat in need). Basically, stop having a heart and live in your bedroom with whatever rats you have... and even then I cannot promise you that a sweet homeless rattie won't find you hiding there. :)
 
my first rats were two boys. after the first died (at a ripe old age, mind you) i said no more, because the heartbreak was a bit too much. but old man barnaby talked me into adopting him a couple of nephews. after barn left us, i was back to 2, just the way i like it, or so i told myself. when someone pleaded for me to take max, i only went to meet him because i'm too much of a pushover to just say 'no' upfront. and then i met him, the voice in the back of my head kept saying "well technically, there's no real reason i *can't* take him...". and then there were three. then, silly me, i looked at an adoptable pet list for one of our local shelters, intending to see if the rest of morrissey and maz's siblings had been adopted (they had, although if they hadn't, it's not like i could have taken them, right? because two's my limit...). and then i saw a new listing for obie...and now obie has a forever home and 3 siblings (that he'll hopefully get along with). and now they are 4.

but for real. 4 is the limit. mom said i can't have a "colony" as long as i'm living in her house.

but hey, she never really defined "colony"...
 
At the moment, we are managing to 'stop' quite well... rats in need definitely haven't been as many at the moment here. If there is anything really urgent though we'll help out.
 
Hehe, I have my lovely hubby to thank for keeping my rodent addiction somewhat in check. He'll say "No more than [insert # here]," but he's willing to strike a bargain when he knows he can get a sweet deal out of it. These days, new additions come with the following dialogue:

Me: Honey? (the only time I call him "honey" is when I really really want something)
Him: NO!
Me: I haven't even asked yet!
Him: I know what you're going to ask. No more rodents and that's final.
Me: But honey, he/she/them need a home ... pleeeeeaaaaase?
Him: Fine then, but its going to cost you. Now this [insert expensive manly item] is what I want for Christmas/Easter/my birthday/National Pancake Day ...

When I began adopting hamsters (Petfinder is a drug, I swear), he made the rule of "Thou shalt not haveth more than seven hamsters at a time" - I was actually able to keep the numbers at seven for a whole year until a sweet little hammie I fostered wormed her way into my heart ...

Then when I adopted my rattie boys (Rufus and Jasper), the hubby insisted that two rats will be the limit. I was perfectly fine with it for about a month, and then I made the mistake of getting a spacious CN, and then a friend of a friend asked me to adopt her two girl ratties ...

So now I currently have five hamsters and four rats, and the hubby is [s:2sxykxjv]grudgingly[/s:2sxykxjv] fine with it as long as the numbers don't go into the double digits.
 
I make my self stop by realizing I need to give as much room and care to the critters I have and that getting more would take away from the ones I already have. Space and my time.
Even when someone "needs" me I think about how the ones I have need me and that getting anouther would take away from them.
 
I started out with 2, then 4, then 3, then 4, then 7, then 9 (or 8.5 haha) and then back down to 8. Before Christmas we were at 10 but after loosing Stewart, we are at 9 and Id like to stay here, never more than 9 for sure...

I still stand by the fact that I only wanted 2.... 4 max. But when someone needs you....
 
I got my first rat, a regular white lab-rat from a pet store when I was twelve. I grew up with hamsters and gerbils, but when my friend got a rat, I was astounded at how intelligent they were, and wanted one for my own. I was pretty blind to start off with, but after doing my research and adopting Bennigan before he could become snake food, I realized that I found the perfect pet for me :p When Ben was finally settled in I decided to get him a cage mate, and that's where Winky came into play. He was another petstore find, but I couldn't leave him when I saw him sitting alone in a cage, when there was something obviously wrong with him. After a few trips to the vet to ensure he was healthy, they told us that they thought he had Downs-Syndrome! Well, after a few introductions, Bennigan and Winky became the best of friends. A few months later I got a call from a woman who had heard about my rats, her daughter had become allergic to her pet, and they needed to rehome her, so ofcourse I accepted, but soon after I had another person looking to rehome. Luckily it was another girl, and after a few trial introductions Nieya and Angel moved in together.

And ofcourse the pattern continued, and soon enough I ended up with Eleven. Bennigan, Winky, Angel, Nieya, Perry, Murphy, Spindle, Gadget, Elieizer, Madeline, and Evangeline. I made myself stop at that point, I just didn't have anymore room and I was off to college soon, and though my mother was fond of them I knew they wouldn't get the same attention that they'd have gotten if I was their sole caretaker. Once the last of my kids had passed away, the house felt empty, and I didn't go near another rodent for three years.

But alas, last night I was in the pet store picking up some new toys for my parrot, and I happened upon a little grey and white rat alone in a cage. An employee told me that she was the last of a litter who's pregnant mother had been dropped off at the pet store, and all her sibling had been adopted. And then she asked me if I'd like to hold her. Against my better judgement I said yes, and once the little furball curled up in my sweater I couldn't say no. I know it was bad, petstore adoptions aren't good, but I couldn't leave her there all alone. So I took her home and set up a cage, and that's how Alice came to be :p

In a while, after she settles in and I'm sure she's healthy I'm probably going to find her a cage mate. But after that the hard part is going to be stopping again :| It's like an addiction, isn't it?
 
I dunno... I said four, but when I went into a petstore yesterday for guinea pig hay, a little white feeder was laying against the glass bruxxing! Usually I am able to walk away, but I asked to see him and after that there was no turning back! :D Pics to come later.
He was a 'feeder' though... this pet store doesn't give health guarentees on rats because they're feeders and don't seperate by gender either because "they go like wildfire"... :redhot:
 
Right now the thing that usually stops me is financial ability. Between 4 dogs, 3 cats and 3 rats... I am terrified what would happen if half of them needed vet care at once.
 

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