New hairless rat

[Jennifer smith]

hi I’m Jennifer. My daughter’s science teacher gave my daughter two (hopefully both male) hairless rats. I’ve been doing research to know what to do for them and found this forum. I realize the Pet store is clueless on rat care.

I’m told we need to massage a little olive oil on the hairless rats once a week is this correct info? And we got soft bedding but it has lavender flowers in it to smell good. It’s 99% dust free and smells great to me as a human but wondering if the lavender is safe?

Pet store guy wouldn’t sell us hammock so we made some. The boys like it a lot. They are way more friendly and sweet than I expected never having rats before. My daughter adores them so how can I say no as what science teacher would give her rat babies away to just anyone?

And we were told feed one monkey pellet (that’s what it’s called monkey food pellet) a day for high protein with the normal rat pellet food.

I want to make sure I’m telling my kid correctly on how to care for them. Thanks and love this forum so far.

 

[SQ]

Hi Jennifer,
Welcome to the forum

Scents can cause illness in rats so you want to use an unscented bedding

Here is some info re hairless rats.
It is from ratguide.com which is a vet approved medical site for rat owners http://ratguide.com/health/figures/congenital_hereditary_alopecia_figure_3.php
Lilspaz68 has a lot of experience with hairless rats and would be a good person to answer any questions specific about hairless rats

How old are the babies? Baby boys are separated from their mama and sisters at 5 weeks and rehomed at 6 weeks. baby girls stay with their mama until at least 6 weeks old.

Monkey pellet???????​

Please see the recommended diet for rats in the reference thread
The babies can have regular adult oxbow rat blocks or the Harlan 2014 rat blocks
If the babies are young and need a supplement, you may want to give them organic soy infant formula thickened with baby cereal

The Reference Thread has links that you will find helpful https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

Hope to see lots of pics of your ratties

 

[Jennifer smith]

I don’t know how old they are but assume they are ready to be away from the mom. The science teacher seems knowledgeable. They are on the oxbow pellets with just one monkey pellet a day (it’s high in protein and I talked to the exotic veterinarian today when my dog got his shots today and he does all the rats so I can bring them in if I want to)

Thank you for the information. Here is my daughter with her two rats.

Templeton (spotted one) and Dumbo

 

[SQ]

Nice!
Personally I would not feed the monkey pellet.
Rats need a low protein diet and they will get that from the oxbow.
Rats also need a variety of daily veg.
Please see nutrition and diet in the Reference Thread for info and ideas

 

[SQ]

Nice picture!
Everyone looks very happy.
Congrats on your new ratties

Here are some things you may not have thought of
https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/thinking-of-getting-a-rat-things-to-consider.32306/

and as mentioned above, this answers your questions and has a lot of good info on hairless rats http://ratguide.com/health/figures/congenital_hereditary_alopecia_figure_3.php