Wild Rat Advice

Advertise with us
Fins us on Amazon
Shop with us on Ebay
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
K

Kathy

Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2013
Messages
10
Location
South Africa
Hi there,
I was referred to this forum so I am new here.
I picked up a small baby rat (male brown norwegian) a week ago near our stables. It already had fur on it's body but it's eyes were gummed closed. I assume Mom and babies where perhaps moving and he got left behind because his eyes hadn't opened. It is only a miracle that something didn't get to him first (we have plenty of snakes, dogs etc). We helped to open it's eyes but he was weak and seemed dehydrated. I fed him Pronutro with a syringe (a local kind of porridge (high in protein) which many baby animals are reared on in this country. A week later and he is now eating on his own and is fit and well and veeeerrry active.
I have had domestic rats in the past but having a wild rat is defnitely new to me.
Firstly I have read that I cannot put him with other rats. If I neuter him it might be better but it's not a guarantee that he won't kill a domestic.
I don't have other rats because frankly I am rather allergic to them and after my last two passed away, I didn't get anymore so if I need to get him a friend I will have to purchase a domestic one.
However, I would like to know what other peoples experience is on putting wild rats with domestic rats as well as raising them and taming them.
Is this a good idea? I would imagine he is btwn 5 - 7 weeks old at the moment.
Second question. I have experience with domestic rats but alot of articles have suggested that only experienced rat owners should keep wild rats. What am I in for? He is very active. Loves to hide in my shirt but the minute he has done that for about half an hour, he gets brave and then starts wanting to run and wow is he fast ... If he gets away from me our cat will definitely hunt him down and kill him.
He doesn't bite much yet. He seems to like a tickle from me. Doesn't like my boyfriend though and did try and bite him with his teeny tiny teeth.
I don't know if letting him go is an option. He will get eaten by a snake or something else. There is no doubt. I am rather attached to him but I also can't imagine a life where he is alone and I cannot handle him because he is too wild. I try to spend as much time with him as I can at the moment when I get home from work but is this enough.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Hi and :wel5:

You are right, you can not let him go as he would not survive by himself and he is bonded to you.

If possible. he would do best with a domestic baby rat (or 2) .... that would give him a friend and help him adjust to captivity.
The sooner you can do this, the easier it wil be (babies see other babies as new playmates) and the better for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDy3bMRu ... re=related

It will also help if you are able to have him neutered as soon as he is old enough, by a good vet experienced in neutering rats.
That will help him a great deal and allow him to be happier in captivity.

Spending a lot of time with him as you have been doing :thumbup: is extremely important. The more he is handled and the closer he is bonded to you, the better for both of you .... this is essential, especially while he is a baby.

You do not need to be an expert with rats to keep him .... and a few people on here have found themselves in circumstances similiar to you. I'll see if I can find some links or you can use the search function near the top of the screen.

As for how fast he is, you can set up a safe play are for him where you can interact but he can not escape from.
(until you are able to make one, the bath tub with fleece & toys, etc, or a rat proof bathroom with toys, etc might be useful)
You might want to have a look at the forum sections on habitat, diet, reference guide and rat chat & pics

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=30255&hilit=wild+baby+rat
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11948&hilit=wild+baby
 
Thank you for the reply and all the great advice. I will definitely get him a friend however, after reading the other posts you referred me to I am wondering if he might even be a her. My boyfriend is convinced it's a male. I need to take my dog to the vet soon for a wart kind of thing on her thigh so will take the little critter with to have him/her checked out and hopefully sexed and then enquire about neutering. Would hate to buy a male friend and it turns out he is a she. Also since he loves red basil so insanely I started calling him Basil which might be a problem if it's a girl lol.
 
Kathy, if you post a picture of the genital area, we might be able to tell. It's a little iffy with TINY babies, but in a couple weeks, if it is a he, your little friend will sprout a ginormous pair of huge rat balls. ;)
 
Hi and welcome. It's awesome that you rescued this little one and kept him/her. First thing, is there a wildlife centre near you that could in fact take in the rat and release when ready? If not, then I'd say there are two things you can do. Get him/her a cage, make it as natural as possible, with branches and substrates and such and minimum interactions or tame him/her with lots and lots of socialization. I also believe that it's very possible to have him/her with domesticated buddies. In fact, I believe the buddies will even help the wild one become more tame. I've known of two people who ended up caring for wild rats. But because these rats were already adults, the interactions were very minimum.
Good luck to you and your new friend and I do hope you keep us posted.
 
If you do decide to look into a wildlife centre, investigate carefully as most see rats as food for other animals.
However, I believe that he is bonded wih you, would not survive if released and would do best if introed to another baby as soon as possible.
 
Thank you all for the responses.
Firstly I don't think there is any rehabilitation center here that would take a rat and release it into the wild again. Rats are quite a problem here and to give you an indication of the interest of the people here ... my late mom had an Indian Miner bird which she wanted to send to a sanctury and they wouldn't take it because the are not indigenous and are a pest. The rehab centers here are more interested in dealing with the main wildlife such as owls, monkeys, lions etc etc.
So my decision is to keep Basil and socialize him. And last night much to my boyfriends horror, I informed him that we will be getting Basil a friend. Being an ex keeper of snakes he was absolutely floored. He is convinced that I have gone totally mad.
Last night we played in the bath as suggested by Ratatouille and he was a bit apprehensive. Kept on running up my arm and into my shirt. He is much better when things are quiet and he can take a good look around but then again there is nothing quiet about our house with our current zoo and he will have to adapt. I like the idea that a domestic rat will make him tamer and I think it will definitely help so on Saturday I am off to purchase a little buddy for Basil.
I will take some pics of his "bits" when I get home tonight (he is not going to be pleased about that) - but then maybe someone can tell for sure if he is male or female.
As for pics still trying to figure the uploading thing and I don't have many because he is a little fiesty when it comes to taking pictures which generally tend to land up blurred because I only have my phone camera but I have changed my avatar to a pic of him in the meantime.
 
Wow - finally uploaed some pics to the skydrive.
But be warned Basil was NOT very co-operative when it came to photographing his bits.
So here are his bits - as best as I could get them - I hope someone can make out what he is because tomorrow, I am getting him a friend.

redir

redir

redir


Some pics of Basil
redir

redir

redir


Basil is just becoming too cute. He is getting friendlier and adjusting well to noises and things.
I think he may also be the catalyst in converting my snake loving boyfriend into a rat lover - after nearly falling over when I told him I was getting a friend for Basil, he has now changed his attitude and insists that he will pick the baby and it will be his rat and he will teach it tricks.

Oh and nasty nasty - we found a huge spitting cobra again in our tack room which is where I found Basil.
 
Wow so finally after phoning many petshops, we only managed to get Basil a buddy today when the new intake of rats came in.
So hopefully we are right and that Bas is a boy because now he has a boy buddy.
I did not find nipples on Bas and there looks to be a definite little boy penis developing.
Julia, the rat in the pics are all Basil, just probably the light and the flash that make his fur look lighter. He seems to be getting alot lighter with age as well.
So this afternoon when I get home, we are going to do introductions.
 
I will try and take another pic. In the meantime, I have double checked and checked again for nipples and he definitely doesn't have any. I did read somewhere that wild rats development is slower than domestic and his nuts could drop as last as 12 weeks? Did I read correctly?

So my boyfriend got home with the new male who is smaller than Basil but already has a pair of nuts growing on him. Basil doesn't seem to want to fight with him and pretty much ignores him but it seems he appears to have the sulks now and has decided to move into the wheel in the cage and not his usual place where he liked to sleep and it's a huge effort to get him out of there.
I hope he gets over himself - it's not nice seeing him like this. He appears to be really offended.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top