The story of my first 3 rats, aka the reason I nearly stopped having rats before I got to know what amazing pets they are!
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I’ve had rats off and on since the mid 90’s. The amount of information on rat care today is astounding compared to what there was back then, I probably would have been able to spare myself a lot of trouble had I known then what I do now.
Not all of my rat groups were connected, I had a couple in middle school (90’s) and then a whole slew of them in the 2000’s. That group pretty much was an unbroken chain over several years, all of them petstore rats. Had a few more around 2012, then took a break due to a lot of moving and life changes.
My recent group was only 4 boys that my husband and I had between 2019 and 2022. These were my first rats from an actual breeder and they definitely had great health and temperaments.
I don’t currently have rats but I’m hoping to talk our landlady into allowing them once we’ve been here a while. I have been watching videos and looking at pictures of other people’s rats and lastnight I even dreamt about them. lol Soon hopefully!
that was rad sad and rat beautiful thank you for sharing, i loved the implication that shadow the rat is named after shadow the hedgehog, incredible lore
Thank God for your mother's support. My first Guinea Pig it seems I failed in almost every way but love. My family immediately was unsupportive because he reminded them of a rat and perhaps the first time I heard the word "repulsive". He did live a reasonably long life but when he died and I was devastated I thought I might never have pets again. Many years later I suffered severe depression over Alex, but built a rocking horse in his honour who I hoped to be a companion forever. I had the strength I felt to have another pet and saw a rat up for adoption on the tv. I had never seen one before there B4. I didn't know if I could go through with it so I didn't even have a cage for her when I brought her home. She had the good sense to stay put in the squirrel den I had built for the squirrels where I lived while I went up the street to get a modest aquarium. Later I got a bigger cage. I just wanted to save a life, and surely I did a better job than with Alex and I found a vet for her and she was a wonderful pet who had just learned to jump from the floor onto my lap in my chair. Then my dad threw myself out and I had to spend one night with her in a homeless shelter against the rules before returning her to the humane society where I was in tears as I filled out a form on which I was told to refer to her as a cat. I named her Devin Rose which in my study of names I much later learned that "Rose" can mean "horse". My new place informed me it would probably not be a problem to have a rat, but after I purchased one made me also take her to the humane society. So eventually I got guinea pigs again. I am forever thankful for my rats and guinea pigs. I feel guinea pigs and other rodents benefit from the undeserved stigma of rats. I pray that rats might one day receive their rightful respect and love and that all rodents may receive the love and respect due them.
I've now sworn off pharmaceuticals because of animal experimentation while my food stamps won't even pay for tea to help my insomnia.
God bless you. I greatly value the beautiful painting Donut made and I was sorry to hear of Donuts passing.
Thank you for all you've done to bring awareness to these wonderful creatures.
The difference I have seen in the 6 pet rats from the pet store and the three dwarf rats I have now from a breeder is incredible. The dwarfs have had practically no health scares and are already two years and four months while still acting like only year old rats. I wouldn't ever go back to getting them from the pet store.
Shadow was so cute. She knew you loved her and was fighting for her to live.
This video made me cry lol it was so sweet and informative. It also made me so excited to recover from my break of owning hamsters because they face so many similar problems to rats (short life spans, minimal exotic vets in the area, easily stressed in a detrimental way). There's so much to learn about keeping rodents and its such a case by case basis. Thank you for sharing your stories and experiences xoxo :^] wishing you and all the girls well
I think all of us make mistakes with our first mischiefs! I know I did, I am doing much better now.
I always get two males and when I lose one, I get two new babies and let the older lone one raise them up. I choose the first male to come to me and be really friendly, and I also take the most skittish and scared and trying to avoid me one I can find. The friendly one shows by example, and the skittish one eventually comes around. My skittish boy Raylan was afraid of everything, cowered shaking. Now, he is a lap rat and shoulder rat and loves me. I always feel like the scaredest one will be overlooked, and never find a home. So its like I rescue it in a way. I know its a sweet rat inside, but its afraid of people because of mishandling at some point. When they gain trust, its beautiful to see the true personality come through.
pet store rats are fun and funny, and i know the difference between well bred rats and PTStore rats. My first two males from PTStore smelled like Dorito chips and loved to play hide and seek. rATS FROM Breeders are always wanting to come out and interact with their owner and playmore.
I'm so sorry about Ninja. I had a similar situation with one of my groups. I got 4 boys and one of them was really sick after coming home to me. All the rest was fine, but Ghost was sick and weak for quite a few days (I also took him to vet after a day cause I thought those were just sneezes), and for a good while after that he was much smaller than his twin brother. Fortunately he made it to full recovery and later on grew to be a huge beautiful chunk of a rat.
I'm new to rats, all are probably from pet stores as they were given to me by ppl that nolonger wanted them.
I now have 7 all since August 22.
I love your posts so much.
I wish my ratties had the life you give yours.
But I lack confidence around them, stupid I know.
After this kind of experience I think I would never have rats☹️
Thank you for sharing this! I loved hearing about your first experiences with rats, and getting to see some video of Shadow. I'm sorry the first three all got sick; that must have been awful. I'm so glad Shadow recovered and rhat you continued to own rats! I have learned so much from your channel and gotten so much joy from watching your rats iver the years ❤😊!
If i saw this vid before I got rats I would have freaked out cause one of my rats sneezed a ton when I got her she still does a bit but not nearly as much and its been ages so shes good :3
What do u use for liquid treats in your rat training videos???
Shadow is a beautiful rat and your other rats too
I'm so sorry the first three all got sick; that must have been awful
We rescue our boys and lady rats because of that they come with a lot of health issues that is so sad
getting to see some video of Shadow the rat too
Thanks for your great channel god bless all your rats and you too
Lost my furbaby today. He was last of ten years of lineage. He jumped out of his cage and could almost get on my bed so I helped him and then he died. Hurts. Done with helping bring lives into this world by breeding them or pet store. Please adopt. These are the sweetest animal you will ever meet. Thanks. Thanks to the late Shadow
Sweet snuggly beans.
Woaw impression j ai des rats et j essaye de les dresser c'est fascinant
Dude same!! I got pet store rats and throughout their 2 years of life (maybe not even that long) one of them NEVER warmed up to me no matter how hard I tried to socialize her, to the point of where I couldn't even take her out during cleaning unless I had a lucky day, and she ended up getting a tumor that was half the size of her body and I had no idea for the longest time because she always hid from me and tried to bite me. The other one wanted to be a good rat but was also nervous and died pretty quickly also. Thennnn I went to a breeder after almost being discouraged also, and LOOOOVE my super smart and sweet cuddly bred rats and they are in MUCH better health too ❤