Sexing

Female vs Male
Pretty simple?

Newest addition to the ratty home

On the tippy top floor of Cupid and Lucky's house, I placed one of these little snugly soft looking pet beds. The one I picked is brown with blue spots. I picked the rats up and put them inside the bed. Lucky stayed and has been up there for hours, Cupid jumped out and ran back down to the bottom but has since then made her way up to snuggle with Lucky.

Makes it easier to give them little bits of fortune cookie (which they LOVE) when they sit at the top close to the door.

My opinion on food bowls...

Food bowls are NOT worth putting into the cage with your soft furred rat. They drag even the largest pieces of food around and bury them where they please. I can't imagine what kind of mess they would make with small pellet food (I give them BIG lab blocks as a main part of their diet)

Everything from the lab blocks to the pieces of dried fruit and cracker snacks get scattered around the cage. Out of the maybe 10 lab blocks I put into the bowl only about half will stay where I put them and any treats I've tried to place in the bowl immediately get hidden elsewhere. I dont know why they do this but they just do. It's pretty amusing to watch them go about burying the treats and ferrying them around until they find the perfect spot.

So, bowls can just be a waste of space in opinion when it comes to these guys. Best to just not even bother and use the extra couple bucks on some extra tasty snacks!

Cages for soft furred rats

We went out today and got a real home for our little ratties. Its the same exact cage as you see above. Rat Habitat by Super Pet: Habitat Defined.

When you first see soft furred rats, you will probably not think RAT and might start to think that one of those hamster cages with all those tubes and tunnels would be oh so cute! These guys get bigger than you may think and while the bar spacing on cages for hamsters is great, these rats could possibly get stuck in the tubes or those little wheels that are closed up but have the holes in them. I wouldn't trust them. The last thing I want is for my little rats to get stuck/hurt.

With ALL PETS keep the full grown adult size in mind. Plan for an adult animal, not the little baby animal you are bringing home.

Very Interesting

This site shows the different colors rats can come in and what they are all called. Not specifically about soft furred rats but still interesting! Not even sure if these would apply to natals. I've only really seen them look a certain way (white face and a colored back with occasional spots)

Found a place with some color info for the natals

The good, the bad and the ugly

Ok so it's only good and bad foods/snacks for your rats that I have looked up online:
The Good

• fruit (avoid seeds): apples, cherries, grapes, banana, strawberries, other berries, melons, plums.
• vegetables: broccoli, potatoes, peas, carrot, cooked sweet potato, kale, parsley, bok choy, squash.
• cooked liver, other very lean meats (poultry) (cooked)
• whole wheat pasta and bread
• cooked beans (including soya)
• yogurt (especially with live cultures)
• brown rice
• unsweetened breakfast cereals
• mealworms
• small dog biscuits(mine LOVE these)
  
• some leftovers from your meals are okay in moderation, but avoid fatty or sugary scraps and items off the list below.
• special treats (given only occasionally): whole nuts in the shell (almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts), sunflower seeds (high in fat), carob chips (this is a "fake" chocolate that you can also give to dog)
  

The Bad

• chocolate
• raw beans
• raw sweet potato
• cabbage, brussel sprouts
• green potatoes
• sweet sugary treats, any other "junk food"
• caffeinated beverages
• carbonated drinks
• peanut butter (in its straight form it can get stuck in your rats throat or mouth and suffocate it)
• Oranges/citrus (apparently can give male rats cancer)
  
• Dried corn (be careful! can sometimes have a fungus that can cause cancer)

I will keep adding to this as I find more info! Good list for me to have!

Corn Problem...Fixed

During my research I read that dried corn can contain a fungus which can cause cancer in rats when fed excessively. Not wanting to risk my little fuzz butts getting sick, I stopped feeding any snack that had whole or crushed pieces of corn in it.

Sadly, every treat stick in the aisle for small animals had corn in it! I thought this would be the end of the treats my little fuzzies love the most.

Then I decided to look at the treat sticks for birds. There were some that had no corn pieces in them. They looked to be made out of the same exact seeds, fruits, everything. So I decided to grab one to see if my Lucky and Cupid would like it. The bird sticks are usually much bigger so I cut a piece off and put it in their cage. Right away they began to nibble at it. Looks like it got 4 tiny thumbs up! Now they can get their treat sticks without all the big pieces of whole dried corn.

The kind of bird stick I got was Lafeber's Nutri-Meals. Has 31% dried fruit and veggies and 36% pellets: cranberries, raisins, sweet potatoes, and walnuts, millet seeds (2 kinds), and oats. Sounds like good ratty food to me.

Also for treats, I grabbed some dried papaya. They loved that too! Started nibbling right away. Not picky at all.