Updated Pic of Lucky and Cupid

Most recent picture I took of Cupid and Lucky. Cupid got BIG! Compare to how small she was next to Lucky in this picture. She is much more easy to handle now. She wants to climb up onto you and explore.

I put them in the bigger rat cage last night and kept an eye on them. Cupid almost escaped again! There is a certain spot where the bars are a bit more open. Good thing I was watching. So until we mesh up the cage they need to stay in the smaller container. To keep them from getting super bored, I got them a big hamster ball they can both play in. Now they can be "loose", explore and exercise without me worrying about escapes.

All in all they are doing well. Curious and cuddly.

Before you assume these rats are hellions....

Many people say they are very aggressive. Consider what age they may have been purchased or what they are being kept for. These rats are bred mainly for snake food. No one plays with them. If you buy an older rat, the aggression will most likely still be set in its little head, making it harder to work with. It isnt used to being petted or picked up.

It's best to buy a few of them when they are still fairly young (but able to eat solids) They will be jumpy as all hell (people have called this area of time the "popcorn stage") but they will be less likely to bite you meaning you will be more likely to work with them. And please buy more than one. They are infinitely more calm when you have at least two.

An other perk of buying them young is you can have them for more time. I've read the average lifespan runs at about 3 years. I want to have mine around me for as long as I can.

In my opinion these make great pets. Small, easy to care for, not smelly, super cute...You just need to put time into them but then again...don't ALL pets require some kind of work and time? ☺

To mesh or not to mesh...

Thinking about wrapping the big rat cage in a mesh that has smaller holes to keep the future baby rats from escaping. I could just move them all into the smaller cage as they get to a certain size but that could just get annoying if these things have babies like I've read. Just not sure how I'd set it up or how much it would even cost.

I guess I'll figure that all out next time I see the cage.

Until I can update you on MY rats status, here's a natal rat doing some tricks for you!

Message Board and Video

I don't plan on posting to this as it seems like it moves VERY slow BUT I read a lot of the posts and it's given me some good ideas and information.


Video of some soft furred rats and their babies. Very encouraging because even with babies they are not nippy. I've read they can be VERY protective of babies but I'm hoping with work they will continue to be good calm little ratties.



Earthling has some cool stuff :)

Cupid's attitude

Cupid wants to sniff the iPhone

Cupid has been growing and has been calming down, becoming a better pet. I'm thinking the younger and smaller they are, the more jumpy they are because of their deep instinct to run away and save themselves.

She will now climb up onto your hands and sit there for a bit instead of immediately jumping back down. Knowing this, whenever I get babies, I will not try to pick them up until they are a certain age (will get back to you on that specific age) I will still try to pet them and have my hand in their cage as often as possible to make actual handling much easier.

So far, all is well with my little fuzzies. I brought them down to my house for a while and I had to use a water bowl instead of a water bottle. They seem to have figured out that if they throw the "healthy" lab blocks into the water, they get taken away and tossed. They don't throw any snacks into the water....

Can't wait till Cupid's head gets bigger so she can safely go in the big rat cage. They seem to REALLY like all the space, ladders, landings, and toys. Lucky seems lonely, by himself in the big cage without his little girl friend. At least right now they are together, happily sleeping all snuggled up.

They just love to eat....

I like to give my rats little nibbles of certain things that I am eating at the time.

So far Lucky LOVES the soft bread on the gorditas from Taco Bell and both Cupid and Lucky ADORE fortune cookies. They will just rip these foods from your hands and then come back looking for more. They don't get this often and they dont get very much of it. It's a special treat here and there for them to happily nibble on. And anyway...the more they associate your hand with yummy snacks, the easier it is to tame them ☺

Lost and Found

The other day (I want to say yesterday...Tuesday?) Cupid was no where to be found...she escaped! I was going to just flop over and quit right away...she's a little rat in this HUGE house with 3 dogs running around...I thought it was over before I even started....but my boyfriend said we needed to find her. So I sat down and thought, if I was a little ratty, where would I be?

The closet?...

I went into the closet and started moving some stuff around and what do you know? She was there! In a shoe! She popped her little head out and when I went to grab her she jumped and ran. We eventually caught her after we cleared the whole closet. Good thing there were no holes she could escape the closet through.

She is now in the critter carrier till her head gets bigger and then she can go in the big rat's cage.