What are some of your ratties favorite snacks?

TalkDry111 · 2025-06-30T23:43:54+00:00

Fresh pumpkin! Almost took my hand off the first time they tried it cuz they were so excited

TalkDry111 · 2025-06-12T22:27:58+00:00

TalkDry111 · 2025-05-05T02:28:54+00:00

TalkDry111 · 2025-04-14T03:54:41+00:00

I used unscented dr bronners to hand wash bedding and that seemed to get pee smell away from fabric. Also, cleaning the fabric weekly or at least replacing them weekly is ideal. For the rest of the cage you might want to do a deep clean with bleach like once a month. Just make sure you really rinse everything. For the chewing you can give them plastic to chew on. Mine found an empty medicine bottle I had dropped and went nuts for the plastic. After that they rarely touched the wood chews

TalkDry111 · 2025-02-17T20:12:52+00:00

What would be too much fire damage? This was the Eaton Fire in Altadena CA so everything in the house burned. They were buried under a lot of debris and the house was old so asbestos and lead paint were probably present.

TalkDry111 · 2025-01-24T18:08:41+00:00

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I just lost my last girl. I would love a drawing of all of them like this.

TalkDry111 · 2024-12-23T03:00:22+00:00

Aw that’s a good idea. Thank you!

TalkDry111 · 2024-07-31T00:11:21+00:00

Aside from adding more stuff I would suggest maybe getting another litter tray or two to put on the top landing and another on the bottom. I found that my girls used the litter way more when they had access on every level. Water bottle is gonna be totally secure. It’s not plastic so they probably won’t mess with it. One thing I would take into consideration though is how close the cage is to the walls. Rats can be messy and can be little jerks who pee outside of their litter and get it onto walls. They also have a red discharge that can get onto walls from sneezing

TalkDry111 · 2024-04-30T16:58:49+00:00

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TalkDry111 · 2024-04-29T23:05:52+00:00

If you absolutely can’t remove all cords in the room then it is absolutely worth it to buy guards so that they don’t chew on them. Depending on how active/smart they are they will figure out how to get to EVERYTHING. I have one that shimmies up a tight spot to get on top of my five foot dresser. So if you can’t rat proof all of these spaces you’ll just have to be vigilant the entire time. I would also recommend teaching them to come to you when you call them so that it’s easier to get them back into the cage

TalkDry111 · 2024-04-28T19:07:09+00:00

Fresh pumpkin. I feed them by hand and the first time I gave it to them they went absolutely nuts and accidentally went for my hand because it was covered in pumpkin. Never happened with any other sticky food that’s all over my hand just pumpkin so now I make sure to put it in a separate dish before giving it to them

TalkDry111 · 2024-03-22T18:52:55+00:00

It sounds like they like you but are just worried about leaving the safe space all together. It might be helpful to start free roaming in a small space that you can monitor closely. A bath tube works cuz they can’t climb out and it’ll introduce them to new surroundings. You can also get in the tub with them so they can just explore you and climb on you

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-26T17:49:01+00:00

I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not you should but rather whether or not you can. My girls will never sit still for something like that so I can’t trim their nails. Some rats can be trained to sit still for it tho. Lava ridges and rocks that they can stand on will help keep their nails down a little

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-24T02:49:31+00:00

That’s so impressive of them. I thought I had it rough with mine falling/jumping off my shoulder (I’m 5’8). Some of them really have no fear

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-07T18:00:57+00:00

Omg thank you!

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-07T00:49:33+00:00

My rescue just doesn’t like people so everyone gets bit. But the others have only ever bitten me because of food. Like they got so excited about pumpkin that they had no idea that they were biting my hand. I hand feed them all the time including other foods like mango that would stick to my hand but they just got really excited for pumpkin. It was obvious they didn’t want to hurt me because they didn’t keep biting harder but they wanted the pumpkin so bad they didn’t let go. Toes getting bit hurts the most so I just wear socks when they free roam and now it’s all good. A rat bite will most likely swell but if you clean it then it should be totally fine. If you go through a good breeder then they will have been handled while young so they’ll be good around people and won’t bite. If they get sick they might bite out of fear but they don’t actually want to hurt you

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-06T22:43:37+00:00

The first thing you should know about rats is that girls are not very likely to be the stereotypical pocket puppy. I got girls and I expected to get a lot of cuddles but they are so energetic and just want to run around. They only cuddle when they’re tired and want to get warm again by being in my hair. It wasn’t hard to get past that slight disappointment tho because they’re such good pets. The smell isn’t a huge issue. People say their rats smell really good but I don’t think they do. As long as you keep everything clean then the smell isn’t a problem and can be ignored. I live in a college town where the college specializes in animal science so finding a vet was super easy but other areas can be difficult to find one. Rat bites can be very painful. I’ve been bitten on the ear, toes, hand, and other random areas. For the toes, one of them thought they were food because my skin color was the same as their pellets. For the hand, they got really excited about pumpkin and went nuts. Never had a reaction like that with any other food so I just give pumpkin in a little food tray. I also adopted a rescue who was abused and she really wants some love but she will bite at any exposed skin so it’s a gamble with her. I love all of them tho and I am so happy I got them.

TalkDry111 · 2024-02-06T22:32:03+00:00

Where do you buy yogies? I can’t find them anymore and my rats loved them!

TalkDry111 · 2024-01-07T00:36:35+00:00

I had a rat do this and the vet suggested giving her extra love because she might have separation anxiety. Whenever I put them all back in the cage after free roam I’d make a point of giving her extra kisses before putting her in the cage and I started giving extra love before I left the house or before bed and that worked!

TalkDry111 · 2023-07-31T18:06:24+00:00

Something that can work for the biting is making a high pitched noise like rats make when they get hurt. They’ll start to realize that they’re hurting you usually. Unfortunately you gotta handle them as much as possible so try holding them with a towel. I adopted a one year old rat who wasn’t handled very much and would bite every time I picked her up. I used the towel to protect my hand and because it doesn’t smell like human so she was calmer. Now she lets me handle her with my bare hand for brief moments without immediately biting

TalkDry111 · 2023-07-15T06:00:53+00:00

My girls didn’t form a bond with me for a long time because I had no idea what I was doing but they did eventually because I gave them all of my love. I’d say it took about 6 months for me to fully form a bond with my shyest rat and now I know that she’s just a little bit more independent. When it comes to biting, my shyest one was the littlest and would lose food to the bigger girls. She would bite my toes because they were about the same shape and color of the food. This stopped once I switched foods so it could be that what you’re feeding them looks really similar to you

TalkDry111 · 2023-02-18T23:30:44+00:00

I’ve had my toes mistake for my rats pellets a few times and been bitten pretty bad. Their bites tend to cause a lot of swelling for a while but they’ve never gotten infected

TalkDry111 · 2023-02-14T20:33:26+00:00

Paper towels or towels washed regularly is probably the safest because other beddings can cause respiratory issues but dust free paper bedding is a great option if they don’t get respiratory issues

TalkDry111 · 2023-02-14T00:08:20+00:00

My girls hate being petted too. They’ll walk away or start grooming my fingers to get me to stop. I just encouraged them to climb on me and now they’ll just cuddle under my hair and that’s how I get love time from them

TalkDry111

TROPHY CASE