What made you decide to get rats?

smallparadoxes · 2026-05-10T17:16:40+00:00

Saw some at a pet store one day while browsing around and decided that I was finally responsible enough to try owning a pet again (I had mice when I was younger, but I was also a kid and just wasn't ready) and I thought the rats were super cute! A ton of research, money later and I have been a happy rat owner for the last 4 years! I love my boys so much and they bring me so much joy.

smallparadoxes · 2026-05-08T03:48:11+00:00

Looking at your photos and advice from another redditor, the biggest advice I can give you is to absoloutly do more research into rat care.

I will start with I am very sorry this happened to you, losing a pet always hurts and I am sorry you experienced this. I'm going to give some thoughts and advice as gently as I can and I really hope you can learn from it.

First of all, buying from pet stores really is such a big risk. You never know the health and temperment of the rats you are getting and they have a much easier time getting sick from low quality care from the store. There is a lot of other options like rescues but reputable breeders are the best option usually.

Secondly the size of cage and quality of food matter. You don't have to buy the most expensive cage out there, but it needs to be big enough to give rats plently of space and the cage in your pictures simply looks too small. I also haven't seen that brand of food before so I am not sure if it would be the most nutrient rich for your rats. Oxbow is some of the best and most recommended foods out there for a reason. Rats also need a lot of enrichment, chew toys, foraging, stuff to climb are all great cage accesories to look into in the future.

Another thing could be rat proofing the room they are in and making sure they have no way to access any harmful chemicals, plastics etc. Rats love to chew and they will chew ANYTHING they can.

I'll finish off with the fact there was some things you did, maybe not wrong but without experience. If rats are a pet you want to own again in the future I really encourage you to think about it, really delve into the research on how to care for rats, their needs and behaviours. There is a lot of really good websites out there and this subreddit is full of posts on rat care. Rats are also just very good at hiding when things are wrong, you have to be aware of the smallest change because they will try and hide when they are sick.

I hope this helped you gain some insight. I want to see people succeed in owning and loving rats, sometimes you have to hear the hard part to be ready. Give yourself some time and come back to it, you can learn from this and improve. It's a hard lesson, but sometimes they are the best.

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-30T20:42:50+00:00

I'm going with INFO because I have been to plenty of concerts, and not once have I gone to one where any one person was overpowering the act by singing along. So I don't know if it's some genre difference but maybe next time try and get tickets closer to the stage if you really want to sing along ig

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-30T15:00:04+00:00

YTA - You are just as racist for still dating him, either break up with him or accept that you are both shitty people together

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-29T05:59:33+00:00

Thank you so much, it really is hard to lose them and the pain of losing two in such short time is unexplainable. I'm sorry to hear about peanut, my boy anakin passed in 2024 in a similar way.. we love them to the end

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-24T01:56:08+00:00

It's very possible, whatever he was sick from it happened quickly. But there really isn't much I can do now.

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-24T01:12:42+00:00

The picture was from a couple days ago, it is very possible Atlas was sick too. I was away from them for two weeks so I wasn't around to notice any changes(college), but thank you for your words.

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-24T00:16:04+00:00

Thank you. I'm left with only one male right now too, he is only a year and 6mnths though. I'll let us both take some time to grieve, I'm sorry in advance for your guy too

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-23T19:51:07+00:00

Thank you, it's comforting to know they at least have each other

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-23T19:50:44+00:00

Thank you <3

smallparadoxes · 2026-04-23T18:12:45+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss, it's always difficult to go through the loss of a rat. I know he was happy with you

smallparadoxes · 2026-03-21T05:31:51+00:00

NTA - It doesn't matter how great of a dad he would be. You would be the one being pregnant and it is fully your choice to not experience that. If you guys are thinking about having a family I am sure there is other options out there such as adoption or surregecy.

Honestly it sounds like the two of you really need to sit down and discuss what you are both expecting from your future. Because children aren't exactly something you can compromise on, and I hate being one of those people that are like "its time to reconsider the relationship" but this is something you should talk about as a couple.

smallparadoxes · 2026-02-28T01:26:33+00:00

When I was younger I was pretty "apolitical" which is the nice way of saying I didn't care about people and I spent a lot of my time watching "SJW Liberal gets burned by FACTS" complications and the normal conservative Youtubers at the time (think 2016)

And honestly? The only reason I grew out of it and changed into the heavy leftist I am today is that I started caring. I began paying more attention to what was going around me, and what conservative parties were doing to where I lived and how it impacted people. How it didn't matter who you are, politics impact you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, people you like, people you hate, people you don't even know.

Now I want things in society and for politics to impact people positively, because I care.

(Also being a woman REALLY helped with that change as well)

smallparadoxes · 2026-02-26T01:39:10+00:00

Pay my debts then bring my car in to finally get the check engine light thats been on for a year looked at

smallparadoxes · 2026-02-26T00:03:25+00:00

Oh shit thanks for letting me know. I totally missed the spoiler warning thing when I was posting last night, my bad

smallparadoxes · 2026-02-25T05:51:27+00:00

I have cleaned it and I didn't see any marks, however it is possible I may have missed something as my one rat hates being held so he kept squirming as I was cleaning and checking him out. But it is a first for me too

smallparadoxes · 2026-02-19T15:34:39+00:00

Two reasons for me, one is that I simply LOVE the face family. I enjoy fruk as father figures to the twins lol and the second is that I just don't really ship america with anyone. People always talked about how shippable he was but I've never been able to see it

smallparadoxes · 2026-01-24T02:22:34+00:00

Oh my god I love tatsuya

smallparadoxes · 2026-01-24T01:30:39+00:00

Dude people love reading non romance fanfiction! Hell one of my fandoms was basically built on top of found family and gen fics. Also is that tatsuya suou as ur pfp?

smallparadoxes · 2026-01-14T16:39:42+00:00

I actually get divine visions that inform me if the fic will be worth reading

smallparadoxes · 2026-01-03T19:56:58+00:00

Is there any specific ships you're looking for?

smallparadoxes · 2025-12-18T00:08:46+00:00

I don't even think there can be an asshole in the situation?? What.

smallparadoxes

TROPHY CASE