Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

[Tyler99]

Today I bought a live feeder rat for my snake. Well since it was live I now dont know what to do with it... I really dont wanna kill it but...if its a must. How should I? Instad of killin it, can I keep it in a rubbermaid, with aspen shavings and some food??

That what I have it in right now. HELP!!!!

[BoidKeeper]

Wack and give it to the snake. Next time ask the store to wack it for you. This is a fact of life when keeping snakes.
Cheers,
Trevor

[mykee]

You could pet him and hold him and squeeze him tight and call him George.

[dave68]

Here George, come on boy, that's a good boy, now sit! Stay! No biting! Good boy now roll over and play dead!!LOL!! couldn't help myself.

Dave

[Bartman]

hehe, Ive got 2 rats now and they really suck as pets :p Im using them to breed and get some free food, but other then that I would never undestand the pet side of them.

[sapphire_moon]

rats don't suck as pets! I have 3!
some can be as smart as 2 yr old children, they can be potty trained, and taught to come when called. They are playful and cuddly.
Anyways, now that I'm done defending rats as pet ;)


Easiest way to get rid of it would be to whack it, HARD, as if you don't do it hard enough all you do is knock it out.

Or, put it in a rubbermaid, with aspen, and food (just about anything will work ;) ) and don't forget water.

If you must, next time have the store whack it for you, or buy frozen.

[AZpythonDude]

Cuddly???? nasty

[sapphire_moon]

LOL, yes, cuddly, very sweet, kissy, licky.......cuddly! lol

[Davey213]

I have to agree with saphire on this one.. rats are cool pets i got a couple myself and they are really smart once they figure something out they can easily repeat it over and over again makes them easy to train. for your problem tyler i'd just give the rat food and water like suggested above and get pre-killed for your snake next time. safer that way too and less stressfull for you.
Davey

[spidergecko]

I'm sure your pet store will take it back from you. Tell them you don't want it and don't want money in return either. It saves you from killing it and saves you from having to keep it.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Rats ARE pretty cool (*the best rodent out there IMO) but as smart as a two year old HUMAN? None of the humans I've made or met! :D :p

[BoidKeeper]

Maybe a two year old New Brunswicker. lol I do have two hairless that I kind of think of as pets.
Cheers,
Trevor

[reptile boi]

Sapphire, just out of curiosity how do you potty train them? lol



Thanks,
Ben

[RepTylE]

Originally posted by mykee
You could pet him and hold him and squeeze him tight and call him George.


lol ,you crack me up man.

[Tyler99]

Well, I killed em.... :rolleyes:

[Davey213]

For potty training what i did was i put a small dish with cat litter and just threw there crap in the dish as i seen it.. eventually they figure out thats where i wanted them to go.. (i know you asked saphire, but i know this way works..)
Davey

[Linds]

Thanks for the tip Davey! I would love to have my pets litter trained. I'm gonna give it a shot... lol... hopefully they don't trash the litter box like they do their cage though :rolleyes: Rowdy little bunch :p

[sapphire_moon]

Never use reg cat litter unless it is paper based, the clay stuff is extremely dusty and will cause respirtory infections, use aspen shavings, Yesterdays news, or something of the like.

But yes, it is basicly what I did, but since I have boys that will scent mark anyways, I appreciate it anytime they use the litterbox! lol They have 2 in their cage (a martins cage, www.martinscages.com the R-695)

I pick up their "raisens" and put them in the litter box whenever I find them. Of course this doesn't stop them from going in their hidey boxs. :rolleyes:

[Davey213]

Didn't know about the cat litter causing respiratory infections... never thought about it..thanks for correcting that shapire.. pretty important peice of information.
Davey

[sapphire_moon]

no prob, the only reason I use it for the cats is becuase they aren't on it/around it constantly, they can get away from it, rooms away ;) but rats in a cage can't (well, not unless it's a HUGE cage) plus rats tend to eat things they aren't supposed to :rolleyes: so I found Yesterdays News is great, it's recycled newspaper that has used soy ink, so IF they do eat it, it won't hurt them.

plus you don't want your breeders to get sick anyways.

[Davey213]

Saphire i remember you had posted a site on a thread with a large list of good foods for your rats and things to avoid.. it may not have been you, but im pretty sure.. but i cant seem to find that thread anymore.. if you remember what im talking about can you post that link again?
Thanks,
Davey

[Linds]

LOL I'll have to find something else to use I guess since I use Yesterday's News as their regular substrate (pets that is, feeders and breeders just get pine). How do you guys prevent your rats from chewing and trashing their litterboxes? Has even the 'dust-free' formulas been shown to cause problems in rats, or just regular clay litter? The stuff I use for my kitty is more than 99% dust-free, which I would equate to the same levels, if not less, than most wood shavings.

[Davey213]

For me it just took patience.. lol, my female always flipped it at first, but i just kept picking it up and placing it back...over and over again... lol. they catch on fast enough though, my male caught on almost right away..depends on the rat.. they all have different personality's.. but if you're using paper at the bottom maybe try taping it down onto the paper.. or something along those lines... just make sure the rats cant get to the tape.. and as for the dust you'll have to wait for saphire or someone else to answer that.. cause i havnt really looked into the dust issue yet.. saphire just informed me about it
Davey

[sapphire_moon]

even the 99% stuff is bad (especially if it is clay stuff, and they tend to eat the swheat scoop stuff now out there), use aspen shavings for their litter, or aspen on the floor and YN in the litter boxs (since they already go to the bathroom in it they might go to the litter box when moved?)

Personally my rats are spoiled ;) they have a fleece baby blanket, in the base of the cage (a martins), with a litter box, and a litter box on the middle floor.


Here is what I feed (I use natural balance instead of nutro though)
http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html

and the "foods" list.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

The "safe", "not safe", and "feed with caution" lists are near he bottom.

stopping them from trashing/chewing their litterbox.
You can't really, they usually chew on everything you don't want them to. :D lol

OR you could get the "no chew" spray and spray it where they chew. (make sure not to get any in their food/face)

[Linds]

I have chew stop here (both spray and brush-on forms) I will give it a try. I think I might just use shavings for their litter box, or something else if I can find. I won't go back to using any sort of shavings as their general substrate, they are housed near the end of my bed and right by the cats food and water, so shavings, etc tend to end up all over that stuff when used :rolleyes: I've had good experiences with the Yesterday's News pellets staying in the cage :)

How long did it take your rats to become trained?

[sapphire_moon]

trained? them? lol, they are "semi" trained. Meaning they've trained me to pick up raisens anytime I see them :rolleyes: :) lol. They go in the litter boxs sometimes, but other times they are to lazy :)

(try fleecy material, like from a remnants bin and stuff like that, nothing with holes to big or they will get their toenails stuck.) but that may be a pain with untrained ratties.

What I did to even get them this far, was I filled the base of their cage with YN, then after about 2 wks (with about 3 "scoopings" and one "partial" clean) I took it all out, put some clean YN in a litter box, put some "dirty" YN in the litter box (you need it to smell like a rat toilet :) ) and they are slowly doing better.

[honduranfreekk]

I have to agrea they DO make great and funny pets and coming from a person who HATED rats not long ago lol.
The wife strikes again and saved these two;)

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/954Smokey-med.JPG?3718

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/954IMG_0377.JPG

She even has baby pics lmao

Smokey
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/954Smokey_as_a_Baby-med.JPG

Kelvin@Brigitte

[sapphire_moon]

Oh I love the blue one! lol

[honduranfreekk]

I love the blue one also.He is sooooo friendly.Comes running out of the cage and up the side and on to the bed when you are there lmao.

Kelvin@Brigitte

[Mark Jones]

Someone mentioned cat litter... Try the new crystal type cat litter. No dust, no odor, great stuff!