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Anonymous
I need some cute rat pics, plz.
>> Anonymous
Anon replies: steal ur ratz.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cute+rat
>> Morrie
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>> Morrie
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>> Anonymous
dems is some cute rats, mine are three months old but way more "pointy" face wise. err
>> Anonymous
The rat in OP's pic is called a "fancy rat"

saging because i don't see a point of bumping an old thread.
>> Anonymous
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Two weeeks old!
>> Anonymous
Actually all the pics shows domesticated (or "fancy") rats.
All wild rats of this speices are agouti-colored.
>> Voleta
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>>53712

Actually.. the wild rats come in two colors (other than albino and mutations like that).

Gene A is agouti, and a is black. Most wild rats are AA or Aa, resuling in an apparent agouti, but the occasional true aa rat happens.

The majority of 'fancy rats' (which has nothing to do with them being fancy or pretty) are technically brown rats, because they have more genetic variety, but many pet rats are hybrids, because hobbyist usually dont care about the genetics, other than colour/patern dominance.

Anywho, it doesnt really matter which one you have, or if you have a mix. Kinda like dogs, any breed can be great.
>> Anonymous
I owned a rat once. They make great pets if you're into that kinda thing. Tame, docile (at least mine and most rats I've seen) active and intelligent.

Mine got mangy and swollen to the part of rolling over in her cage. So I had to kill her.
>> Voleta
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>>53739

Wow, thats horrible. You are aware that its best to bathe your rats every now and then and to clean their cage often, right?

I mean, they are rats, and will gladly sleep in their own filth, and eat anything that you give them.. but a diet of human leftovers mixed with inactivity..

Of course, your rat could have been genetically obese, had other health issues, and been lazy, in which case, thank you for putting it out of its misery.

Also, cute rat picture.
>> Anonymous
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rats arnt meant to be solitary animals, so ur rat probably very lonley.

pic is my girls enjoying some baby custard
>> Anonymous
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I...I has a rat. He is wonderful. Sorry the picture is old and shitty.
>> Anonymous
I had some rats, i let all except one go because there where too many. the one i kept died after a very hot day(41°c)
>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
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>> boba
Im getting my rat next week!!! Im naming it Barthalamew or Sebastian if its a boy, or Eurydice if its a girl. : D
>> Anonymous
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>> Anonymous
>>53782
make sure you get at least two, or else it will die of depression and/or stress.
>> Anonymous
>>53796
no they wont.
>> Anonymous
From every thing i read about rats, they tend to develop issuses when you keep them alone and without decent amount of contact. Only downside to having two males like i do is that they fight/play all night, and it the morning the cage is all fucked up from them tumbling into every thing.
>> Voleta
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>>53796

They wont 'die from depression'. However, rats are social animals. They want to be with other beings. I currently have one male, so he is kept in a cage by himself. His cage is between two cages with two females in each, and he gets to spend about an hour a day running around on the table, poking his nose through the girl-cages's bars, playing tag with the cats, plus a lot of time on my desk and being cuddled by me. He is the healthiest, strongest buck i have ever seen. This boy can bite through a pencil. (Attatched is him with his smaller brother, who passed away due to megacolon.)

That being said, rats should only be kept alone if they get a LOT of attention. If you want cuddly, lazy rats, get boys. If you want active, fetching, wheel-running rats, get girls. But dont get both, unless you have them sterilized or keep them seperate at all times (The only girls my boy rat gets around is my 4yr old female who is past menopause, and a young female who I intend to breed him with. )
>> Anonymous
>>53822

you seem like a responsable rat owner, having both male and female. I was thinking about getting a rat sometime soon and i was thinking about a male but i read about how they tend to "mark" everything and i herd it stinks a bit so i was planing to get a female(i herd they dont mark as much). But personality wise a lazy cuddly rat is more for me.

How bad is it realy since you seem to have both and proably have a good idea on how bad it is.
>> Anonymous
Same.
I have a male hairless rat and he's been alone his entire life(i picked him up at the petstore after awing over him for a few months) and he isn't depressed.
I thought about getting another rat, mainly a male, to keep him company but since he's about a year old I don't think he'd do good with another male. And a female would equal babies.

I might get him a female companion, and I wonder what the babies would turn out to look like since he's hairless and I doubt I'll be able to find a normal rat with the hairless gene.

Also. I've been looking for a place in NJ that sells/breeds fancy rats, can't find any.
>> Anonymous
>>53761Look at me.

Fucking lol. I was expecting a series of "You're so pretty ^^" and "OH I LOVE YOUR RAT SHE IS SO CUTE WANNA MEAT AND HAVE A PLAYDATE LOL XD (SERIOUSLY THOUGH...PLZ ;_;)" responses, but nothing of the sort.

/an/ must actually be populated by chicks and faggots, instead of the usual love sick nerds, horny pervs and faggots. I's like it isn't a part of 4chan. Ah well...
>> Voleta
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>>53847
Aye, when i saw that I expected the same. Though, if we were true /b/tards, we would make jokes about the people in /an/ being too busy molesting their dogs to hit on a girl. But we're posting here too, so that would be insulting to us as well.

>>53768
Not sure how I missed this post before. Why did you let domestic rats go in the wild? They likely died before the one you kept did. Domestic ras are so dependant upon humans, that they rarely live long without us. They are bred for companionship, and so usually see everything as a potential friend.. and will walk right up to a predator. They dont know how to find food if they were raised by humans, and while they might manage to make a nest and find somethign to eat, their lives will not be as long as true wild rats. Please feel bad now, thanks.

(Attatched is the subject of the next post. Durn field too long!)
>> Voleta
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>>53843
I was once in almost your exact situation. I adopted a hairless male from a friend, who had him for a month. That friend had got it from a friend of his, who had him for two years, and where he was from before that, i dont know. He was a fully grown adult when the friend's friend got him, so before he passed away, he was at least four, and likely older. Anyway, before I got him, he was kept in a small cage, the plastic hamster kind, which is much too small for a rat of his size. He was extremely sweet and outgoing, loved people.. but not other rats.

I got him a companion, a PEW (see picture attatched), and within a month the boy was dead. The hairless male had, well, severed his penis, and because of the way rats are made, it was stuck inside him and got infected. The ifection got in his blood, I guess, and he wasted away. it was a horrible death, and I still feel guilty. I never saw them fight, but they stayed away from eachother, and I assumed they were okay sharing a cage, like they were indifferent to eachother. If maybe I'd looked at his bits sooner.. but ah well, I learned my lesson, to check all over when a rat gets ill.

Er, what i'm trying to say is: if you feel you must get him a friend, get a pair of young males. Two rats are not much more trouble than one, and he will be less likely to seriously injure them if there are two. And, if you need to seperate them, well then you dont have to worry about getting the new rat a companion, because you already have one.

As for a female: Dont. Unless you are prepared to find homes or take care of 22 rats, you should never breed. Even if there was a small litter, say only 6 babies, you would need two cages, because the boys WILL mate with their mother and sisters, and the father will mate with his daughters. It would be even worse if you found a hairless female to be with him, they are notorious for being horrible mothers.
>> Voleta
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>>53832
I guess I got lucky, my males have been very clean, and except for 'buck grease' (testosterone oozing from their pores, literally), they donlt pee on anything the girls don't. All young rats will poop in fear when you handle them, but once they get used to you, they wont. All rats will also pee where they sleep, to show that they are comfortable and that THIS is their bed. If you clean the cages regularly and wash them when they get gross. I wash my rats every 2 months or so, but in a less-sensative houshold, you could go 6 months or even only in emergencies. As for marking with droplets.. once your rats are settled into their area, they will stop. Is only when going somewhere new that they leave a trail. For me, this isn't an issue, because my rats have a dining table that their cages are on, and they do not leave said table except for cuddles and baths. In summary: Basic hygine will negate the smell issue.

goddamn talkativeness and fields too long..
attatched: old, now dismantled, cage
>> Anonymous
>>53867
I'm really only looking to get him some company.
Sure, there's my cat who sits near his cage and watches him, and I let him out almost everynight to play a game of hide and seek, but he's still very active.
You are saying that I should get a pair of two young males, and try to introduce them to him?
That confuses me. If they all fight, I have a problem. If one of them is okay with the other, that still leaves another rat out of the group.

As for the breeding thing.. I think I can do it. My parents used to raise mice and they were quite fond of them, so I can probably find them some homes with them.
And that's why I said something about a female carrying the hairless gene, I know hairless mothers aren't very good mothers.
>> Voleta
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>>53871

I meant get a pair that are already friends. Usually you go to a pet store, and there are two or three cages with rats, and more often than not, most of those rats are related. Pick two that are about the same age, from the same cage, and they are likely brothers (or half brothers, or very close cousins, because many breeders who sell to petshops dont really keep track). Make sure they interact well together before you bring them home. Profit =)

Well, if you are fairly certain you can find homes or have enough cages.. pick out a female that isn't too young, is already socalised, and is mostly solid in a colour that you like (this should be your lowest priority in selecting a mate). Avoid rats with blazes of white on their face, lots of white on the body, short tails, or any signs of disease. I ward you away from blazes and some white markings because the gene that causes them is linked to megacolon. Its possible none of the babies would be born with it, but you might just end up with a litter of babies who are going to die horrible deaths no matter what you do =/ Whats even worse, is if the signs dont show up until they are older, and you get attatched to them without knowing that they are ill.

Some websites revoling around rat genetics:
http://www.boardmanweb.com/rattery/geneticcode.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/7989/rats/genetics.html

General breeding information:
http://www.curiosityrats.com/
http://ratguide.com/
http://www.rmca.org/

>> Anonymous
Where do the "Dumbo" eared ones come from?
>> Anonymous
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this is my rat