Index of articles

Environment and temperature
Cage and bedding
Nest box
Cage cleaning
Water bottle
Food dish
Food
Rattie society and social groups
Rattie introductions
History of all domesticated rats
Sexing baby rats 
Rattie Life cycle
Intelligence
Toxins
HeroRats
Exotic breeds available in South Africa
All natural supplements for ratties
Other comprehensive information about ratties
Environment and temperature                                           

Rats are vulnerable to high temperatures and should ideally be kept in a place that is very well ventilated and that does not exceed 25 Degrees © at any time with a relative humidity of 40-70%.  Domesticated rats are indoor pets and should not be expected to stay outdoors.  Keep your rats free from draughts.

Cage and bedding

A rat’s cage should be at least 30.5 Cm by 61 Cm (20 gallons), this cage should house a maximum of 2 x rats but buy the largest cage you can. You can choose from wire cages or aquariums, or a combination of the two, stacked or joined with tubes. Just do be aware though that the cage should not have a wire base – this can be extremely harmful to the rattie’s feet and will cause them to get bumblefoot - an incurable condition that may require euthanasia of your rat. Most rats will also enjoy an exercise wheel, but hamster wheels are FAR too small...and wire wheels can be damaging to the rattie’s feet and tail.  If you can get a solid wheel for the rattie to run in, that would be the ideal solution.  

IT IS IMPERATIVE TO REMEMBER THOUGH THATa wire cage is recommended because it provides much better ventilation than an aquarium.  Consider the fact that the urine smell has nowhere to escape to in an aquarium – especially if you are keeping more than 1 rat in the aquarium.  Imagine being locked in a room without a window where everybody is breathing and urinating – the smell of ammonia would be horrific.  It would most certainly affect your breathing.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES  use cedar or pine shavings which contain TOXIC hydrocarbons and are dangerous to rats. A safe alternative which is excellent at controlling odour includes Cobtech bio pet bedding and Cobtech bio cat litter.  Be cautious when using clay catlitters as the dust from the litter may in some ratties,  irritate the ratties nose/eyes/respiratory system.Bedding can made from shredded paper, felt, facecloths (which can be washed daily to ensure cleanliness).  Use printed paper inside the cage with caution as some inks are toxic. Don't use cotton, yarn or old rags for babies because threads can get wrapped around their legs or necks.

Nest box

Rats like a snug place to sleep. A variety of clean household items, such as milk jugs, jars and ink-free boxes, are easily replaced when needed.   I have found a product called the RODY (Guinea pig) IGLO that is available at most pet stores.  It can house rats very comfortably.  Rats have a need to sleep in a snug secure place and should be given a nest box made of safe materials (even a cardboard box that can be thrown away and replaced frequently).

Cage cleaning

Cages should be washed with an anti-bacterial dishwashing liquid at least once a week.  Vinegar can also be added to the water because vinegar acts as an anti-bacterial agent.  In South Africa, you can get ICU dishwashing liquid which also claims to be anti-viral.  It might sound obvious but make sure that you rinse all of the items thoroughly with clean water.

Water bottle

Keeps the water cleaner than a dish (especially in sawdust where the sawdust can land in the drinking water). Hard plastic wide-mouth bottles with a ball-bearing are best.   Water should be replaced every two days and the bottle should be washed once a week with a baby bottle brush.

Food dish

Should be non-tippable and should always contain an assortment of seeds and/or puppy pellats in addition to the diet mentioned below.   Make sure to check that the seeds that you see remaining in the dish are not just the husks of the seeds as this could mean that the rattie has no food to eat.

Food

Generic hamster mix on it's own is neither adequate nor suitable for rats.  Try to avoid too much corn and protein in your rat’s diet as this can cause allergic skin reactions.  Supplement your rat’s diet with fresh foods like fruits, cooked sweet potato and beans, broccoli, tomato, live-culture yogurt, Purity RICE or MIXED GRAIN cereal for baby (mixed as you would to feed a baby).   Peel or wash or fruits and vegetables very carefully before feeding it to your rat.   Rats love seed and chewy things so the ideal rattie diet would consist of a mixture containing ¼ puppy pellats (that have  no more than 18 % protein) and ¾ of a mixture containing rolled oats, sugarless and unsalted  puffed wheat cereal, sugarless and unsalted  puffed rice cereal, dried fruits, dry pasta elbows, sunflower seed, sugarless and unsalted Muesli cereal.  See Paula's rattie diet under the LIBRARY link for a detailed local diet.

Rattie society and social groups

Rats are very social and are happiest in pairs or groups of same sex or neutered rats. A single rat needs lots of daily human attention.   Rats can be kept in groups of up to six Females per cage and four Males per cage (PROVIDED THE CAGES ARE BIG ENOUGH).  They should be able to stretch on their hind legs in their cage and they should be able to climb (which comes very naturally to them)

Rattie introductions

Good sound advice with compliments of Liezel from Moonstones rattery
 
"Integration with older males should be done very slowly and gradually. I have a very Alpha male at the moment who is housed on his own - he is extremely hormonal, over scent-marks everything, rubs his sides and feet on everything continuously, and when put with other ratties fights and draws blood (not just normal scuffles) I tried to put him with one of his 6 week old sons - but he attacked the little one also. This rat is just overly hormonal - neutering him will cure this. Remember that from 6-8 months males go through a very hormonal stage and they might fight to sort out a new pecking order in the cage. Very few rats get so agressive (like the one I have now)  Best way to integrate 2 new males is to put vanilla essence on them, and introduce them in a neutral place - like in a room where neither of them have been before.
Also set up a NEUTRAL cage and let them get to know each other there - never put a male rat in another male rats cage and expect them to get along.

When my 8 new males arrived I had them all in the same cage so I could observe who got on and who didnt (they all arrived in the same crate anyway) And then separated them into 2 groups, and these never fight - with the exception of our overly hormonal Blue!

So yes one needs to be careful with male rats when introducing a new male, especially if one or both of them are mature. It is rare for them to hurt a baby, but it can happen. Remember babies are sexually mature from 6 weeks !!"

History of domesticated rats and why they are not the same as wild rats
 
All domesticated rats (pedigreed and unpedigreed) originate from laboratory rats.  They have been domesticated since the 1800's with formal recognition for their domestication when  tame albino rats of European origin were brought to America by the biologist Dr. Henry .H. Donaldson.  These tame albino rats became the forefathers of the Wistar Institute's albino lab rat colony in 1906. It was at the institute that the formal investigations of nutrition, growth and domestication in the rat were undertaken in the early 1900's.  Interestingly, Henry Donaldson labelled the albino rats rattus norvegicus (albinus) as opposed to the wild rat being rattus norvegicus in his scientific journal THE RAT DATA AND REFERENCE TABLES done in 1915.

Domesticated rats have been genetically selected against living in the wild: e.g. that should not avoid predators (as it would be normal). This way humans (specifically researchers for the purposes of laboratory rats which is why domesticated rats were originally bred) can work with them without getting bitten.  Scientists have proven that by genetically selecting less agressive members of a (for example) pack of foxes and then breeding with those animals displaying less agressive behaviour, they have changed the instinctual characterestics of the animal (even hair colour changed in foxes that were selectively bred).  Please spread the word.  Domesticated rats CANNOT survive if released in the veld to live as wild rats - they cannot get food for themselves and lack the fear that keeps the wild rats safe.  People who no longer want their pet rats should not throw them out in the wild, but should rather contact their nearestSPCA or the S.A. Rat Fan Club or RASCALS rat rescue to arrange for an adoption.

Sexing baby rats  
 

Sexing rats is fairly easy with a few guidelines. First, check the rat yourself--pet shop employees nearly always make mistakes. By the time the baby rats are weaned (4 – 5 weeks of age) the males' testicles will have dropped, but they aren't always obvious because they can be voluntarily pulled inside the body. You should be able to see the scrotum, though, which will take up much more room between the anus and genitals than in the females. The best thing to do is to compare several rats until you find two that look different. Then it should be obvious which is the male and which the female.  It is relatively easty to distinguish male rats from female rats.  Newborn male rats have a one and a half to two times greater distance between the anus and urogenital opening than female rats.
 
I
llustration compliments of Deb “ratlady” Ducommun www.petrats.org

  Domesticated rat Life cycle

Age in days Age in weeks/months  Development stages
Birth  Hairless, toothless, closed eyes and ears relies on smell of mother/siblings
4 days 4 Days  Hair begins to appear
10 days 1.5 weeks Covered with hair
13 days Almost 2 weeks  Eyes and ears open
40-50 days 5 weeks to 7 weeks  Weaned at 5 to 6 weeks
Sexual maturity
72 days 2.5 months  Young adult
 250-300 days 8 - 10 months Young adult
 1000-1300 days 32 - 42 months (2.7 to 3.5 years) end of normal lifespan Full grown; males larger than females

Intelligence

Rats are very intelligent.  Proof of this is that they are used by many researchers to test problem solving abilities.   The classic example of this would be the lab rat in the maze.

 Researchers have found that rats can solve puzzles by using methods that the tester had never anticipated.

 Pet rats can learn their names and recognize their human companions.  It has been said that rats have the approximate mental age of a 3 – 4 year old human.

Toxins

Beware of  items around your household (like potted plants, medications and household cleaners) if your rattie has free range of your house.  See our HAZARD list for a list of poisonous plants and other dngerous edibles..

HeroRats

Gambian pouched rats are currently being used by an organisation called APOPO to sniff out landmines (thus saving human lives).  APOPO list their reasons for choosing rats for this very important task as being :

The idea of using rats for the detection of landmines came as a result of a search for a cheap and efficient mine detector that would be able to detect both metal and plastic cased landmines.   
 
  Despite extensive research efforts during the last decade, the only alternative technology that made its way to the field was the use of mine detection dogs.

Rats however, show significant potential to be good mine detectors:

Rats have a highly developed sense of smell;
Rats are easy to tame, breed and train;
Rats are small, cheap, and easy to maintain and transport;
Rats are widespread and adapt easily to different environments;
Once taught, the animals love performing repetitive tasks;
Rats are more easily transferred between trainers in comparison with dogs.

As is clear from the above information, rats have a significant role to play if they are given the credit due for their brains and personality.  APOPO are also involved in using rats to detect TB in humans.  See WWW.APOPO.ORG for further information
     
All natural supplements for ratties

All edibles contain mineral salts that are essential for the wellbeing of our ratties.  You will find a list of tissue salts by number that are very beneficial to your rattie's wellbeing under the LIBRARY
 
For even more information on medication/care introductions go to Ratguide (American site) www.ratguide.com

 
© K.J. Price 2005-2008