[1928jb]

Just want to say "Hi" to everyone. We are the proud owners of three new rats. We have one regular eared female rat named Lilly and the other two are Dumbo eared rats named Gus and Maizy. We have had them two weeks and I do believe our one girl, Lilly, might be expecting. She was a lot smaller than the other two when we bought her, but today we noticed she is getting quite fat in the stomach area.... I figure she might be pregnant as all the males and females were grouped together in the same cage when we bought our brood.

I ended up taking Maizy to the vet last week as she seemed to be coughing and sneezing along with trying to catch her breath.... The vet didn't hear anything respiratory, but as a precaution she put her on meds just in case...She's been fine since we put her on the meds, but now I am wondering if it was the Aspen bedding or the body spray my daughter used as the cause? I put towels in the bottom of the cage this past week, but since I think that Lilly may be pregnant, I changed it tonight to Fresh and Compfy recycled magazines and newspapers by Living World... I figured if she is pregnant, that it would be softer for her to give birth, but just may end up going back to the towels I started using.

I am trying to litter box train them, but I don't know if they are too young to be trained yet or not. I do see them in their litter box, but they also leave raisins on the bottom of their cage too.... will give it my best shot. All I can do is try.

 

[punkinseed14]

Hey welcome to paw talk! I'm a hamster owner but I think dumbo rats are so cute! I don't know much about rats, but I DO know that what type of bedding you use is very important. I think it's cedar that hurts hamsters, but you should probably look into what types of bedding are best for your rats. I use the paper based stuff myself, its a bit pricier but too me much cleaner and you don't run the allergy risk. Best of luck!

-Hannah

 

[Nibbler]

welcome to paw-talk . are all your rats in the same cage ?? if one is expecting you may want to put her into her own, nursery cage. are they very old ? if shes pregnant, she will need extra protien. like eggs ect

 

[1928jb]

Changed Bedding & Potty Training

Had to take one of our rats to the vet a few days after getting her as she was sneezing etc. The vet put her on meds, just in case as her lungs were clear. We figure it was either the Aspen bedding or my daughter's body spray that was making her sneeze as maybe she was allergic to it etc.

Since changing the rat's bedding and Maizy finishing her meds, there has been no sneezing... I changed it from Aspen to the brand Fresh 'n Comfy. It is a newspaper type of bedding, but since it's awfully expensive here, I have decided to try potty training the rats and using that as their litter. I am amazed at how well it is going. I put the Fresh 'n Comfy in their cage for a week so that they could get used to it and then I put some of the old dirty bedding in an old Tupperware container. Any pellets I saw laying around in the cage, I picked up and put it in the litter box. Last night, we changed the bedding and put new towels in the cage and completely changed the litter in the box as I wanted to see if they would go in it and do their business. Amazingly enough they did as I just checked the litter. There were about three pellets in the cage, but other than that, everything else was done in the litter box. I am quite pleased as I wasn't sure how this was going to work, but so far, so good...

I am also using a product, I highly recommend, called GoodBye Odor which I put in their water to eliminate any odors the safe and natural way. It's recommended by vets and helps with eliminating odors in the cage, not sure if rats smell, but it's awesome as you can go up to the cage and not smell a thing. If only they had this for cats lol.

My girls are probably pregnant already as when we bought them three weeks ago, all the males and females were in one cage. I just bought a new cage and will be putting the girls in that and Gus will stay in the original cage with the boys... I figure it's too late to separate them at this point now as they are probably already pregnant. Will do it as soon as I get the other cage ready....

 

[KamiWilson]

Hello wlecome im new on here to joined about a week ago I own 3 girls Rapunzel Annastatia and Skeaky, I also own a dog, cat and hamster (Bambi, Puma and Cockie) lol.
Oh and about the product called goodbye odor do you put it in there water bottle which they drink out?

 

[KamiWilson]

oh its called cookie the hamster

 

[1928jb]

GoodBye Odor

Hello wlecome im new on here to joined about a week ago I own 3 girls Rapunzel Annastatia and Skeaky, I also own a dog, cat and hamster (Bambi, Puma and Cockie) lol.
Oh and about the product called goodbye odor do you put it in there water bottle which they drink out?

Yes, you add it to their water. You cannot miss a day. It says to mix 3 to 5 pumps of Goodbye Odor to every 16 oz of water. Add same amount of it every time the water is changed. Important not to skip a day. It says to increase amount if satisfactory results are not seen. It's about $14.99 a bottle here in Canada and it's an 8 oz bottle. It should last a long time as you need so very little. I generally change my rat's water every two days as I don't want to waste this stuff.... Once the rats get bigger, I will get them a bigger bottle and a glass one at that. Plastic is not good as it can't be sanitized well. With glass you can put it in the dishwasher.

 

[KamiWilson]

Oh ok thanks

 

[VanillaRat]

Welcome to the forum.

Aspen is a safe litter,I have been using it for over 10 yrs with no problems. However spraying body spray around the rats is not a good idea.

But the rat also could of had an RI (respiratory infection) when you got her and only started showing signs after you brought her home. Pine and cedar are the horrible/toxic litters for small animals and cause RI's and that is what they house small animals on in pet stores. Rats are prone to RI's unfortunately.

 

[urofan]

Welcome to Paw talk!

 

[Ratchilla]

Welcome to the forum. Pictures of the cuties when you can!