Rats, Rats!!!

I think I told y'all, I dont remember..but I had a rat given to me from the vet-he said I would take it because he was the boss, and nobody ever told him no...he was joking around, and yes I took "HIM". Well, someone dropped off seven silver dumbo rats outside of my school,in the parkinglot in a box, and I took one of those also...I made sure it was a boy-because that is what I had and I didnt want babies.....

well, long story short- my original rat had fifteen babies last night. FIFTEEN!
My b/f suggested I feed them to the spiders... no way. cant do it-correction, I WON'T do it. He's not allowed to talk to me about it-he couldnt even feed my kingsnake, that I had years ago.

I dont know how I am going to find real homes for fifteen rats, but no way I am using them as feeders.

Just needed to whine somewhere...

Sorry, but I am still laughing.... 15 babies? Yowser...busy little buggers, huh?

Isn't it possible that once the babies are weaned that you either sell them to a pet shop or get store credit from them? You can also post fliers in supermarkets, pet shops, etc. Do you want to sell them or just find them good homes?

Good luck with them.

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Wendy
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PS Can you post some pics?

oh, after I force all my close friends to take a pair..yes, the rest will go to the petstore and probably end up as snakefood. The petstore has zillions of them.
She couldnt just have a small litter no......it was as if nature had to teach me a valuable lesson-learn to sex em better!
It is particularily funny because of the seven dropped off at my school- there was one girl, and I insisted that I NOT get that one..lol...because no way did I want them to have babies....*sigh*
I wouldnt sell them- is that even possible? Do people BUY them? lol. I am clueless. I just want to line homes up for them. All my kids friends parents said NO before they were born. Haha. My kids must have the only parent who can't say No to pets.

Oh they are SO cute! You said their parents are silver in color, right? Does that mean they basically are colored like "wild" rats? Our local Petco (yep...that famous Petco) actually sells rats as pets. They have white ones in there and greyish/silver ones, from HUGE to medium sized. Each time I go in there it appears they have sold some more, but the JUMBO white "boy" (unmistakingly very much boy ) has still not sold.

About using them as feeders: I've only tried once to feed my Chilean Rose a pinky mouse, and I don't think I can do it ever again. Not only did the T want absolutely nothing to do with the tiny creature, but the little thing was still alive the next morning. I had no clue it was alive, but when I wanted to remove it, it squeaked and peed on me. I felt like crap a long time after that.

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Wendy
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The father is silver-kinda what they call blue...he is a silver-blue color. lol.
The Mom is a brown and white hooded.
I had to feed pinkies to my Blondi, but I gave her away because of that very reason. I felt like crap every time I fed her.
During my bearded dragon ownership, I bought a pinkie for it, but it was not eaten, more like played with-the beardie tossed it around and bit at it, made it squeak and bleed then chose to ignore it..and it lived until the next day. I felt horrible for a long time.
There is no way these guys could be feeders. My daughter has named each and every pink blob. No way would I let her be traumatized. lol. My cousin has my blondi and their blondi, and other mean n big T's that they buy rat pups for- I could "thin" the litter down, and My daughter would hate me forever.

OH WOW the parents are GORGEOUS!!!! What do you think the babies will look like? I'm sure you're going to find really good homes for these pups (do they call them pups?) Rats make AWESOME pets. They're smart, playful, you can teach them tricks, they're devoted, and loving.

Will your kids' school possibly allow you to post something on their board? I bet if you make a few fliers up, preferrably with a pic or two of the beautiful parents, you'll get many, many hits. They're easier to take care of than dogs and cats, so maybe those kids who always begged for either can get a rat instead?

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Your daughter must be so suspicious of everyone with Ts or lizards who show interest in the little rats, probably thinking they're gonna use them as feeders.

they are pups here, in the UK they call them kittens, I think.
My daughter LOVES everything-and she really does love them. If something happens to them, she will cry. She is my ultra-special super sensitive eight year old.
My mom laughs and says that she is just exactly like I was.
She loves to go fishing, however, we cant bring home fish if she is with us- she gets very very very upset.
We hatched chicken eggs last summer, and then she wouldnt eat an egg again.

rapunzel said:

We hatched chicken eggs last summer, and then she wouldnt eat an egg again.

Click to expand...

ROFLMAO :}
That's too funny. Both my boys (15 & 12) are pretty sensitive as well, and I like it that way. About 6 years ago we were in Germany, visiting my parents, who had a few chickens at the time. Anyway, one morning we had hard boiled eggs, and when I cracked my son's egg open, it had *something* in it. We all lost our appetite, and he didn't eat eggs after that for a long time.

I dont really blame my daughter.
We have our eggs from the b/f brothers farm. The ones we hatched out had been in our refrigerator for about an hour when I decided to pull out the incubator to let them hatch em. So, it was hard to mentally differentiate between pre-baby chicks and "over-medium ,fried".
I dont eat our beef or pork (well, now I dont eat ANY beef or Pork-read Slaughterhouse-there is NO way)...but I bottlefeed the calves and I cant eat them.
If my daughter made the connection between those babies and the hamburger on her plate, she may never ever eat again.

I do eat the occasional steak, but VERY occasionally. I could live of chicken breast, turkey breast, fish and seafood (for meat choices), but for some reason the older I get, the more sensitive I become towards the whole meat issue.

I've always had the motto *I don't eat what I know*, and that includes even lobster you can pick out yourself at some restaurants. I can't bring myself to ever cook veal or lamb. Weird,...yep...I'm definitely getting stranger.

I have the biggest problem eating hot dogs, because I just don't know exactly what it is I'm eating.

I just had another idea about your rat pups. If you have a High School nearby, perhaps you can post a flier there? Quite a few of my son's friends in High School have a rat as a pet, and they take it EVERYWHERE they go - really- EVERYWHERE. They take really good care of them, at least the ones I've had over here at our house (WITH their rats).

Rats are awesome pets, and I've been where you are! The mother actually looks like mine that gave birth: an agouti hooded. She also has 15 babies,and I can tell you now that any males will be hard to place, but females seem pretty easy. DO make sure you keep them separated, since the male can impregnate her again as she's gving birth if the timing is right! (I'm sure you know this, just reiterating to make sure )

Edit: you will be able to sex the babies whne their fur _just_ starts coming in...the females will have visible holes in the fuzz where their nipples are, and the males have no nipples. Mark them while you can! ^_^

Rapunzel, whereabouts in Michigan are you? I would gladly take 2 from the litter.

I have 11 rats at the moment (5 from a recent litter who are waiting for good homes). I breed rats as pets and don't usually have any problems placing them with people who won't use them as feeders. This past litter was unexpected because the female I bought was pregnent before I brought her home, but she only had 6 pups, lucky me, lol. If you want to find good homes for the babies try running an add in a local paper saying you have good pet rats for adoption. I charge a 5-10 dollar fee per rat (depending on color and coat type) that included a small bag of food and a care sheet. You might also want to try putting up flyers around town near places where people with kids or other pets go a lot.
It's so much fun wathing the little rats grown up. You can handle them from about day 3-5 on if the mother will allow it and I suggest this is you want them to be socialized well.
Here's a good website about their development if you are interested: http://bellaratta.homestead.com/ratindex.html Have fun with them! They grow up really fast but I promise you'll get attached to them quickly.