I always kept two females at a time. Mine would go for walks and people would cross the street to go around. Others would ask "do they make good pets?"
How do you walk a rat? Tiny harness? Handmade harness? How hard is it to keep from accidentally stepping on one’s tail? How difficult is harness training? (Sorry for all the questions, I’m looking into adoptions)
It seems you and I are opposites in terms of preferences for what sex rats we get. I get males and love males because I can deal with the potential hormonal aggression that may come by. Females on the other hand, 2 of my 4 females had mammory tumors meanwhile only one of my three males had tumors. Due to financial restrictions I can only afford vet visits and respiratory medications, surgeries are not in the field for me, nor is neutering and spaying. I’ve never had hormonal aggression be so bad that it requires this (not to say it won’t happen, but the likelihood seems low). Males for me seems more cost effective. If I neutered every male rat i’d get that would easily be a thousand dollars per rat, per 2-3 years. I cannot afford this and don’t know many who can. I 100% respect your perspective on owning rats though. But that’s why we’re human, we all have different preferences and perspectives. :) Males never smelled too terrible for me either! Edit, let me copy and paste something I wrote a while ago in regards to this. I’ll always own male rats. The prognosis in vet costs is huge in regards to tumors/tumor removal. 1 of my 3 males had A SINGLE tumor, the others had respiratory illness. Meanwhile 2 of my 4 female rats had MULTIPLE tumors with multiple surgeries done on one of them. (I can’t remember if raisin had tumors or not. I don’t remember any?) Chairo was the only female i know for sure DIDNT have tumors. My conclusion? I love female and male rats equally for different reasons. However cost wise male rats are my best personal choice due to financial restrictions (not quite debt i still make a little money) Unfortunately boh was an unfortunate case of the cost not working and age (vet didn’t wanna operate :() also because idk how to ask for things that may be beneficial while still doing the procedure. Pain meds however and TLC is well priced so honestly???? male rats all day baybee. “why not just spay or neuter?” That can put you into debt if you’re like me and living off america table scraps and here’s why A rat only lives 2-3 years, 4 if lucky and older if given the kiss of god himself. Reasonably, a rat owner gets many rats over their life. Many mini lives in one. Spays and neuters easily go into the thousands considering a rat going under anesthesia is always a risk, cause they’re a rodent. That’s a thousand(s) per 1-2 years, not including basic vet checkups. Honestly? I think i hold full confidence in saying i’m not only an experienced rat owner, but I am doing everything and anything i can INCLUDING end of life care and rats can just be. Well. Sickly. Especially if you’re dumb in the beginning and buy rats at petsmart 🤦 Regardless though cherry lived to 4 which i’m impressed with considering she was from the same petsmart i got boh and chu. (End of paste.) In short? I respect your perspective, but I differ. Lovely video!
Currently I have 5 male rats. To the toppic of peeing. My slivermane will pee on my hands all the time. My other ones or the ones I had before don't/ didn't do this. They also mark. I don't know if they smell so much more than females but I only know people with large female packs. From my perspective doesn't make the gender a huge difference. Till now I had luck and a very chill , culdly pack. and aggresion free pack . That could change with my silvermane. He seems to be territorial. I will see if that changed in the next integration next week. My oldest one (2,5 years) has a hindleg degeneration. He gets daily a vitamin B complex and its only getting slowly worse. So I hope it stays manageable till he passes hopfully of old age. I love my males because they aren't destroying the hammocks and the rest of the cage. They aren't hopping over the 90cm high fence. They are perfekt for my lazy self😅. Though they are active during free roam time and like to learn new tricks (very food motivated). Some are very cudly and some not so much. They have - like it was in the video explained - a character. But I am sure if I had females I would also love them to pieces.
I've found that the pecking order among my girls can be pretty ambiguous, but largely it seems to depend on the managerial style of the leader(s?) in question. One boss-rat of mine had a strict routine of giving each of her subordinates a head-grooming session, every day during playtime, and would drape herself over the food dish when I refilled it so she could hog all her favourite bits. Another tolerated constant annoyance from one of her juniors, but would still insist on primacy if some singular new food object appeared in the group's midst. After caring for forty or so rats over the decades, I guess the only generalization I can make about identifying a top-ranking female is, "the most aggressive defender/pursuer of food objects is usually the boss rat".
I realised you have a critter nation cages. I'm planning to buy a double critter nation for my degus, so I have 2 questions. What is your oldest critter nation cage, and with the oldest cage, have you experienced any rusting? Because if it rusts quickly, it is worth the 300 pounds.
My oldest one, I’ve had almost 4 years, and it’s still as good as the day I got it. My friend has one that she got secondhand from someone who also got it secondhand. So it’s quite old. It has a little rust and the stand is a little rickety, but she’s been using it for 3 years without issue.
My female rat does the biting she does to clean herself on me but it's in like an aggressive way do you know how to make it stop? She also does little pee drops on me all the time, is that normal? I've searched stuff like this a lot and can't find information about it.
Peeing is very normal. She’s just marking her territory. As for the grooming, she probably isn’t trying to hurt you. The best thing is to remove your hand and not let her do it again for that day. She’ll eventually figure it out.
im interested in getting rats. this video helped quite a bunch but i still have plenty of questions. any ideas for some groups/websites/discord servers etc where i can just ask away? how did you learn about rats?
Rat Cage Setups! Is a good group (include the exclamation mark). Bioactive and Naturalistic Rat Setups, Shunamite Diet USA are both good groups as well. Rat Care UK is a great learning source, but they can only help for UK residents. For UA-cam, I recommend Shadow the Rat, Emiology, and Isamu Rats. For Instagram, some good pages to follow as a start are Real Rat Resources, Hannah’s Rats, and Faithful Rattos. I learned from so many various places, these are really just a few, but all good starting places!
@@hallofrats703 are those groups on Facebook or just websites? Emiology didn't really hit my spot. She made a video that was supposed to explain why she doesn't own female rats, and in this video she mentions that she never owned a female. Not sure how you can say why you don't want to own either without first "testing" both. I find that weird. Especially considering that as far as I know there are some females that are cuddly, and there are some males that are hyper, so gender can't really determine everything about the rat. Will check out the rest rho! Thanks!
i just got my rats a few weeks ago and it’s been a whirlwind 😅 long story short, i’ve ended up getting a male and female instead of two girls and then having to neuter my boy. still waiting to see if babies are incoming… from what i’ve seen though my boy is very energetic and he loooooves licking me, my girl not so much and that’s okay. it’s been very stressful having them separated but i chose to neuter my boy instead of giving him back because of financial issues actually driving to where i got him and because i think i’ll be getting girls in the future! the smell from him alone makes me gag, i almost threw up 😅😅
Hopefully she’s not pregnant! If you’ve had them separated for 3 weeks from when you found out and she hasn’t ballooned up yet, you’re probably in the clear! Good luck with them, and I’m glad you found a solution that allows you to keep both!
@@hallofrats703Exactly this! Honestly IMO if you don’t mind the occasional getting-peed-on and mild musky smell then males could be for you! I never had a huge issue with hormonal aggression but OP is correct in it being something to look out for.
Just be vigilant and when you leave the room with the rats, make sure the cats aren’t in there and close the door. Never let them interact or play with them while the cats are in the room.
My cats aren’t too interested, but they aren’t allowed in the room when the rats are out. When I’m sitting on the floor, the cats try to get to me, though 🙃
I have 4 girls and 2 boys the 0ne set girls are age 2 and second girls are 8 months both set of girls are sisters and I have 2 boys age 1 years brothers
I have 5 boys. As far as smell goes, their natural musk kinda smells like wild flowers. At least in my case, it’s the fact that they pee everywhere 😂 making sure males smells nice is extra work.
@@Harry-jw5kc maybe thats her opinion? She could love girls more because maybe she has more experience to them, or just like their traits and personalities. don’t go around and say to “love all rats equally.” I get it you should, but in this case it probably her opinion (not trying to be rude.)
I have 3 neutered males, and I have a different way of keeping them. They have an open cage (multi-story) that is on a shelf, and they don't try to jump down. They are very lazy and nice. They can poke their heads over the walls and look at me. I am not sure if I could keep females in the open cage. I also had females when I was a child, but I didn't give them the same attention I give mine now. And they did get tumors. I feel like I would want to have females neutered, too. When I got the males neutered, I didn't separate them or do anything. They just got better in a week with painkillers. They were together before that. I did it because it makes them more handle-able, and it makes them able to go more places. I think the neutering helped their smell, and they don't pee as much now. One of them is a really explorative curious, smart one, and he's the most cuddly. One is really big and like a deer. He's like a brick, and he doesn't like to move except for food, or sometimes to get cuddles. One is more afraid of things and doesn't like to be pet very much, but he is a sweet rat, and he's the first one's best friend. And I kind of want another rat now....
@@breesgacha8294They were $150 USD each. I called around every vet in my area and only found one vet that did it. They wouldn't give me a price until after the rats' appointment.
I have 6 males atm, I’ve been lucky with the fact that there have never been any fights, especially as 4 of them are rescued from pets at home where it was obvious they were not being cared for, and judging by size compared to my last pair, who are about 12-13 weeks old at this point, we’re not ready to be sold when they were. They are the most affectionate animals I’ve ever owned, and despite some questioning opinions from my family they all come in everyday and talk to them now, with my aunts and grandparents dropping by to hold the, 😂😂
It can honestly depend on the rat himself, my submissive boy Boh was very cuddly while his brother Chu was active and only cuddled after his brother passed. My rescue Updike wasn’t cuddly like ever and only occasionally nestled into my neck. (He was a finger biter lol). A few of my rehomed girls where cuddly so again it just depends on the personality of the rat I think
Im just trying to give helpful advice. Ive owned seven rats and am on a waitlist to get more. I understand rat behavior, Im not talking out of my ass.@@gooblysgaming287
off topic but u seem like such a nice person!🤍 ty for the video, i can‘t decide if i should get girls or boys😩 had some girls as a kid and loved them and wanna have pet rats again & kinda wanna try keeping boy rats though
I always kept two females at a time. Mine would go for walks and people would cross the street to go around. Others would ask "do they make good pets?"
cross the street!?
@@WonkyClownRibs yes, I would be walking one or both of my rats and some people would cross the street to go around me.
@@stephenm8100 oh ok, i was just worried they crossed on their own lol
How do you walk a rat? Tiny harness? Handmade harness? How hard is it to keep from accidentally stepping on one’s tail? How difficult is harness training?
(Sorry for all the questions, I’m looking into adoptions)
@@SynthDecay I would use a guinea pig leash. And yes it had a tiny harness.
It seems you and I are opposites in terms of preferences for what sex rats we get. I get males and love males because I can deal with the potential hormonal aggression that may come by. Females on the other hand, 2 of my 4 females had mammory tumors meanwhile only one of my three males had tumors. Due to financial restrictions I can only afford vet visits and respiratory medications, surgeries are not in the field for me, nor is neutering and spaying. I’ve never had hormonal aggression be so bad that it requires this (not to say it won’t happen, but the likelihood seems low).
Males for me seems more cost effective. If I neutered every male rat i’d get that would easily be a thousand dollars per rat, per 2-3 years. I cannot afford this and don’t know many who can.
I 100% respect your perspective on owning rats though. But that’s why we’re human, we all have different preferences and perspectives. :) Males never smelled too terrible for me either!
Edit, let me copy and paste something I wrote a while ago in regards to this.
I’ll always own male rats. The prognosis in vet costs is huge in regards to tumors/tumor removal. 1 of my 3 males had A SINGLE tumor, the others had respiratory illness. Meanwhile 2 of my 4 female rats had MULTIPLE tumors with multiple surgeries done on one of them. (I can’t remember if raisin had tumors or not. I don’t remember any?) Chairo was the only female i know for sure DIDNT have tumors.
My conclusion?
I love female and male rats equally for different reasons. However cost wise male rats are my best personal choice due to financial restrictions (not quite debt i still make a little money) Unfortunately boh was an unfortunate case of the cost not working and age (vet didn’t wanna operate :()
also because idk how to ask for things that may be beneficial while still doing the procedure. Pain meds however and TLC is well priced so honestly???? male rats all day baybee. “why not just spay or neuter?” That can put you into debt if you’re like me and living off america table scraps and here’s why
A rat only lives 2-3 years, 4 if lucky and older if given the kiss of god himself. Reasonably, a rat owner gets many rats over their life. Many mini lives in one. Spays and neuters easily go into the thousands considering a rat going under anesthesia is always a risk, cause they’re a rodent.
That’s a thousand(s) per 1-2 years, not including basic vet checkups.
Honestly? I think i hold full confidence in saying i’m not only an experienced rat owner, but I am doing everything and anything i can INCLUDING end of life care and rats can just be. Well. Sickly. Especially if you’re dumb in the beginning and buy rats at petsmart 🤦 Regardless though cherry lived to 4 which i’m impressed with considering she was from the same petsmart i got boh and chu.
(End of paste.)
In short?
I respect your perspective, but I differ.
Lovely video!
That was really informative, thank you!
Currently I have 5 male rats. To the toppic of peeing. My slivermane will pee on my hands all the time. My other ones or the ones I had before don't/ didn't do this. They also mark. I don't know if they smell so much more than females but I only know people with large female packs. From my perspective doesn't make the gender a huge difference. Till now I had luck and a very chill , culdly pack. and aggresion free pack . That could change with my silvermane. He seems to be territorial. I will see if that changed in the next integration next week. My oldest one (2,5 years) has a hindleg degeneration. He gets daily a vitamin B complex and its only getting slowly worse. So I hope it stays manageable till he passes hopfully of old age.
I love my males because they aren't destroying the hammocks and the rest of the cage. They aren't hopping over the 90cm high fence. They are perfekt for my lazy self😅. Though they are active during free roam time and like to learn new tricks (very food motivated). Some are very cudly and some not so much. They have - like it was in the video explained - a character. But I am sure if I had females I would also love them to pieces.
I've found that the pecking order among my girls can be pretty ambiguous, but largely it seems to depend on the managerial style of the leader(s?) in question. One boss-rat of mine had a strict routine of giving each of her subordinates a head-grooming session, every day during playtime, and would drape herself over the food dish when I refilled it so she could hog all her favourite bits. Another tolerated constant annoyance from one of her juniors, but would still insist on primacy if some singular new food object appeared in the group's midst. After caring for forty or so rats over the decades, I guess the only generalization I can make about identifying a top-ranking female is, "the most aggressive defender/pursuer of food objects is usually the boss rat".
Heyyyy! I absolutely love the cages you have for your rats. It's stunning! ✨ May I please know where did you get them? :3
They’re Critter Nations! I got them off Amazon.
Very informative! I’ve never had females before. Do you spay all your girls or is it more case by case?
I do it case by case right now.
I realised you have a critter nation cages. I'm planning to buy a double critter nation for my degus, so I have 2 questions.
What is your oldest critter nation cage, and with the oldest cage, have you experienced any rusting? Because if it rusts quickly, it is worth the 300 pounds.
My oldest one, I’ve had almost 4 years, and it’s still as good as the day I got it. My friend has one that she got secondhand from someone who also got it secondhand. So it’s quite old. It has a little rust and the stand is a little rickety, but she’s been using it for 3 years without issue.
Okay thank you so much for replying:)
RAT BALLLLLZZZZZ!!!! It always brings out my inner 10 year old.
Males are my all time favorite. In my experience, they're the most affectionate. Never once had a mean male.
My female rat does the biting she does to clean herself on me but it's in like an aggressive way do you know how to make it stop? She also does little pee drops on me all the time, is that normal? I've searched stuff like this a lot and can't find information about it.
Peeing is very normal. She’s just marking her territory. As for the grooming, she probably isn’t trying to hurt you. The best thing is to remove your hand and not let her do it again for that day. She’ll eventually figure it out.
I’ve never had a rat who marked her territory or urinate on anything other then their designated litter box
Yeah me neither, unleashing a river of piss all over the place I've never known that before. Kind of paints them in a bad light.
im interested in getting rats. this video helped quite a bunch but i still have plenty of questions. any ideas for some groups/websites/discord servers etc where i can just ask away? how did you learn about rats?
Rat Cage Setups! Is a good group (include the exclamation mark). Bioactive and Naturalistic Rat Setups, Shunamite Diet USA are both good groups as well. Rat Care UK is a great learning source, but they can only help for UK residents. For UA-cam, I recommend Shadow the Rat, Emiology, and Isamu Rats. For Instagram, some good pages to follow as a start are Real Rat Resources, Hannah’s Rats, and Faithful Rattos.
I learned from so many various places, these are really just a few, but all good starting places!
@@hallofrats703 are those groups on Facebook or just websites?
Emiology didn't really hit my spot. She made a video that was supposed to explain why she doesn't own female rats, and in this video she mentions that she never owned a female. Not sure how you can say why you don't want to own either without first "testing" both. I find that weird. Especially considering that as far as I know there are some females that are cuddly, and there are some males that are hyper, so gender can't really determine everything about the rat. Will check out the rest rho! Thanks!
Yes, Facebook groups!
i just got my rats a few weeks ago and it’s been a whirlwind 😅 long story short, i’ve ended up getting a male and female instead of two girls and then having to neuter my boy. still waiting to see if babies are incoming… from what i’ve seen though my boy is very energetic and he loooooves licking me, my girl not so much and that’s okay. it’s been very stressful having them separated but i chose to neuter my boy instead of giving him back because of financial issues actually driving to where i got him and because i think i’ll be getting girls in the future! the smell from him alone makes me gag, i almost threw up 😅😅
Hopefully she’s not pregnant! If you’ve had them separated for 3 weeks from when you found out and she hasn’t ballooned up yet, you’re probably in the clear! Good luck with them, and I’m glad you found a solution that allows you to keep both!
Been considering males for my next did have girls but old age took one and tumour got the other
Tumors are easily the hardest part of owning females, in my experience.
@@hallofrats703Exactly this! Honestly IMO if you don’t mind the occasional getting-peed-on and mild musky smell then males could be for you! I never had a huge issue with hormonal aggression but OP is correct in it being something to look out for.
noticed you have a cat! I have 3 cats and i really would like to get rats. Do you have any advice?
Just be vigilant and when you leave the room with the rats, make sure the cats aren’t in there and close the door. Never let them interact or play with them while the cats are in the room.
The male rats balls alone weigh 50 g
Good video , does your cat not try to eat your rat
My cats aren’t too interested, but they aren’t allowed in the room when the rats are out. When I’m sitting on the floor, the cats try to get to me, though 🙃
I have 4 girls and 2 boys the 0ne set girls are age 2 and second girls are 8 months both set of girls are sisters and I have 2 boys age 1 years brothers
I have 5 boys. As far as smell goes, their natural musk kinda smells like wild flowers. At least in my case, it’s the fact that they pee everywhere 😂 making sure males smells nice is extra work.
Got 5 rats all female love them❤
I love girls too! My boys are big squishes, but girls are my favorite.
@@hallofrats703you shouldn’t have favourites love every rat equally…
@@Harry-jw5kc maybe thats her opinion? She could love girls more because maybe she has more experience to them, or just like their traits and personalities. don’t go around and say to “love all rats equally.” I get it you should, but in this case it probably her opinion (not trying to be rude.)
I have 3 neutered males, and I have a different way of keeping them. They have an open cage (multi-story) that is on a shelf, and they don't try to jump down. They are very lazy and nice. They can poke their heads over the walls and look at me.
I am not sure if I could keep females in the open cage. I also had females when I was a child, but I didn't give them the same attention I give mine now. And they did get tumors. I feel like I would want to have females neutered, too.
When I got the males neutered, I didn't separate them or do anything. They just got better in a week with painkillers. They were together before that.
I did it because it makes them more handle-able, and it makes them able to go more places. I think the neutering helped their smell, and they don't pee as much now.
One of them is a really explorative curious, smart one, and he's the most cuddly. One is really big and like a deer. He's like a brick, and he doesn't like to move except for food, or sometimes to get cuddles. One is more afraid of things and doesn't like to be pet very much, but he is a sweet rat, and he's the first one's best friend. And I kind of want another rat now....
How much did neutering cost you? I hear it can be very pricey
@@breesgacha8294They were $150 USD each. I called around every vet in my area and only found one vet that did it. They wouldn't give me a price until after the rats' appointment.
Wow I have 6 rats
I have 6 males atm, I’ve been lucky with the fact that there have never been any fights, especially as 4 of them are rescued from pets at home where it was obvious they were not being cared for, and judging by size compared to my last pair, who are about 12-13 weeks old at this point, we’re not ready to be sold when they were. They are the most affectionate animals I’ve ever owned, and despite some questioning opinions from my family they all come in everyday and talk to them now, with my aunts and grandparents dropping by to hold the, 😂😂
Nothing changes a person’s mind like actually meeting a loved and happy rat!
And gentics are what make males more cuddly
It can honestly depend on the rat himself, my submissive boy Boh was very cuddly while his brother Chu was active and only cuddled after his brother passed. My rescue Updike wasn’t cuddly like ever and only occasionally nestled into my neck. (He was a finger biter lol). A few of my rehomed girls where cuddly so again it just depends on the personality of the rat I think
@@knotsoangelic sigh
@@gooblysgaming287 Soemthing wrong?
@@knotsoangelic you understand nothing
Im just trying to give helpful advice. Ive owned seven rats and am on a waitlist to get more. I understand rat behavior, Im not talking out of my ass.@@gooblysgaming287
off topic but u seem like such a nice person!🤍 ty for the video, i can‘t decide if i should get girls or boys😩 had some girls as a kid and loved them and wanna have pet rats again & kinda wanna try keeping boy rats though
If you have a local rescue, they might have a neutered male to go with some girls! Best of both worlds.