If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen

Keeping your Rats Cool or Warm. by Debbie “The Rat Lady” Ducommun

Because rats are nocturnal, they haven’t evolved to endure heat. Rats don’t sweat or pant to cool themselves. Instead they use their tails as heat releasers, sending more blood to the skin surface to help radiate excess body heat. Because of this, tailless rats are especially vulnerable to heat stress and probably shouldn’t be exposed to temperatures above 90 degrees. Rats should be indoor pets only, especially wherever the weather gets above 90 degrees.

For healthy rats, temperatures above 90 degrees will be uncomfortable, those above 100 can cause distress, and temperatures above 104 degrees can be fatal. Rats with respiratory infections can be even more sensitive to heat. You can tell how warm your rats are by feeling their tails. Normally a rat’s tail will feel cool, so a warm tail means the rat is feeling the heat. Heat stroke can cause a rat to fall unconscious. If this happens, cool the rat off immediately by immersing him up to his neck in cool water. Then call your vet for emergency help.

During hot weather, you might need to leave your air conditioner on during the day for your rats even if you’re not home. If you go out of town even overnight, and you don’t have air conditioning with a thermostat control, you may need to make special arrangements. Perhaps a neighbor could come in to turn the air conditioning on in the morning and off in the evening. Or, you could take your rats to a friend’s house.

If the weather turns hot and your house isn’t air conditioned, you’ll need to take special precautions to keep your rats cool. Keep a thermometer near your rats’ cage for reference. Draw the drapes and close the windows during the day, and open them at night. Put your rat’s cage on the floor in the coolest room of the house, usually the bathroom, maybe even in the bathtub. Run a fan in the room to circulate the air.

Freeze water in a plastic container with a tight lid (so it won’t leak) and put it in the cage. Use two containers for each cage and rotate them, so you always have one frozen ready to go. Or you can put ice cubes in a jar, but they will melt more quickly. (Freezing water in a glass container can shatter it.) Another way to help your rats cool off is to offer them treats of frozen fruits and vegetables.

If it gets really hot, and your rat seems miserable, try wetting him with a quick dunk in cool water up to his neck. Rats don’t usually like water, but they do enjoy the quick relief from the heat. Use special care if you take your rat outside on a hot day. If you plan to travel with your rat during hot weather be sure to take lots of water and ice to cool your rats if necessary, for instance if your vehicle’s air conditioning breaks down. Rats should never be out in the hot sun, and never left unattended in a vehicle.

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen...l

Chromium Extends Rats Life Span

by Debbie “The Rat Lady” Ducommun

Chromium picolinate, a compound of chromium that is very easily absorbed by the body, has been shown to extend the average lifespan of lab rats. Dr. Gary W. Evans, a biochemist at Bemidji State University gave chromium picolinate to 10 rats and compared them to 20 rats who received chromium in a form less readily absorbed. After 41 months, 8 of the picolinate group were still alive while all 20 of the other group had died. The rats who got the chromium picolinate lived an average of 45 months, one year longer than the other rats, whose average lifespan was only 33 months.

Here’s why chromium picolinate has this effect. When the level of glucose in the blood is high, it can damage certain proteins. This is one reason why diabetes causes damage to the body. In humans, chromium picolinate reduces blood glucose lvels, apparently by enhancing the activity of insulin. The USDA says 90% of people don’t get enough chromium, so they recommend everyone take a 200 mcg supplement daily. Dr. Evans recommends people take twice this amount.

Keep in mind that this study was done on lab rats who are free of mycoplasma. While I have no doubt giving chromium picolinate to your rats is beneficial, it may not have the same life-lengthening effect on rats who have mycoplasma. (Mycoplasms requires aggressive treatment.)

Your rat will become immortal...

If your happy and you know it bulge your eyes in and out

Sometimes, a rat's eyes may vibrate rapidly in and out of the eye socket, a phenomenon called eye boggling. This odd eyeball movement often occurs at the same time as bruxing, or tooth grinding. The reason bruxing and eye boggling occur together is anatomical: a part of the muscle that pulls up the rat's lower jaw passes through the eye socket, behind the eyeball. When a rat grinds its teeth, it moves its lower jaw rapidly up and down, and the contractions of the jaw muscle vibrate the eyeball in and out of the socket in time with the jaw.

Eye boggling is associated with intense bruxing. Anecdotally, eye boggling occurs at times of great contentment and relaxation.

If your happy and you know it bulge your eyes in and out...

The Top Rat

Playful posturing is a regular part of the rat social hierarchy. You’re most likely to witness dominance drama when you introduce a new rat to your colony. After a sniff-over and a brief wrestling match, the less-dominant rat in a new pair may end up pinned on his back on the floor. He should suffer no serious injuries, save injured pride. The squeaks and squeals you hear from your rats when they’re sparring playfully like this are indignant protests (“Hey!”) rather than shrieks of distress. Separate your rats if one bites another hard enough to make him bleed.

It’s important to spend time with your rats every day so that you can recognize any abnormal anti-social behavior. If one of your pets seems unusually listless, shows little interest in food or isolates himself from the rest of the pack, then there is probably something wrong with him. Get help from a veterinarian that specializes in small mammals as soon as possible.

Who's top of the rat chain then? I want to go straight to the Top Rat...

Godfather Rat

Rats create a hierarchy like dogs in a pack do. There are Alpha rats, though not too common, that must be the boss at all costs and will injure with any rat that challenges them. But most of the time, rats will wrestle over and over to establish the pecking order. This is okay and normal, so long as there is no blood shed or squeeking. Some rats will never be accepted into a group of established rats, especially a group headed by an Alpha rat. I have two Alpha rats in my rattery and I own close to 14 male rats. At one time many of these rats lived together in a huge cage. The alpha males tormented any new rats that they do not know, even wounding them, severly. The best arrangement I found for these guys was to live with each other and a much older, mellower rat. All of my other males can be mixed and matched with little problems arising. Females can be Alphas too. Some rats must live alone their whole lives if they cannot get along with other rats. Try putting different rattie combinations together to see who accepts whom better.

Hey come here.
I want you to listen to me very carefully to what I want to tell you.
We both know I'm a Rat, not a mouse and now you have insulted me and my family.
I want to give you a chance to make amends...eh capisce...

The Pecking Order...

Those of you who have your own ratties will know that they establish a firm hierarchy or pecking order within the group. The dominant ratties will emphasize their position by 'flipping' their subordinates and power grooming them.

Whos the Queen Bee then?

Quiz - Test your ratty knowledge

Ratty Corner

1. The Latin name for the Fancy Rat is ?
a) Rattus Rattus
b) Rattus Domesticus
c) Rattus Norvegicus
d) Domesticus Rattus

2. Rats with large, low-set ears are known as ?
a) Dumbo Rats
b) Big-eared Rats
c) Jumbo Rats
d) Rex Rats

3. Mycoplasmosis is ?
a) A respiratory disease common in rats
b) A liver disease common in rats
c) A skin condition common in rats
d) A parasite found on rats

4. One good type of litter for your rat cage is ?
a) Clay based cat litter
b) Pine shavings
c) Cedar shavings
d) Paper based cat litter

5. Rats should be kept ?
a) On their own
b) In mixed sex groups
c) In single sex groups

6. Fancy rats commonly live for ?
a) One to two years
b) Two to three years
c) Three to four years
d) Four or five years

7. A rat can become pregnant from the age of ?
a) Five weeks
b) Seven weeks
c) Two months
d) Three months

8. Which children's author had his/her own pet rat?
a) Enid Blyton
b) A A Milne
c) Kenneth Graham
d) Beatrix Potter

9. Rats have four incisor teeth, but how many molars?
a) None
b) Four
c) Eight
d) Twelve

10. Which Hindu god is associated with rats?
a) Shiva
b) Ganesh
c) Krishna
d) Vishnu

11. The average number of rat kittens born in a litter is ?
a) Six
b) Eight
c) Ten
d) Twelve

12. Female rats are generally ?
a) More lively than male rats
b) Less lively than male rats
c) Just the same as male rats

13. Rats are ?
a) Omnivores
b) Herbivores
c) Insectivores
d) Carnivores

14. Fancy rats should generally be picked up ?
a) By the tail
b) With a hand around the body
c) By the scruff of the neck
d) With gloves on

15. Porphyrin is ?
a) A chemical poisonous to rats
b) A red discharge which can come from a rats eyes or nose
c) An antibiotic used to treat eye infections
d) A treatment for mites

16. Downunder rats are so-called because ?
a) They have a stripe down their underside
b) They were first bred in Australia
c) Both of the above

17. Female rats come into heat approximately every ?
a) Evening
b) Three days
c) Five days
d) Seven days

18. Male rats are usually ?
a) Larger than female rats
b) Smaller than female rats
c) The same size as female rats

How well did you do on the ratty quiz?

Eclectic house pets

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Living / Arts / Overcome by rats: "ANDOVER -- With trepidation, you approach the farmhouse where Ann Thomas lives with her husband, Ben Levy, and after you open the screen door, you are confronted by a reminder that you are about to cross the threshold into a world unlike any you've known.

The clue is the knocker on the door.

It's in the shape of a rat.

Nevertheless, you reach for it and knock -- a-rat-a-tat-tat -- and you wait.

When the door opens, you are greeted by Thomas, who peers through spectacles, then says hello warmly and, apologizing for the floor-to-ceiling plastic sheets that shield the kitchen renovation, leads you directly to the room with the cages.

Suddenly, there they are, all of them, her pets, 10 baby rats and 30 adult rats of varied size and hues, mostly grays and blues, all long-tailed and whiskered and sniffing and twisting and twitching and jumping and climbing up and over and under and alongside and then atop

one another while pressing their noses against, around, and through the wires of the cages, eager and curious about the stranger in their home, you. 'That black and white one there,' says Thomas about a particularly heavy rat, 'she's pregnant, and those babies are three weeks old.' She points to a litter of pink rats the size of a thumb. 'And that one in hiding in the box -- she's the grandmother.'

Thomas agreed to introduce you to her menagerie on the occasion of World Rat Day, technically April 4 but celebrated all this week in Australia, England, and across the United States, including with a potluck picnic this afternoon in Hartford.

Although many people find rats repulsive, the domesticated branch has found favor as pets since the Victorian age.

"They're as different from wild rats as dogs from wolves," says Debbie Ducommum, and she ought to know. She's founder of the Rat Fan Club, which has 470 members in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia.

"This is Debbie, the Rat Lady," she answers the telephone, and then describes her 23 pet rats and her celebration of World Rat Day at a craft party in her hometown of Chico, Calif., all proceeds benefiting the Rat Assistance & Teaching Society.

"Rats are affectionate animals that love to be petted and beg to come out of their cage to play with their owners," Ducommum says, "and they're also smart enough to learn their names and come when called."

Unburdened by musophobia -- a fear of rats or mice -- more than 3.5 million American families keep rats or mice as pets, according to the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association.

In her Andover home, Thomas puts down her Dunkin' Donuts hazelnut coffee with cream and reaches into a cage, and fishing past the corn cobs, chew toys, wheels, and tubes, she retrieves a favorite called Morning Dew, which she cradles on her shoulder.

"I fell in love with rats while I was a psychology major at Reed College in Oregon," she says, caressing Morning Dew. "In college, we had classes with lab rats, and as we taught them to discriminate between light and sound, I discovered they were smart, very nice, and very clean."

Thomas has had rats as pets for nine years and has been breeding them for five, producing about seven litters a year, each numbering eight to 14. "And I have absolutely no problem," she says, "in finding homes for them. I've had teenagers buy rats, although their parents are very reluctant, but in the end, it's the mom who takes care of the rats because she comes to love them."

Rats can be purchased at pet stores for $5, but Thomas charges $20 because of the care she gives them -- holding each one every day to help it adjust -- and also to discourage people from buying her rats to feed to pet snakes.

As a hobby, it's faster paced than collecting stamps. Rats become pregnant as young as eight weeks, and gestation is three weeks.

For the benefit of readers familiar with "1984," George Orwell's novel in which Big Brother breaks the rebellious Winston by placing around his face a cage with hungry rats, what is it again that makes rats alluring as pets?

"They're very interactive with people," says Thomas, returning Morning Dew to the cage, "and very gentle. They usually don't bite or scratch, and they're great pets in apartments or condos because they don't take up much space. In Sweden, rats are taught to compete in gymnastics, and at Wofford College in South Carolina, psychology students teach rats to play basketball."

Thomas segregates her rats by age and sex. Because of the renovation in her kitchen, there are cages in the first-floor bathroom and rats in the bathtub, which is covered by a screen against which they jump and scratch. "There are 11 in there," she says, "and they want to know what's going on."

Thomas and her husband, both 40, have no children. She's a statistician at Tufts Medical School. He programs computers. One reason they ended up together is their affection for small animals. His pet of choice is the degu -- he has five -- a creature once thought to be a rodent but now, based on genetic testing, believed to be a lagomorph, or part of the rabbit family.

Although some people let their pet rats roam the house, Thomas warns that rats delight in chewing objects, including furniture. "They come when called," she says, "and people have taught them to use a litter box.

"Wild rats can carry disease and they're scary," she says, "and if I see a mouse, I jump. It's reflex. Rats and mice go where we go because we have a lot of garbage, but they're clean animals. When people talk about a rat problem, what it boils down to is our rubbish. It's not a rat problem. It's a people problem."

One negative, she says, is a rat's short life span.

"They're prone to respiratory infections and tumors, and they live about two years. People get attached to them, and when the rats die, they replace them."

Rat fanciers are cautious about whom they tell. As Thomas says, it's not something she'd bring up in a job interview.

"Unfortunately, the revulsion is common," says Ducommum. "We don't like to say we have pet rats and have people go `Yuck!' Our goal is to get people to recognize that we love our rats the way they love their dogs."

Has the Rat Lady ever thought of owning a more conventional pet -- say, a cocker spaniel?

Ducommum laughs. "I had an Australian cattle dog named Bonnie, but Bonnie killed two of my rats and we got her another home. After she killed my rats, it was bye bye, Bonnie."

its a a-rat-a-tat-tat to you...

Big Scary Hands

Many rats are frightened of hands because in their experience human hands swoop on them roughly and take them somewhere scary. Rats are a prey species and instinctively fear other animals snatching them from above so a big hand suddenly grabbing them is quite alarming. Your rats need to learn to link hands with positive experiences, not negative ones. A simple thing you can do to achieve this is to pick the rat up to put it back in the cage. This shows the rat that hands take him/her somewhere safe. You can also briefly pick the rat up then put him/her down next to a treat as a reward.

Always let your rats see and smell your hands before picking them up and never try to pick them up if they are sleeping. You can undo a lot of good work by having to grab a rat to remove him/her from danger and this is one reason why you need to be sure that the area you let your rats explore is rat-proof. Always pick your rats up by scooping them up with both hands, and supporting them from underneath. Never pick a rat up by the tail.

Delicate precious rat must be handled with white gloves...

Taming your Rat

Rats are intelligent pets that can bond very closely to their owners. They enjoy human contact and interaction and should have at least an hour of attention and/or out of cage time every day. When you first get your rats you need to set aside at least 20 minutes per rat per day to get to know them individually.

There are a number of things that will affect how easy you find it to get your new rats accustomed to being handled. The primary thing is the rats' previous experience of humans. For a novice rat owner it is best to get your rats from a breeder who socialises their babies well, a pet shop where the staff handle the babies regularly or a rescue centre experienced with rats. Rats handled regularly as babies are usually curious, outgoing and never bite. A rat who has been well-handled in his/her previous home only needs to learn to trust their new owner. This is much easier than beginning with a rat who has had no handling and is scared of all human contact.

This article makes two assumptions. Firstly it assumes your rats are not used to human company. If you have confident well-socialised rats you can skip many of these steps. Secondly it assumes you have more than one rat. Rats are naturally social animals used to living in groups. Single rats are often nervous and insecure and therefore much harder to tame. Rats living in pairs or groups gain confidence from each other and even compete for human attention.

Down boy...down boy! roar...

Wanna give your pet rat a name and dont know what to choose?

Wanna give your pet rat a name and dont know what to choose? Latest suggestions for cool Rat names:

1. Talona
2. Torm
3. Lolth
4. Talos
5. Tempus
6. Ilmater
7. Tymora
8. Helm
9. Cyric
10.Lathander

Over 4558 rat names to choose from...check out this weblink http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/resources/ratnames/

Adopt-a-Pet Rat weekend

Newport Market’s Adopt-a-Pet weekend. Bend.com news sources

This weekend will be your opportunity to find your new best friend at the 5th Annual Newport Market Adopt-a-Pet weekend. The Humane Society of Central Oregon’s animals will be at Newport Market on Saturday, July 30th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, and Sunday, July 31st from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.
A variety of dogs and cats of all shapes, sizes and personalities will be anxiously waiting to be adopted. There will also be small mammals, such as rabbits, hamsters and rats.

Rudy Dory, owner of Newport Market will contribute $25 towards any adoption that occurs at this adopt-a-pet weekend. Due to Newport Market’s sponsorship, cat adoptions will be $25 and dog adoptions $40. All adoptions include spay or neuter, donated health exam by local veterinarians, collar, ID, first vaccination, carrying box or leash, free food and one month of pet health insurance.

Once you get the rat home...they're home :-)

Curiosity can kill your Rat...

When your Rats gone walkies - heres what to do'

Once the rattie is beyond your immediate reach, the first thing you should do is eliminate hazards. Put the dog or the cat or what-have-you in another room (although I have to say sometimes a friendly dog is good for pointing out the rat's hiding place. But if you have any doubts about whether your dog might harm the missing rattie, put him in another room.) Also, close all doors, windows, or other methods of leaving the room, assuming you know which room the rattie is currently in. Buckets of water, toilets, or any other standing water should be drained or covered. Make sure no toxic materials, including poisonous plants, are within reach of the rattie. These are things that should be done in any area where a rat is allowed to play, but when your rat gets loose in an area that is not ratproof, these considerations must be attended to.

Remove any source of noise. Turn off radio, TV, whatever. I try to use the "mute" button on my kids, too, but it doesn't work.....sigh. Anyway, if there is total silence, then you can hear the rattie moving, in many cases. This has frequently saved me a lot of searching. You are listening for little rustling sounds as the rattie moves around. This will hopefully help you pinpoint the rats' location. If the rat has been out for a while and fallen asleep, obviously this won't work.

When you have found and recaptured your Rat...
remember that this has been an extremely stressful and unsettling experience for the rat, especially if she was at large for a long time. She may act very wild at first. The best thing to do is usually to put her in her cage and leave her there for at least an hour, better two or three. This allows her to calm down and feel safe again. Don't take the behavior personally, as it is a normal reaction. As the rat matures and gets used to you, she will not hesitate to come to you if she gets loose. In fact it is very wise to train your rattie to come when you call her by holding treats just out of reach and rewarding her when she steps towards your hand, then slowly increasing the distance the rat must come to get the treat. My adult rats have been trained in this way and it makes it very easy to retrieve them if necessary. Youngsters can be helped to learn this behavior by allowing them to observe older rats coming when called and being rewarded for it. But if you haven't had time to do this yet, you may have a bit of a challenge on your hands.

Hope you never have to follow these suggetions but you never know when curiosity killed Rat