Your boys a fighting?

Norman mentions...that if your two boys bite each other all the time, it could be a dominance issues and can change from day to day, this is natural. As long as no blood is drawn then leave them too it. Rats don't understand the concept of being punished so no point seperating them. When mine have been out the cage and put back (even if I only take one out) they fight even more to reaffirm dominance.

It's fight club...

Rat manicure?

What do you do about your Rat's nails?

Heres a tip:
You can clip them with nail clippers or put a brick under the water bottle ( put the bottle high enough up so that they have to climb on the brick to drink) it will help wear down the nails. You could also get a big cinder block and put it out with them during play tim. They would love to run all over it and play in the holes.

My Rattie's booked in for a manicure and a pedicure...

Alternative Therapies for Your Pet Rat

Just as naturopathic medicine is gaining ground for people, some rat owners are convinced that herbal remedies can help to heal pet rats that are sick of ailing.

In Debbie 'The Rat Lady' Ducommun's book but generally if it works for humans it works for rats too!!(rats should have a tenth the human dose.

You can give your rats echinacea (which helps with immune system and resp probs) 2 weeks on - 2 weeks off.

You can give your rats arlic powder and seaweed powder (added to their SD.

Linseeds are also given, ocassionly hemp seed oil and give Dr. squiggles 2/3 times a week.

Prevention is better than cure so...you can give Alternative medicine ago...it may help your rats.

Baytril and young rats

Bumble mentions some disturbing findings on 'Baytril' used on young rats.

What is Baytril?
Baytril is basically a very powerful antibiotic. Also known in the US as Cipro.

I've been doing allot of research lately into rat health issues, and have come across some alarming reports of Baytril (a quinoline) causing severe problems when used on rats under four months old.

To name but a few, the reports of damage include arthritis, numerous joint disorders such as abnormal carriage of the carpal joint, permanent lesions of the cartilage, and increased incidence of osteochondrosis/erosion of cartilage, which is caused by a magnesium deficiency induced by exposure to baytril during the formative months.

Warnings concerning the human equivalent of Baytril(ciprofloxacin):
"The safety of ciprofloxacin in children has not yet been established. Damage to juvenile weight-bearing joints and lameness were observed both in rat and dog studies but not in weaned piglets. Histopathological examination of the weight-bearing joints in immature dogs revealed permanent lesions of the cartilage. "

This is an animal pharmacology of Ciprofloxacin:
"Ciprofloxacin as well as other drugs of the quinolone class, has been shown to cause
arthropathies (arthrosis) in immature dogs and rats. In addition, these drugs are
associated with an increased incidence of osteochondrosis in rats as compared to the
incidence observed in vehicle-treated rats."


Here's a couple of links for further reading:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=162873

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=89784#B31

...it's a pity so many vets still seem to be unaware of these contradictions.
Knowledge is power.