RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:51 am

I've been planning on getting a couple of fancy mice for a while now, but when we went to the pet store they just threw a male and a female in together, and I wasn't very pleased with their selection anyway--none of them looked as healthy as they should have. So we decided to go to Petsmart instead, but lo and behold, no mice. While I was looking for them, the lady next to me who had been examining the rats recommended them to me. Honestly, I wanted a rat. I reeeeally wanted a rat. Mom said no, but she wasn't the one who had taken me. If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself! LOL

By then I had made up my mind, so I started asking her questions and digging myself a deeper hole. (I'm hooked for life now, you see.) As soon as she had finished telling me about her own, one of the employees who had just arrived came over and said, "Good choice! I have four of my own, and they're fantastic!" So I spent a good deal of time talking to her about them. She was incredibly helpful. She helped me pick out an appropriate cage (ours was for a mouse, of course) and all of the other things. Naturally this all happened AFTER I bought all of my mouse supplies at the other pet store. Mr. Green

She gave us a coupon (we weren't supposed to tell anybody) and spent about ten minutes kissing her favorite rat and saying goodbye to her. I felt awful, but she recommended that one specifically. Honestly, I've never met such a nice employee at a pet store. It made me really happy.
They were everywhere when we first set up their cage for them. I had my arm in the cage for about an hour and they crawled all over it and took food from my fingers and nibbled on my shirt. My sister was a little upset because hers bit her (not the rat's fault). When I came home today I found them sleeping and I reached my hand into their igloo and earned myself a rather bloody finger--some of us learn the hard way, I guess. Embarassed

So I won't be doing that again. I had this crazy idea that they would never come out of their house again, but they finally did at about 9 p.m. and we rat-proofed the room and let them play on the floor for about an hour.
Just out of curiosity, do most rats wait until later at night to become active? I know that they're nocturnal as a rule, but do they have set sleeping patterns during the day? My cat just sleeps whenever she feels like it, and it's not really consistent. I hate to ask stupid questions, but I'm obviously new at this.

So that's been my experience with my new rats so far. I already love them so much; I wish I could just stay home with them every day. It's too bad this place is going to close soon, but I wanted to get the most out of it before I went forum hunting again. Anyway, hello, everyone! It's great to be here! ^__^

Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:58 am

Rat's aren't actually truely nocturnal. Instead of coming out just during the night they're more active mainly at dawn and dusk. Evening and morning. They usually adjust their sleeping schedual to your routine. If you go to school then they'll probably wake up when you do then sleep through the day until you get home. This could take a while though(possibly months so don't worry if it's not right away) As for the biting...they could be biting out of pure fear. They're in a new place with new smells and if you have a cat then that could be what scared them. Especially if you had petted you cat before handling the rats or if you had the cats smell on your clothes. So glad you could have joined Ratpalace for its last few day and sorry that it has to be in our last few days....but instead of forum hunting, most of this particular community is moving to a new place called Ratsahoy.com so hopefully we'll see you there. Good luck with your little ones

Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:25 am

It'll take a few days for them to get adjusted to their new home. But eventually they will adjust pretty much to your schedule.

Its great that you found this place. It is sad that its closing, but like Denikka said, we have this great new community that we are all transferring to. www.ratsahoy.com You are welcome to join us!

Have fun with your new kids.

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ERM & the Rotten Ratters
Deliah, Gidget, Mocha, & Pie