Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just wondering how everyone here got into keeping ratties? I was given my first rat many, many years ago as a birthday gift. He lived for about a year because I honestly had no idea on how to properly care for a rat and at that time I didn't have access to the internet. He was the sweetest little thing. I had been keeping hamsters for many years but he really stole my heart. I have only been ratless once since then and that was so very hard.

How about everyone else?
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Tiffany & the bRATs

Well I'll spill my guts here. lol
I was in college getting my degree in veterinary technology in 1995 & for lab animal class (which I now teach every year hee hee) we had rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils. I think that's all. Now we keep guinea pigs too.
Anyway
The spring semester was over.. we weren't coming back until the fall & the vet who is the program director didn't want to be stuck having to care for all those animals himself over the summer so he decided to adopt them all out to the students.
I brought home one rat.. didn't know that much either about what to look for when they are sick. I had my textbook left over from class.. that was a huge help.

These rats living at the college had actually come from a "reptile/ rodent ranch" where they were bred for food.. so they weren't really all that healthy.
This one had all sorts of problems including bumblefoot, Mycoplasmosis, he didn't live but maybe a year but by the time he was gone I was hooked.
When I realized that I needed more than one rat I took the only one left at the college that had never gotten adopted but he wound up with a hideous cancerous tumor behind his ear & he got so infected from the cancerous tumor- I was working for a vet by then who did the surgery but because it was so bad we didn't complete it. We never brought him out of anesthesia, we just put him down because that was the kindest thing to do for him.

When the first one died, 2 months later I got 2 babies.. then the next time I got three.. then the next time I got more.. & it's been a never ending story except for the time in 2004 when I went for 8 months with none.
I adore them.. I can't imagine living without them forever.. 8 months was a long time. I didn't like that!
That's my story..
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PHRatz

There was a pet store in the town I grew up in, and they always had rats. I would hold them when I went in there and they were really neat. My parents were disgusted by their tails, so we got hamsters... mean hamsters... who bred and made more mean hamsters! So I finally got married and out of my parents' house, and I was on the internet when I came across a site about rats. I pretty much fell in love. We moved here last July, and we went to get our dogs something or another at the store... and there was this little beige hooded boy who told us he needed to come home with us. We got a cage and everything he would need, and a buddy for him. After that we were addicted.
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Kadee Sedtal

home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), the rats-Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pachebel, Fillmore, Norbert, and baby Franz, the mice- Vivaldi, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Rasputin, Johann, Chaminade, Dorothy, Glenda, Em, and baby Rosa, and the wonderful winter white dwarf hamster- Feather
"I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo! I'd have all my money back." -Jack Handey

I started volunteering at the Baltimore Zoo when I was 11. I had to feed rats to the snakes and I found one that I liked. So the reptile keepers gave her to me and it has been true love ever since. 16 years now

to be honest when my husband and I started dating he gave me 2 rats for the first gift he ever gave me. best gift ever, Smudge and Scarface.
Sara

I got my first rat when I was in elementary school. They had gotten a bunch of them for that years Haunted House that was inside the gym. Afterwards they gave them away to anyone who wanted them.
I ended up bringing home a big male. My parents weren't thrilled at first but he was so sweet he quickly changed their opinions about rats. After him I raised three opossums (who also had the sweetest personalities). Then last year I decided to try rats again, so I now have Jack and Ziggy. Hmmmm, I think I'm just a sucker for those cute naked tails.

Hi Ecko!
You'll have to post pics of your little bRATS!
Welcome to the board.
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PHRatz