Crafty Rat Owners DIY Facebook Group

 

Rats and Do-It-Yourself projects go hand in hand. Many commercial rat toys/accessories are expensive, often unsafe for the animal they are intended for, often sized wrong, and tend not to last long. Ordinary household items/recyclables often work just as well or better with a little craftiness and a creative mind.

There is now a Facebook group for sharing your own DIY projects, whether you just want to share what you've made or share tutorials showing how to make them: Crafty Rat Owners DIY Facebook Group.

This is a great place to find new ideas for adorning your cage and for learning to make things you would have never thought of on your own. It is also a good community for sharing what you have done with other like-minded rat owners. The group includes everything from sewing projects, to crafts, woodworking, cage building - anything that you make yourself for the good of your ratties.

Try the Rat or Mouse Quiz from RatBehavior.org

Can you tell the difference between a rat and a mouse if you have no size reference available? Want to find out?

RatBehavior.org has a cute and fun test with 12 photos of rats / mice for you to identify. Can you get a perfect score? I was surprised to get them all right - but I am not sure what criteria I used - more instinct than logic. It is just something about the proportions of the face.


Give it a try here: http://www.ratbehavior.org/QuizRatOrMouse.htm.

Good Luck!

Homemade Accessories for Your Rat Cage

Is your rat cage a little boring lately? Want to spruce it up with new toys and accessories, but don't have the budget for it? There are a number of sites on the web that can help.

On Squidoo is a page with a variety of projects you can make yourself with no sewing or special skills required: http://www.squidoo.com/simple-and-easy-ways-to-accessorize-a-rat-cage.
This site shares some no-sew hammock ideas, along with projects like a paper mache dome hideout, rope ladders, beds made from hats, and hideouts made from baskets, flower pots, and ice-cream tubs.

The Dapper Rat (http://www.dapper.com.au/toys.htm) also has a page with innovative toy and activity ideas for your rat. This page is full of ideas, including instructions for a rat dig box, a rattie clubhouse, and a rattie wading pool.

And if you are looking to deck out your cage with new hammocks, but you don't have a sewing machine - don't sweat it. Suz' Sugar Gliders (http://www.suzsugargliders.com/nosewaccessories.htm)  has instructions for a variety of no-sew hammock projects that will work just as well for rats.

And for those who do sew, don't forget our rat hammock tutorials at Ratropolis.com (http://www.ratropolis.com/Rat%20Tutorials/RatTutorials.htm).

Add to Favorites - Goosemoose Pet Portal

Sometimes, the answers to our rattie questions are complex and a simple solution cannot be found in a book or a web search. Sometimes, we just need to talk to someone else who understands rats - someone with more experience and insight. Sometimes, we want to help others by sharing our own experiences. And sometimes, we just want to have a place to share our rat stories, our rat problems, and our rat pictures with people who have the same passions and interests.

My favorite online rat community is the Goosemoose Pet Portal (http://www.goosemoose.com/rfc/). Goosemoose covers more than just rats, but its most active forums belong to the rat community. The rat forums consist of the following:

• Rat Care Corner - for topics regarding health and proper care.
• Home Squeak Home - for topics relating to cages and cage accessories.
• Rat Tales and Mugshots  - for posting pictures of your rats, memorials, rat stories, and anything that doesn't fit anywhere else.
• Adoption Center - for listing and finding rats available for adoption (strict forum rules apply)
• Pack Rat Swap Meet - Marketplace - for vendors of hammocks and other rat-related products to advertise their wares.
• Pack Rat Swap Meet - Classifieds - for listing of one-time only items wanted or for sale/free.

Members are friendly and helpful and most posts receive an answer fairly quickly. There are a number of extremely knowledgeable regulars that are available to help out with the more complex questions. The forums are always active - there is always something new to look at or read about.

This is a pet owners' forum, not a breeders' forum, and a strong emphasis is put on rescues and adoption. Thus, people seeking help with planned breeding efforts might be better served on another venue - although there are a few experienced breeders that do help out on that forum, and there is always help for those who find themselves with an accidental litter.

The Home Squeak Home forum includes threads dedicated to Martin cage setups, Critter/Ferret Nation cage setups, and other cage setups, so members can share pictures of their rattie homes and others can get ideas from them.

The Adoption Center is a great place to find your next rat. Several rescues and foster homes regularly post their available rats and many help with setting up rat trains so that even those who live far away from any rescues can have an opportunity to adopt. Members who find themselves with an oops litter can also use this forum to find good homes for the babies.

If you want to deck your cage out with cleverly themed hammock sets but you aren't much with a sewing machine, the Pack Rat Swap Meet - Marketplace will help connect you will someone who can help you out. Many vendors will accept custom orders and there are also pre-mades that are ready to ship available as well. And if you are handy with a sewing machine, and have been a member for 3 months and 100+ posts, you can set up your own marketplace shop and sell your hammocks to members.

If you are downsizing and want to get rid of some of your extra cages or supplies, you can post them for sale in the Classifieds section. And if you want to expand your pack and need more cage space, you can find deals on used cages and supplies here as well.

Add to Favorites - The Rat Guide

An ill Mystery licks baby food
from a finger.

There are a few websites that every rat owner should save in their Favorites. The Rat Guide (http://ratguide.com/) is first and foremost. The Rat Guide is divided into 4 sections: the Health Guide, Care Guide, Medication Guide, and Breeding Guide.

The Care Guide covers your basic rat care - everything you need to know when you are planning to get rats. The Breeding Guide helps rat owners with oops litters (it is not uncommon for a pet store rat or a Craig's List rat to go home with you secretly pregnant) as well as dedicated breeders.

It is the Health Guide and the Medication Guide that I find to be invaluable resources that are not duplicated anywhere else. Most of the common and not-so-common health issues are covered in the Health Guide, along with symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options, medication dosages, figures, and case studies. No where else on the web can you find this detailed information on the potential medical conditions that could be affecting your rat.

The Medication Guide covers many medications that can be prescribed for rats, what they are prescribed for, and what dosages are safe and effective for which conditions.

These guides are not a do-it-yourself treatment protocol. Most medications require a prescription and diagnosis and treatment likely require a vet. Instead, this is an excellent resource for both before you take your pet to the vet - so you can know what to expect and you can be ready with questions - and after seeing the vet - so you can better understand the treatment protocols and medications that your vet prescribed.

If there is any drawback to the Rat Guide, it is that it leans on the technical side. There is no getting around that. If you want the facts in detail, it is going to get technical. However, sometimes this makes it hard to find the information you are looking for. For example, if I am looking up Baytril in the medication guide, there is no category listed for "antibiotics" - which is where I would expect to find it. Instead, it is listed under the slightly more obscure term "antimicrobial agents." If you are not familiar with medical terminology, it can sometimes require a little digging to find the article you are looking for. There is a search function, but sometimes the search fails to locate articles that I know exist on the website.

Those drawbacks are minor, though, and you will soon find yourself familiar with the organization, layout, and content of the Rat Guide, and we are all very lucky that such a resource is available to us.