A Hard life's lesson for a big hearted kid.

[goraman]

We have had 2 pet rats for a year and a half Spotty is getting a mastectomy today because she had a lump of cancer.
But it brings back something that Conner had to learn when he was 8 years old just after getting Spotty and Ben.
We where getting food where we bought his ratty s and he ran to go say Hi to the other rats,he loves them all.

He asked why some rats where marked pets and some feeders ? The guy stocking the shelves with food said " Feeders are food for snakes" , he said it smiling and I really had to hold back from putting my foot up his Ars.
If you have never had a pet rat you will never get it. Ours are litter box trained and some times fall asleep next to Conner on his pillow, they come when you call them, they seem to buzz when you hold and pet them as they grind there teeth down when they feel relaxed and happy. You know they love you when they groom you, licking you.
They are very loyal to there owners. Ours get regular baths and they groom each other and them selves all the time, they are not dirty. They love to watch Sponge Bob with Conner, Conner has out grown S. Bob but we still put it on for the Rattys.
Anyway the young lady at the counter was not much help after asking why he was crying ,She went on to explain all the rats are separated depending on temperament and the more timid ones are selected as pets and the more aggressive rats become food for snakes till those run out then even the pet rats are sold for food.

Spot is having a surgery to hopefully get 6 to 8 more months of a happy life, they both had hysterectomies so they would not get uterine cancer that was $500.00 alone for a couple $10.00 rats, They get the best Oxbow rat food at $25.00 a bag there cage is really big with a huge wheel a hammock and lots of toys and they get treats from the table. Every day they get to play and they are held, petted and loved.
How unfair that their brothers and sisters will likely never be loved or be given a treat, and will be fed to a snake ,with out even a fighting chance to run away.

This was a very hard way to learn just how unfair life really is.
I personally hate snakes and dislike the people who own them, never met a snake owner who wasn't a total creep.
WATCH THIS! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jo_EG7XqZQ

[Pigmy Pony]

It sounds like buying male rats might have been cheaper, or do the females have better temperaments?

You will always have an uphill task persuading Joe Public that rats make loving pets - decades of horror films preceded by centuries of deadly diseases have done their rep no good. Mrs. Pony would freak if I brought one home, although Alice (the cat) would be buzzing. As a kid I had mice but would have loved to have a rat - so much cooler!

When my daughters were young I would have happily got rats for them, but they chose hamsters instead. They were just a waste of space - sleep all day, rattle round their wheel all night, bite when you handle them, then drop dead after a few months.

Not sure what the alternatives are when it comes to feeding snakes. I only ever met one snake owner and never asked him about them. And yes, he was a bit of a tosser too.

[goraman]

If you take a rat and remove it's personality, half it's brain and all of it's tail and at least a year and a half of it's life , what you have left is a stupid hamster that bites.
A rat will never bite the had that feeds it unless you are hurting it.
The females seem faster to bond with people but i have seen males bond well to after some time.
Male do live longer in most cases but they do pee on each other to assert dominance and I don't want to have to wash them every 3 days .

[Macca]

Round here the rats are free range. Seen one the size of a rabbit once. Bombing across the road at rush hour.

[Pigmy Pony]

A few years ago we visited a nephew of Anita's who had this nice apartment in Portsmouth. In the evening a couple of dozen rats would congregate on the roof of the under cover car park, about three floors below the window. Many of the tenants would throw food out for them (sounds a bit irresponsible but I suppose the rats would get food from somewhere anyway if they didn't).

One of the rats was piebald, which the cousin claimed used to be his before he freed it. I don't know if this was bollocks or not, but I've never seen a wild rat coloured like that before.

[Pigmy Pony]

Round here the rats are free range. Seen one the size of a rabbit once. Bombing across the road at rush hour.

It's a rat race baby

[Ian7633]

Rats make great pets, really clever and as it turns out they are ticklish and enjoy being tickled.

https://youtu.be/d-84UJpYFRM

[Beobloke]

I hate snakes too, but I’m not very fond of rats either. Our two cats, however, love them...

[goraman]

Happy to say Spotty made through surgery $414.80 ! I was quoted just a little more than half that.
But she is most likely cancer free as they removed all of it.
She is medicated but still playful. We have to put her in a very small cage as we can't have her climbing all over the big multi level cage, one fall could be bad for her, so confinement to the travel cage for one week.
She doesn't seem to be bothered by the big shaved patch or all the stitches.

[goraman]

Round here the rats are free range. Seen one the size of a rabbit once. Bombing across the road at rush hour.
I think what you saw was a opossum, Rats rarely get larger than 2 or 3 pounds.

[Audio Al]

Nice story , most animals will bond with humans if treated correctly :)

[Pigmy Pony]

Nice story , most animals will bond with humans if treated correctly :)

In the olden days horses would bond with just about anything if their bones were treated correctly. These days we have gorilla glue.

[Pigmy Pony]

A few years ago we had a couple of turtles, both of whom we named Ronnie, but unlike their namesakes had no entertainment value whatsoever. The only interaction we had was that they'd try to bite your finger, and would happily snatch a pencil from you and swim off with it.

After three or four years of endless pencil fun, they and their tank, food etc. went "free to a good home". :(

[Macca]

I think what you saw was a opossum, Rats rarely get larger than 2 or 3 pounds.

Only if it escaped from a zoo.

Try feeding your rats on leftover KFC see how big they get. That's what they live on here.

[walpurgis]

Loads of rats about here. They do offer one benefit, there are no mice, the rats kill them all.

[struth]

the big pregnant females on the farms up here can be huge. the size of a cat.

[Len Co]

Only if it escaped from a zoo.

Try feeding your rats on leftover KFC see how big they get. That's what they live on here.

Put some poison down, they will probably take that in preference !

[Pigmy Pony]

We once called out pest control to a care home in Burnley that we were refurbishing, as no one would go down into the basement (they were running along the heating pipes over your head). The man in charge told me they use different baits in different towns - in some places they like curries, in others they prefer kebabs. Not sure if he was having me on.

[goraman]

Wild rats have about a 1 year life span, If not killed by predators and most are. They develop tumors, they are also very sensitive to dirty environments and die of respiratory infections.

[Pigmy Pony]

Wild rats have about a 1 year life span, If not killed by predators and most are. They develop tumors, they are also very sensitive to dirty environments and die of respiratory infections.

Well if they want better living conditions they should get a job. Wild rats are the chavs of the rat world.

[Macca]

Well if they want better living conditions they should get a job. Wild rats are the chavs of the rat world.

What are boomtown rats then?

[Pigmy Pony]

They're the ones that got out of school, worked in some factory, and with the hours god gave them made a little easy money. Until they got sacked for not coming in on a Monday, which was a regular thing, "like clockwork" in fact. These days they just "look after number one".