Video from last night's heatwave, safe to say he was cozy anyways.

While I type this its raining like crazy outside, so now we're hoping for colder days ahead for my babies

Sound on for rat munchin :D

My room is so hot, the whole house is! I can't cope and neither can my sweet babies :((

3 of my rats seem to be doing okay-ish. They're still running around and playing, but i can tell they're hot.

My forth rat however is showing signs of overheating. He's just laying in their litter box against the pee rock :((

His breathing is fine, but he definitely needs cooling down.

They have a box with frozen ceramic tiles wrapped in thin fabric, as well as 4 water sources, a tub of water, cold/frozen bits of fabric in some spots of the cage, water bottles with cold water in to lay against and a cold tower over their cage. But Derpy (my fourth rat) seems stressed about the heat anyways and he seems like he wants help/comfort :((

I put a cold blanket on him that I switch out for a new cold blanket every 20 minutes, and he seems more relaxed and awake when I put it on him.

However im human, I need sleep. I would do anything for my rats but it's physically impossible for me to stay awake for days in a row to switch out blankets.

So, I need a solution that will last overnight. Help!

(The last picture is how I found him an hour ago when checking up on them)

Had to put our oldest girl to sleep today.
We had problems to get our usual vet last week and no other had free time. So possibly thing had a chance tonend better.
Had an abscess on the neck which would not heal for some days and medicaments we got would not help further.

Rough decision also for our daughter. I know it is better because we knew she was suffering at the end. but the pain stings deep.
No more chirping und other soundsshe made depending on her current mood.

But also a reminder that those angels can cost much more money you can think before.
And always have another vet you could visit if necessary!

do my rats look comfortable with me petting them?

let me explain better.
this is my first time having pet rats (i have 3 boys), and i got them at an exotic animals fair.
i got them 8-9 months ago when they were babies.
since then, i had a lot of problems bonding with them, and it felt weird cause i always had affectionate “similar” pets, like hamsters and bunnies.

i know it’s 90% my fault tho, and here is why:

1. i never let them out when they were still small and skittlish.
   
2. never been confident enough to let them free roam properly for months. ofc i still interacted with them a lot when they were in their cage, but ill talk about it later.
   
3. Every time i make them free roam (i started doing it more just the last month, and i promise i feel REALLY bad for it, im sorry) i have to pick them up, and they absolutely hate it. From being afraid to hurt them, i just fuck everything up even more amd scare them even more.
   “why do u have to pick them up?”
   when my mother (im 15) permitted me to get them, i thought she would let me place their cage in my room. the problem is that, when they started getting bigger, my mom crashed out for the smell of pee, and only permitted me to keep them in the living room, that is a big, full of things, open room.
   she keeps saying that i can’t have them in my room cause their smell is unealthy.

socializing with them in the cage is quite hell too.
My cage is a slavic zeno 3, i asked advice to my city’s rat rescue instagram page and they gave me this cage as an advice.
other than the bed structure, the doors are insanely small.
it’s hard to even put both of my hands in, to place hammocks and toys.

so, reassuming, to let them free roam i have to take them out and bring them to the other side of the house, in my room, making them really stressed.
living room is a big no for now, cause they can hide, there is no door and my dog could try to reach them.

i was thinking about getting a pen but i can’t leave it connected to the cage, cause the rats would climb on it and escape, the cage should be on the corner of the room and i don’t think i can do that.

talking about them, they are generally not always scared of me. if i stay still, they come close to me and sniff with curiosity. but the moment i move they freeze/run away and open their eyes wide.
they get food from my hands with no problems.
during the free roam time, they are curious for just some minutes and then they go in the corners of the rooms and sleep. they really don’t have that much interest in staying close to me.

what should i do?
do you think i can still have a great bond with them?
i made so many mistakes with these poor babies.

sorry for my english, it’s not my first language and i probably sound really confusing.

In light of all the people sharing negative interactions with others about their rats, I thought I'd share some positivity.

So the air quality around here has been absolutely awful in the past few days due to wildfires up North. I'm in the middle of moving so I don't have my good air filter. The AC unit is keeping my room from getting too bad, but it's still not ideal for the rats. My mother is visiting to help with the move and she has really bad asthma.

To give all of them some respite from the smoke, I put the rats in the big carrier and had her drive them to the nearby university campus to hang out in the clean, climate control air. Again, this was an indoor escapade, plus they were in an all-metal carrier with the door closed the whole time they were out of my apartment. For the brief walk in from the parking lot, they had a wet sheet on the carrier for protection from sun and smoke. Safety was the first priority. I've taken my rats on campus before and it's always been great. There are indoor passages between most of the buildings and I have a little cart for their carrier.

Dozens of students came up to meet the rats, as well as some staff and one prof's kid. My girls are specifically trained to accept treats through the bars, so the students were able to do that. The rats had a ton of fun meeting everyone. They got to the point where they didn't even want treats, they just wanted to lick everyone's fingers. The students were so excited and full of questions. They all said the rats were super cute and improved their mood immensely. My mother is a college teacher on summer break, so she really enjoyed all the interactions. It was a positive experience for literally everyone involved. Plus, the rats' breathing got a lot better, as did my mother's.

Now they're back home in their cage and just sleeping. They probably won't need free roam tonight, which is good because my room is a dusty mess.

So wven if your current community is being unpleasant about your rats, there are people out there who will appreciate them. You just need to find them.

I'm really worried about my Mai.

We got Mai and her two sisters as littles two years ago and raised them together. 6 months ago Ty Lee got a tumor that rapidly led to a respiratory infection. She passed away in the cage - we found them snuggled together with the body. I'm sure they missed her, but I didn't notice any behavioral differences in the surviving two.

Yesterday I had to make the very difficult decision to have Azula put down. I brought the body home and placed her in the cage with Mai. Mai spent a long time sniffing and seemingly trying to wake her by pushing her and making small squeaking sounds. Eventually she moved away from the body and came to my hand for pets. I removed the body and we had a little funeral.

By that evening, Mai was refusing to come out of the cage. Usually when we open the door she'll run right up to us. Now she stays in her hut. When we try to pick her up she squeaks and runs away.

She's still refusing to come out this morning. My husband couldn't even get her to come out in order to clean the cage - which frankly really needs doing - it's been over a week and we've had a bit of a fruit fly problem of late.

Should I just give her more time? Is it okay to force her out at least to clean the cage? She's all alone in there now and I'm so worried about her...

Also I'm sure the thing to do eventually is get her another cage mate, but I'm not sure how soon is too soon for that. (It honestly feels too soon for us humans right now. I'm so broken up over Azula)

Leroy HATES to be touched, so this allows him to hang out with me without being touched.

Oh, I'm sorry. What did you think iy was YOUR tea?

Both moms and many babies are having symptoms that will need treatment. Lark's congestion got so bad that she was forced to breathe through her mouth. Rats are obligate nose breathers, and mouth breathing leads to a lot of swallowed air (aerophagia), which then causes issues with digestion and bloating.

It's tricky treating nursing moms and babies, but hopefully we can get them all much more comfortable and healthy!

Hot Pocket is home and recovering today after a big, complicated surgery yesterday.
She had a massive uterine stump abscess that was entangled with her colon and bladder. We are hopeful she will recover quickly, but we need to be on the lookout for issues with urination and defecation since there is some concern there may be damage to those structures from removing the abscess. She's a strong little girl, but we hope this is the last big surgery for her. We submitted the pus for culture since this is now the third time we've had to put her through a big surgery due to a nasty infection, so we really need to know what it is so we can prevent it from causing even more problems for her later.

All said and done, between Hot Pocket's surgery and culture, plus some pricey medication refills, our total came to $1937.41, which more than wiped out our surplus funds. If you are able to help us cover those costs, please see below!

How to help?

V3NMO: @ratwaysanctuary

P4yPal: RatWaySanctuary@gmail.com

More donation options and shop at www.ratwaysanctuary.org

Say hi to Atlas!

His owners couldn't keep him, so they entrusted him to an animal association. We're his foster family. He has been home with us for 2 days and what a gift he is ;_;

Unfortunately, he is by himself. We hope he will get adopted soon to join a group of friends, he deserves the moon <3

Hello all!

I finally am moving into my new place and I will now have a whole room the rats can free roam in. It will double as my WFH office so they'll only free roam supervised because cords, but I am VERY excited to let them have more space and time outside the enclosure and want to know what I should get, how I should set it up, tips etc. Any advice or lessons you've learned would be greatly appreciated!!

TIA <3

(rat boggles for tax)

Greedy little fckers (this was their first time fishing)